Wednesday July 19 – Montebello to Quebec City

We left at 8.15am and drove on the freeway. Gary’s voice is croaky, so needed a break. We watched a DVD called Castles of the North, about the big railway hotels (many of which we are staying in). It was most interesting. Unfortunately, due to the decline in rail travel, and the advent of war, many big hotels closed for a period. Most re-opened ad continued trading, but some found it hard to carry on and over the years have closed. One was demolished and a modern building put up in its place. Now, there has been a huge revival and these hotels are very popular. They certainly are imposing buildings in their settings.

At a comfort stop we saw these bikes. They attracted a lot of attention!

Canada is one of only two countries where the famous Golden Arches can be altered - in this case the maple leaf in the centre

We note that in Quebec province busses have to stop at rail crossings, while other traffic does not. Extra lanes are there for this to occur so as not to hold up other traffic. We skirted Montreal on our way to Quebec. Lunch was at Chez Dany, a sugar shack where they make maple syrup. Forty litres of sap from two varieties of maple trees makes one litre of maple syrup. Lunch was a typical Canadian affair – pea soup and bread roll, followed by omelette, pork rind, baked potato, pickled beans (ham-mier-flavoured than Heinz ham beans) and slices of ham. Canadians put maple syrup on everything – a tiny bit on the ham was nice. Pancakes and maple syrup finished the meal. All very nice, but we couldn’t have eaten like this every day!

where the syrup is made

Gary enjoyed playing the spoons to accompany the violinist

The walls are covered with money - notes with messages written on them!

We stopped at the town of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré on the St Lawrence River to see a display on ice fishing. Here the river freezes over and people hire little huts to put on the ice to cut holes in the ice ad fish for cod.

this is how the river looks in winter

It was raining lightly as we pulled into Quebec. This is a fortified (walled) city. On arrival we were met by Margarete who took us (on the bus) on a sight-seeing tour. She is French-Canadian and very animated.

Barn-like roof shape, quite common here in Quebec - allows as much room as possible for a second storey

bright new shiny copper roof. Old and important buildings have copper rooves. This one is being replaced gradually - army building that had a fire..

We had dinner with the rest of the group in the hotel (Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac) – a buffet this time.