Tuesday 23rd August 2022.

Another sort of lie-in this morning as the little one slept until six forty five.  We had already packed most of our bags ready for the journey home, with just a few things left to do. This left us free to entertain the grandson while his parents packed up all their belongings ready to go to a cabin in the woods north of Quebec City for a few days before they too come home.  

We are being taken to the train station but we have time for a pit stop before it is time to go.  We park in the old port area close to the station and have a stroll around the area looking for a cafe. There’s a rather impressive fountain near the car park, but no cafe. 

We walk for a little while before finding somewhere that not only has coffee but also a chalk board, chalks and some bubbles to blow so that children may be entertained while you eat.  The coffee tasted good to us, although we are not coffee drinkers, but the cakes were not quite as tasty as they looked (we were hoping they would have some of those almond and apricot biscuits we had in the other cafe, but no such luck).  For some reason it declined our credit cards and we had to break out some cash to pay. Hope it something to do with their machine not our cards.

Time to return to the station - which was rather an elegant building. Compare and contrast the station with a Government building close by.  

Government building

Station

                      

There is a sculpture trail through the small park with the fountain and some display cases with the story of the old port and some artefacts recovered from shipwrecks. 

Hugs and kisses all around before we board train 35 to Montreal. We only have economy seats but they are quite roomy. There is food and drink on board but we have already pre-prepared a picnic for the journey.  It will be three hours before we arrive in Montreal. The train first travels north out of the city, before turning and crossing the river so that we are now travelling along the edge of the eastern townships. There is a lot of industry and long goods trains to see out of the window at first until we pass into the farmland. Even then there were often trees alongside the line, which meant the views were not quite as interesting as they might have been.  The train does a lot of ‘tooting’ or more accurately ‘blaring’ of it’s horn every time we approach a road or gravel track (which was quite often). 

Some views from the train

We look at the maps and directions for how to catch the airport shuttle. We think that since it will be close to rush hour, the best option may be to take the orange line metro to Lionel Groulx and catch the shuttle from there. It is supposedly quicker to do this in rush hour as it will avoid city centre traffic. We have plenty of time between the train arriving and us having to be at the airport so it should not be a problem either way.

The train arrives at Montreal central station punctually.  We decide the best route is the metro then the bus, if only we can find the metro. Resort to asking (twice) but eventually find it and jump on the train.  The 747 bus was signposted at the other end of the Metro and thanks to a driver whose middle name should be along the lines of Max Verstappen (given his driving style - fast and barging into lines of traffic) we are easily at the airport by the required time.  More confusion reigns as to which security gate we need to go through as we have so far been unable to find any mention of British Airways. Someone tells us it’s area A, which is right at the other end of departures to where we entered.  Wander aimlessly in area A and do eventually find the British Airways check in area - but it’s closed. Speaking to some Canadian in a queue there we find out where we are supposed to go, and find out that they are on their way to Conwy and Cornwall to visit relatives. Novel to find someone foreign on a flight to Heathrow who is actually going to Wales.

Decide that perhaps we need to fuel up with some food now as the BA in-flight meal on the way out was practically inedible.  We have emergency biscuits in our bag but think we need something more substantial. Find what looks like a decent cafe, choose items to eat and then ask for two weak cappuccinos (not wanting to risk asking for tea). The latter may have, in fact, been the better choice. The ‘barista’ had no idea what we meant by ‘weak’ cappuccino, despite it being described as ‘just one shot please’.  It came and was virtually undrinkable,  even after the addition of three sugars. After just a couple of sips we think it may well keep us awake for all of the flight and abandon any hope of actually drinking it.

Flight currently delayed by half an hour.  Walk to the gate, which of course is at the far end of the International Departures section.  The airport is very busy and we settle down to wait for our flight.

Quebec City is illuminated

 Monday 22 August 2022 addendum

Taking advantage of some built in baby sitters the two adults went for a stroll around Quebec City at night.  Many of the buildings and sites were illuminated so we thought it was worth including some pictures on the blog.

What do you mean it’s over there?

Monday 22nd August 2022 Quebec City

Monday 22nd August 2022.

A very relaxed start to the day as the youngest of the part slept through until what felt like lunchtime (actually 07:45). The plan is to have a walk through the citadel and then around part of the city’s walls before descending again into the centre of the old town in front of chateau Frontenac for … crepes with maple syrup. 

We walk past the National Assembly building, seeing a groundhog on the way (sorry no photos of that), but there were some rather striking statues representing pioneering Women in Politics.

We also pass some of the types of large flower planters you often see in cities, but perhaps not always with some Cavalo Nero as part of the planting design. There were also large decorative cabbages in their flower beds. 

Walking along the walls of The Citadel we (that is one of the oldies whose not too steady on their feet, and one little one who would happily walk along the edge) have to stay in the middle of the path as there are some big drops off the side. 

Some good cannons though.

Also an area where there appeared to be a whole load of washing randomly hanging along a large line just behind the car park.

Turns out that the area is for re-enactments and showing how the soldiers would have lived in the barracks, and the washing formed part of the story of their lives.

Some lovely views over Quebec City and the St Lawrence river from the circular walk around the walls.

Plus some very pretty flower displays along the way.

A rather steep path down brings us to the far end of the Dufferin Terrace.  This is a wooden promenade running along the top of the cliff and at the other end the Frontenac Chateau sits at the back.  There are often street performers in front of the hotel and today is no exception- a fire eating circus act.  When we reach the other end of the promenade we decide to go down to the old town via the steps rather than the incline train.  The restaurant that was chosen was called The Dingy Pig (only this was of course in French not English).  We order a selection of breakfast dishes (this is brunch after all), the meat eater was very sensible and had the Healthy Platter, the vegetarian had crepes with seasonal fruit and raspberry sauce (hopefully it will come with maple syrup), as did one of the other adults. The little one had French Toast with strawberries. The Healthy Platter turned out to be a bucketload of fruit, with cheese, English Muffin and poached egg (partly eaten below).

The crepes and fruit were delicious, especially covered with raspberry coulis and maple syrup. 

The last adult had scrambled eggs, parmentier potatoes, and a waffle with fruit.  Things were generally shared around and thoroughly enjoyed. A super delicious brunch.  Time to make our way back now and we decide to risk using the steps back up to the promenade, which may not have been a good choice after a large brunch, but we made it, only stopping as a artisan jewellery booth caught our eye half way up. Actually manage not to buy any earrings - yes you did read that right -surprising but true.  

We now need to make our way back to the other side of the Citadel and decide to use the Governer’s Walkway, which starts at some steps back at the far end of the promenade.  Ten steps go onward and upward, but do allow for stopping along the way as there are viewpoints, and more importantly, seats at various landing stages along the way. 

The end of the promenade is below us

And these were only some of the steps (LHS of photo)

We are quite surprised both at how far we have walked and how many steps have been climbed. Don’t feel too guilty about the brunch excesses now. 

It’s back to base for that afternoon siesta again, followed by a late afternoon visit to the local play park.  This is almost our final call as we will be on our way home tomorrow. 

 Sunday 21st August 2022

And early start to the day, six thirty wake up call, but with plenty of time to ready ourselves for today’s adventure.  The plans for today are to visit the Mosaicultur Collection in Parc du Bois-de-Colounge. This is a series of topiary ‘sculptures’. Weather is hot again so sun cream, hats and insect repellent are the order of the day.  As it is a Sunday it was quite busy but the flower mosaics were what we can only describe as mind-blowing, as we hope you can see from the pictures below.

After a rather hot but very interesting walk around the site, we were close enough to return to base for lunch and a short siesta before venturing out again.

This afternoon we are visiting Quebec City centre itself. The plans are to take to funicular railway down to the old town and generally have a wander. 

First we wander past the iconic Castle Frontenac (hotel)

We have the cab to ourselves on the way down.  After a wander along the main drag, an ice-cream shop is spotted. It has both gelato and sorbets, which suits us down to the ground. We opt for pineapple sorbet in a waffle cone, and it is super delicious and also very cooling. 

A mural in the old town - you may have seen this before!

Wander back to the funicular and return the way we came.  There is a severe thunderstorm warning for Quebec City this evening and although still sunny it feels very muggy and there are dark clouds on the horizon.  The bad weather manages to hold off until we return to the holiday home and then kahboom! Massive lighting and thunder for a short while before it rumbles around for a bit, and now raining too.

Lightingmaps.org

Will have to think about tomorrow’s plan in light of the weather.