Quebec

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

The trip to Quebec is too far for a day, we stay in Grand Falls in the hotel right above the waterfall. At first, we think it's just a small waterfall, we've seen bigger ones. Then we start walking, we need some exercise after such a long car ride. At the tourist information below the waterfall, we are really impressed, we didn't expect that. We look around at all the viewpoints and even walk a longer distance along the river to see the camelback, a rock formation that has remained in the middle of the river. The short walk turned into 8 kilometers.

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Today we head to our last destination in Canada, we drive to Quebec and are very excited about the city. We know that this is the stronghold of the French-speaking part of Canada. You can already tell from the signage, all in French. However, we manage well with English in cafes, restaurants, and shops. In one restaurant, the waiter even apologized for his English not being so good.

After finding our hotel on the outskirts of the city, we decide to take a stroll. It's too far to walk, so we drive by car. Everything is going well at first and we make good progress, but then the Pope is in our way, all the streets in the center are blocked, lots of police and traffic chaos. We had heard that he was in Canada, but didn't realize that he is also in Quebec at the same time. We make the best of it, park our car in the nearest parking garage and walk the allowed streets.

Thursday, July 28, 2022

After a very good breakfast, we set off again to the city. Let's see what awaits us today. We want to visit the Parliament, the shopping street, and the Citadel. Large screens are set up at various locations showing the Mass read by the Pope. When we get near the Chateau Frontenac hotel, many people are gathered at a roadblock. We join them and wait. After a few minutes, police motorcycles with lots of red and blue flashing lights and the large SUVs and limousines of the security forces arrive, helicopters are in the air, and then the Pope passes by us in his Fiat 500. The crowds disperse very quickly and we can continue our tour. We decide to take the ferry again, as we haven't had any luck so far. We go to the harbor and buy a ticket. Yes, it works, we can take the ferry from Quebec to Saint Levis. From here, we have a good view of the city. After having a coffee, we head back to Quebec. The journey takes about 12 minutes. It's very hot and getting more humid. In the late afternoon, storm clouds gather and it starts raining heavily. We make sure to get back to the hotel.

Friday, July 29, 2022

Today we take it easy and wait until the Pope leaves the city. Only in the early afternoon do we go back to the city center. Our plan is to walk around the city wall that surrounds the old town. This is a little challenge because Quebec is very hilly. We pass through Abraham Park, past a fortified tower, then many steps down to the Governors Promenade, the Dufferin Terrace, to the square in front of the Chateau Frontenac hotel. Here, we watch a street performer with circus tricks. Now we continue through Montmorency Park and along the city wall with many beautiful facades until we almost overlook Rue Saint Jean. It's dinner time and it's quite crowded, but we find two nice places outside a restaurant right by the street, enjoy our ordered food and the beer. We finish our tour at the city wall, which leads us back to our parking garage.

Saturday, July 30, 2022

We leave Quebec heading towards Montreal. Before that, we visit Montmorency Falls. They are really impressive. After going down and up the stairs and completing the walk, we continue driving to Montreal. We check into the hotel near the airport and return our car. During our Eastern tour, we drove 4,981 kilometers, planned were 3,791 kilometers. The extra kilometers are mainly due to ferry cancellations. In total, we covered 9,081 kilometers.

We are meeting our friends Marion and Bernhard from Nuremberg at the return station. They have finished their two and a half week vacation here in Canada and will fly back to Munich tonight. We enjoy the time together over a coffee, as we have a lot to talk about. The last time we saw each other was over a year ago. It's always good to meet nice friends.

Tomorrow morning we have to get up very early, our flight to Newark departs at 8:25am, we have reserved seats on the airport shuttle of our hotel for 5:30am.

We say 'Goodbye' to Canada for now.