The snow storm seems to have passed and it is currently a balmy 16 degrees outside. Jerry is feeling better this morning and trying to avert the head cold. We will be spending the day in Old Town the same area as our hotel. The church and the archeological museum are on the agenda as well as one of the best boulangerie in the city. I clearly need an attitude adjustment, everything seems to be pissing me off. Traveling use to be so easy now it all just seems hard, maybe it is because we did zero pre-planning so everything has been plan as you go. Not that we don’t always go off itinerary, but we at least have a general idea of what we are going to do each day, or at least one part ... read more

We Woke up to beautiful blue skies and 3 degrees heading toward a high of 18 in Montreal later today. Made my usual trip down to get coffee from the fancy machine in the lobby. Every other day I managed to get 4 cups, two regular and two café au lait, and get back to the room without incident. My luck ran out today, one of my café au lait hit the ground just as I got in the elevator. I am surprised I made it until the 4thday to have a spill. Today is mostly a travel day, packing up to head on to Montreal. Our train leaves at 3 and we will get into Montreal around 6:30 this evening. Before we leave Quebec City, we will head to one last crêperie for brunch, then ... read more

I have never really known what Boxing Day is except it is celebrated in England and other Common Wealth countries. According to Wikipedia it was originally day servants and tradesmen received gifts from their maters, known as the Christmas Box, hence Boxing Day. In reality it now seems to be similar to Black Friday in the U.S., a day to go shopping for great deals. In the Catholic church it is known as St. Stephens day, you know Good King Wenceslaus looked over the feast of Stephens (of course he was in Prague). In any event it is Boxing Day here in Canada. Today we will be touring the old city inside the walls, specifically upper town. It will be a church day, no not going to church but touring the main cathedral, you know the ... read more

Via Rail Canada The day started early, the alarm went off at 6 am with 20 minutes of snoozing. The bed last night was very comfortable and felt good on my back. I made coffee in the room and we showered and left for the train station. I splurged on business class for our trip to Quebec City so we got to go in the Via Rail lounge. This is similar to an airline lounge like the Red Carpet Club. There was complimentary coffee, juices, etc. The train was of course on schedule and we had plenty of room for our luggage, in fact there were only about 10 people in business class and maybe 100 on the train. Train travel in Canada or Europe is far better than Amtrak could ever hope to ... read more

It has been since May of 2013 since our last international trip. Moving to New York has curtailed our international travel quite a bit. That is changing with this trip. Since living in New York, we have taken several small trips on the Eastern Seaboard and one South. We have gone to Philadelphia, Providence, RI, Portland Maine (see blog entry) a trip back to Portland, Oregon to get the rest of our belongings and to close my office and finally to Savannah, GA over Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, the only trip I blogged about was Portland Maine. I fully intended to blog about our trip to Portland Oregon and then driving back across country, but the 10 hours plus a day of driving took it out of me. Savannah was a great trip and I would have written ... read more