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Published: December 26th 2005
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Well hello from Canada!!
We are currently in Toronto, started out by headed up the New England Coast through Connecticut and Maine where we stopped for lunch. Nat and I made a salad in the grocery store in an effort to be good!
Before we knew it we were at the boarder where we did some duty free shopping and had our passports checked - they pulled a few of the dodge looking characters aside for more questioning before they let them through, fortunately I was not one of them!!
We then continued through to Quebec City, Canada’s French speaking province. Nat and I slept a lot along the way but when I was awake I saw how beautiful the scenery was, it was as I had expected, bubbling rivers with nice houses set at the base of hills covered in pine trees with lush green grass everywhere, Dad would love it here!! It truly is beautiful and I can’t wait to see more!! We took heaps of photos.
I saw my first moose then a couple more on the way in on the bus.
We arrived at our hotel and got ready for dinner. We
went to a French restaurant with lovely food - grilled fish with raspberry sauce, veggies and boiled rice - it was excellent!! It’s easy to tell the French influence on the type of food and the portion sizes!! Sat with some new people and a couple of them seem really nice. Managed to get some Canadian money out of the ATM after standing in a line of about 10 people and I was the only one that could get money out. Turns out that any cards that have a Visa attached to a savings account only work in the Royal Bank of Canada ATM’s!! Lucky I had a separate Visa and Savings card!!
Nat and I decided not to go out tonight, so we headed back to our room. We’ve been backing them up for a month now and think that we’ve earned the rest!!
The population of Quebec is 7.23 million. The city is beautiful and you can spot the French architecture a mile away. This is another place I could see me living (except for the slight language barrier!!)
Quebec City itself has a population of about 168,000. In 1534 explorer Jacques Cartier claimed this
territory for France, but it wasn’t until 1608 when Samuel de Chaplain established a fur trading post that Quebec City would become the first permanent French settlement in North America. Britain and France fought for 150 years for control over the new land with Quebec City becoming a major battle ground. Following the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759, the English took control of Quebec City and completed the walls around the city in 1775 part of which still stands today. Quebec City became North Americas only urban area to be named a World Heritage Site.
After having a local guide show us around we had some free time to explore where we looked at the various statues and monuments and there were many!! We saw the local parliament building which was interesting as the clock tower was inspired by the ‘Big Ben’ and the various statues in the windows weren’t just standing statues they were saluting and pointing. We saw the monument dedicated to ‘World Heritage Site’, saw one of the main Chateulas, the park with Joan of Arc Statue, the oldest building - which used to have it’s roof painted with ox’s blood which was
popular in it’s time, one of the churches which houses the first nuns to arrive in this area, together with art work they smuggled out of France, which is beautiful, a wall mural that took 6 weeks for 9 artists to paint at a cost of $300,000. We had lunch at Bistro Sous le Fort - chosen since it was raining!! We then caught a ‘lift’ incline lift way back up to the top of the town.
In the evening we had dinner in the revolving restaurant which had great views of the city. It’s no where near the night of Centerpoint in Sydney but it doesn’t need to be given the fact that the buildings around it aren’t that tall either.
After dinner everyone decided to go back to the hotel but Nat, Anna and I decided to walk to ‘Old Quebec’ in search of a night out. We walked via the wall that surrounds the city and found a spot where we could walk on top. We found a club which turned out to be having a French Comedy Night, which from the laughing we are assuming was quiet funny but wasn’t much use to us!!
The Lookout
where the Battle of the Plains of Abraham took place We went to Café Buade for our dessert and coffee ritual before catching a cab back to our hotel and went to the local sports bar instead.
There were a couple of people from our tour there so we had a couple of drinks, played a few songs on the jukebox and played pool and watched Grant drink a 4 litre ‘glass’ of beer!! Biggest I’ve ever seen!
We were home by midnight, so I rang my travel agent to try and finish re-organising my trips…. Still not sorted!!!!
The following day we continued our travels along across the St Lawrence River, which you would swear was a harbour joining the seas it was so massive, to Montreal.
We did a short city tour then got some free time. As it was raining we decided to go and have some lunch and try the Canadian specialty of fries, cheese curd and gravy which was just ok….
We headed back to the bus for our jet boating optional at the Lachine Rapids. The weather wasn't exactly balmy, it was gloomy, overcast and a little on the chilly side and if it hadn’t have been pre-booked
I might not have gone through with it. The best way I can describe it to you is like being flushed down the toilet bowl…. When we arrived they told us if we thought that there was a chance we’d stay dry then we were dreaming… we got half wet wool jumpers to put on, purple overalls, satched booties and a life vest and Paddington Bear type raincoat… I looked like an oomper loomper!!
Before we left one of the boys asked if the water was heated?!?!?! It’s a damn river!!
We got on the flat bottomed boat which goes really fast, and started to head up the river. The further we went, the worse the water got. It was easy to tell the river has massive rocks in it judging by the swell size… It looked like a giant whirl pool and I was starting to feel a little more than uncomfortable about the whole deal!! The jet boat sped into the rapids and the boat would lurch down on a sever angle and right through the waves, which probably reached up to 15 foot or so and I cannot describe what It felt like! The water
crashed down on us with such force, absolutely drowning us each time, then we would have another run at it and hit the waves side on which sent them crashing in on top of us from the side Nat and I were on. One lot of white water hit Nat so hard it shoved her sideways almost on top of me!! I’m sure this is what a dishwasher feels like!! The water was freezing and ran right down your back and the water came in so hard that at some points the water in the boat was up to our waists when sitting down which produced plenty of squeals!!! I’ve never been as cold or as wet in my life and I have to say I was pretty glad when it was over and got changed into warm dry clothes!!
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