#after months in line I was still 400th in line

[dsandrvk]

Sunday, August 27 - Quebec City

Unlike in Trois-Rivieres, here in Quebec City there was plenty to see that we missed the first time around and we had a beautiful day for it. We had heard there would be a changing of the guard ceremony up at the Citadel, so hurried up there first thing, taking some steep streets rather than the stairs to bypass the funicular and then another series of streets up from the upper town to the fortifications. It turned out they were short-staffed so no changing of the guard, and instead a military concert and guided tour of the inside of the Citadel and the museum was offered, so we took a pass and decided to explore "The Plains of Abraham" on our own. The plains are actually a huge open area just to the west of the fortifications for Quebec City. They were named for a farmer who worked the land here long before the establishment of the city. The plains played an important part in the capture of "New France" by the British in what they call the Seven Years War (and we call the French and Indian War).

We had been willing to simply walk west and explore, but a staircase down to sea-level and a small enclave beckoned, so we went down 400+ steps passing many folks getting their workout by coming back up. These are the Cap-Blanc steps and the longest stairs in the city. We did not plan to go back that way! At the bottom is a major highway, but also one interior street back against the cliffs with some lovely older rowhouses. It is not connected to the main lower town, but seems to be an isolated section of town. We explored this area, then headed west, sharing the path with lots of bicycles on this beautiful morning.

We never found out how far the bike path went, however, since after about e mile we took another bike path back in and up the cliff. This followed the line of the original French road that led from a natural landing area west of town up to the plains and the western fortifications for the town. Starting at the bottom and continuing with many stops up the path were interpretive panels detailing the events of September 12 and 13, 1759. This was the British Major-General Wolfe's final attempt to take the city of Quebec after months of laying siege to the city. In short, he landed troops near the bottom of the road and below the cliff, managed to get over 4,000 troops up to the plains, and mostly surprised the unorganized French army and their militias and indigenous fighters and eventually won the day. The interpretation was superb, and it made the slog up to the top of the hill pleasant.

There are still three Martello towers built by the British up on the top - put there to help defend the western fortifications - but built too late to ever see action. They are squat and round, and we first heard of them in Folkestone, which seems like years ago, but was actually just over a month past. The plains now also boasts a nice running oval, as well as a hard surface for skating, etc., lots of small pavilions and picnic tables, lawns, and a gorgeous sunken garden.

We also walked to the Parliament building, which seems to be a popular tourist bus stop, and eventually wandered back by the Swiss clock installation by City Hall. This was a gift from Jura, Switzerland to Quebec on the 400th anniversary of the founding of the city, and is the only one of its kind in the world. It took over 10,500 person-hours and six years to complete, involved 28 trades and weighs 2 tons. Watching the mechanisms is mesmerizing, and it is supposedly more accurate than a quartz watch. It's hard to photograph, however, as it is encased in shatterproof glass, a good idea for a clock valued at 2.4 million!

From here we wandered down to the lower town, which I think is my favorite part of the city. The buildings are mostly made of local stone, and the visual variation comes in the colors used for shutters, roofs, and flower boxes. It is also quite touristy, with lots of shops and restaurants, but the late afternoon light was lovely on the warm-colored stone, and we spent quite a bit of time trying to get some good photos. The funicular leaves from this area, too, although it didn't seem that crowded.

We finally headed back to our ship, and were delayed a bit boarding. There had been a mobile "cherry-picker" style machine working on our ship's exterior, and it had finished. Because of security, there were all sorts of moveable barricades to get out of its way, and it was quite amusing to see this giant machine try to navigate the too small openings the security people scrambled to open. With a lot of back and forthing, it eventually lumbered on and we scrambled back on board. We once again had dinner outside as we sailed away around 7. Our only disappointment is that because of a bridge, we had to go around the far side of Ile d' Orleans and missed one last glimpses of Montmorency Falls.

Tomorrow we repeat in Sangueney, and have no plans. We will probably walk around the small town by the dock and relax a bit after six busy port days.