#yes i was walking to get hot fries when its 30 degrees out. leave me alone | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

stoneleet · 6 years ago

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It is now June 30th. I wake up at my normal time, even though I’ve changed time zones. My internal clock and I really need to have a talk, because I should be able to sleep a bit longer when on vacation. So I finishing packing, check out of the hotel and since my bus pass has expired I call for a taxi to take me to the train station. It’s 80 degrees at 7 AM EST, I almost feel like I’ve never left home. I know I’m not responsible for the heat wave that crossed the US and Canada but it sure felt like the Texas heat followed me where ever I went on this trip.

I get to the train station, and look around and notice that this place could have been a good spot for lunch, because there are lots of restaurants with a variety of menu choices. Now I showed this picture on the Montreal update, so look back at the bottom of that post if you want to look at them.

It’s now time to board the train, and very much like an airplane those that require assistance get to go first, than sleeper cars and finally us joes in economy. I will have to make sure I have up for my next Canadian rail experience and book one of those sleeper cars, because you get access to a special observation car which serves free coffee or tea, and your meals are included. Just to give you an idea in price.. economy ticket about $90 sleeper car ticket $450. After the fact, I really should have just coughed up the extra money and booked a sleeper car for the Halifax to Montreal when I ended my trip, because that so one long train ride and the first time I every had my ankles swell up.

I’ve written enough for the moment enjoy some pictures from the 4 hour train ride to Quebec City:

Leaving Montreal

Mountain seen from the train

Corn Fields

And we have now arrived at Gare du Palais in Quebec City.

It is here where I made a bad decision based on missing information from Google maps (had I used terrain view or satellite view I would have called for a taxi) Here were the 3 options Google gave me and the one I chose is in blue:

So you might be thinking what mistake? A 20 minute, 1.2 km walk in the middle of a Canadian day (remember the heat wave it was in the mid 80s I did get the exact temperature, but that still isn’t the mistake) that should be pleasant. Here is a critical view from Google maps in 3D:

The Stairs

Yes, those are stairs. What Google failed to mention was the 1.2 km hike was going to be 90% up a steep hill. The start was the stairs and then just very steep roads. I am happy to say it only took me 26 minutes to walk the path, but lesson was learned, a taxi is your friend when you first arrive in a city.

Luckily, when I arrived at my hotel, they were able to let me in early so I could rest a before going on the next adventure.

View from my hotel window

After a short rest I set off to find the special visitor bus pass that most cities have. It took a bit to locate the place to buy the ticket, but once found I headed to the area know as Old Quebec. I later learned there is an Upper and Lower Old Quebec. All of my first day I spent in Upper Old Quebec City.

All of this walking around and site seeing made me hungry, also the fact I had not had breakfast, so around 2 PM I found Le Casse-Crepe Breton.

This place makes crepes, not only the ones for breakfast, but lunch style ones. I had basically a Philly Cheese Steak but in side a crepe. I was delicious. I also sat at the bar, because this is a very, very small restaurant and even at 2 PM was very busy. This allowed me to watch the young woman that was making the crepes. She had 4 round griddles, 2 she used for cooking the crepes and the other 2 for keeping them warm while she finished the orders. That young lady didn’t stop making crepes from the time I sat down to the time I left. In fact everyone in that place were always on the go.

Here is a link to a YouTube video I uploaded of the chef Making Crepes

Here are some random pictures of buildings that I thought looked interesting.

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After all the wondering, my sweet tooth needed to be feed so I found this nice gelato place and ordered 2 scoops.

And its now 4:30 PM and I’m back in my hotel for few hours rest before I once again head down to Old Quebec for my 8 PM dinner reservations at Aux Anciens Canadiens.

I take the bus #11 down to Old Quebec an hour or so before my reservation for dinner and walk around some more and got surprised by this car driving around the main road.

the St. Lawrence River

It is now time for dinner.

One side of the menu is French the other side is in English. This restaurant specializes in game meats, so caribou, deer, duck and bison. I started with the tomato soup, then had Wild Caribou, bison and deer rillettes, confit of carrots. I had now clue what rillettes was until it arrived. The simplest way to describe rillettes is to just call it a pate. It is basically shredded meat in a paste form that you can spread on to toast. While looking lease than appetizing, I spread it on the toast and found it to be less revolting than I thought. I didn’t taste bad, nor did it feel strange in my mouth, but I will probably never order it again. However, the confit of carrots, I most definitely would like to find again. I’ve looked up the recipe on Google and can’t believe how simple it is to make. I’m not sure if what I ate was sweetened by something or if it was just the natural sweetness of the carrots, but I could have had another serving. For the main dish I went with Grandma’s treat, which was a meat pie, meatballs, and fried salt pork. The salt pork I could have skipped, because I’ve had better. It was the meat pie that was to write home about. The crust was most definitely made with lard, not vegetable shortening and the meat was seasoned very well. And the meatballs you say, well those were just meat balls. I think they were from bison meat but nothing spectacular. Dessert was creme brulee which I didn’t really have room in my stomach, but it was good so I dealt with the discomfort.

View inside

tomato soup

I then walked around a bit more to let dinner settle and to enjoy the cool of the evening. By 9:30 PM I was back in my hotel and ready to think about getting some sleep for the next day’s adventure.

It is now July 1st and since I will be leaving today to head to Halifax at 9 PM, I have to get all my bags packed and ready to go in the morning. My tour of Quebec is 6 hours and will get me back past the check out time. The Delta Hotel was nice enough to hold my bags after I checked out at 8 AM.

I was then on a quest to find breakfast, and unlike Montreal, I didn’t want to eat in the hotel. I head to bus #11 stops, which is across the street from the hotel and with my backpack ready I head to Old Quebec and hope there are some places opening for breakfast. Old Quebec is pure tourism, I don’t think there is any business down in this area that isn’t connected with entertain tourists. It is a Sunday.

Le Petit Chateau is my stop for breakfast

again it will be crepes.

These crepes had egg and cheese inside with 2 slices of ham on top. I covered it all in maple syrup and enjoyed every bite.

The tour guide for my tour was an Englishman from the UK. I don’t remember his story of how he came to Canada, but I’m pretty sure it was his Canadian wife that had him stay. He was all excite about the upcoming English soccer game and was hoping for an English / French World Cup. Remember this is July 1st, so he still had well placed hope.

The first stop of the tour was just 2 loops around the road right outside the tourist office where the tour began. At that spot was a fort that over looked the St. Lawrence River. Now there is a big hotel, art gallery and a Starbucks. What I failed to find out in time, was an underground museum of the archaeology of that fort.

I knew there were glass floor/windows on the deck around the hotel. I just didn’t know you could take a tour and walk under the decking. That will have to be for next time.

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Buildings and statues seen around this circular road.

The tour than proceeded down to Lower Old Quebec, where there were even more tour shops.

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I really liked all the signs hanging out front with the shops names on them.

The tour than returned to Upper Quebec around some public spaces that were being converted to music stages for the up coming music festival on July 5th. You pay like $100 for a ticket and you can get into any of the venues, but its first come so if you want a good spot, you have to go early and wait. The bands playing this year, The Weeknd, Neil Young, Shawn Mendes, Foo Fighters, The Chainsmokers, Beck, Lorde, Dave Matthews Band, just to name a few. It all ended on July 15th.

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In the above pictures, you will see one of the old city gates, a canon emplacement, some flowers from Jardin Jeanne d’ Arc, and Eglise Saint-Dominique church. There were more things but it is hard to take pictures of a moving bus in traffic. We did have to take a detour through an area of apartment buildings rather than driving along the park, Plaines d’ Abraham.

The bus tour next headed out of Quebec City to and island in the middle of St. Lawrence River, Ile-d’Orleans. This island is know for its organic farming and is one of the main food suppliers for the city of Quebec and has been for generations. We drive to Sanite-Petronille, on the south-west tip of the island, closest to Quebec City to visit a locally famous chocolaterie.

The line for ice cream was too long, and while the weather wasn’t extremely hot, I didn’t want to spend money on expensive, high quality chocolate that could melt before I got on the train later in the evening. I decide to get some picture of Quebec City, the bridge we crossed and the waterfall we were going to visit next.

Quebec City

Montmorency Falls and Pont de I’lie bridge

I took a panoramic picture with my phone, but it doesn’t look good unless viewed on a phone. Maybe that is an upgrade to wordpress like adding video. *shrug*

On to the waterfall…

To get to the top of the waterfall you can use a cable car or walk.

I think you can see which method I chose.

At the top, if you go via the cable car you find the Montmorency House with some pretty gardens and a cafe inside.

And I’ve kept you waiting long enough…

There is a suspension bridge over the falls that lets you look down on them or get another great view of the St. Lawrence River.

Along the path back to the cable car station, you can see how nature likes to take over anything destroyed or modified by man.

After view this wonder of nature and creation, it was time to go to church. Specifically the Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre. I’m going to take you on a wikipedia history lesson… The first sanctuary was built in 1658, by Bretons who said their prayers to Saint Anne saved them on a sea voyage. After a flood, and relocation another stone church was built and last 2 centuries before it was demolished in 1876 and a new more grand church was built. That church burned down in 1922. What I saw was the 3rd church which began construction in 1923 and didn’t finish until 1962.

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I almost forgot to include the stop before the church. It was to Albert Gilles Boutique and Museum. I didn’t have a clue who this guy was until one of his daughters, who is both a tour guide at the museum and artist herself. This shop house all of the copper and silver embossed work of the Gilles family. The main doors to the cathedral you just saw above were crafted by Albert Gilles. There was a “no cameras’ allowed rule in the museum not really sure why, but they did allow pictures in Albert’s “hobby” room. I’m calling it that because Mr. Gilles created 15 different copper plaques depicting various stages in the life of Christ.

It was now time to return to the Quebec Tourist Information Building and end the tour around 5:30 PM. I still had a few hours before I needed to reclaim my luggage and board the train to Halifax. So I went in search of something to eat. I debated the Irish pub I had seen yesterday, but it was very crowded and had a short line, I thought about the red roofed restaurant next to the tourist building but decided against it after I read the menu options. I was looking for something simple. Portofino, an italian restaurant near the irish pub was my final choice. The smells of its stone pizza oven drew me. I didn’t have pizza though, I went for the spaghetti and meat balls.

It was then back to the hotel, get my bag, take a taxi to Gare du Palais, and then a bus to the train station in Sainte-Foy about 8 miles away.

The train was suppose to arrive at 9:30 PM, but we didn’t leave until 11:09PM. So began the next train ride of my trip in Canada. Next stop is Halifax at 7:06 PM on July 2nd.

Quebec City – 2018 It is now June 30th. I wake up at my normal time, even though I've changed time zones.

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