After landing in Montreal at 6pm on Sunday we were straight into a rental car and off to a B&B outside Quebec City. I must say between driving an unfamiliar car (a Rav 4 no less), on the wrong side of the road, on unfamiliar roads and compulsory stop signs in the middle of a perfectly normal road that don't actually say "stop" but "arret", it was a slightly stressful drive. Still we made it by 11 to a lovely house in the middle of the country run by Chantel who made us very welcome and put on a fantastic breakfast spread. I'm sure glad I changed our plans to stay there two nights.
Quebec City is very pretty and very French. There are three distinct periods of their history, French, English and Canadian and so for example the Catholic Churches are from the French Period and the Anglican are from the English (and still has a predominantly English speaking congregation). There is also a fantastic Citadel built by the English to defend against the French and also the Americans but never used in battle. It is now the base for the only French speaking regiment of the Canadian Army and we did a very interesting tour.
I also did a tour of the State Parliament House while Mum took in some shops and some street performers of which there were many and then we had Poutine for dinner which is a potato cheese thing and very nice before heading home in reasonable time (we were staying across the St Lawrence River so had caught a ferry each way, a great way to get to the city!)
Tuesday was our travel day (more compulsory stops!) and the reason we had the car. St Anne's Basilica is north of Quebec along the river and as well as an incredibly ornate church, on the same site is a Cyclorama. This is a huge circular painting of the crucifixion of Jesus and the city of Jerusalem. It was created in Munich and shipped to Quebec about 130 years ago, I can't imagine what a process that was!! It is very beautiful and detailed and Mum bought a wee book so anyone I interested can check it out. Another 10 minutes north was the highlight of my day, St Anne's Canyon. It's a really high waterfall in a canyon and is just beautiful. I'll include some photos but they can't possibly do it justice. We were pressed for time but I did manage to get all the way around including the 189 steps down to the bottom, and then back. Then it was a straight run back to Montreal to find our hotel to drop bags and then the rental in that order.
In Montreal we decided we had had enough of old towns and churches and so instead spent the day at the Olympic Park area. In the 1976 Olympic velodrome they have created a Biodome with four different areas, tropical, temperate, St Lawrence River and artic/antarctic. It is very well done with plants and animals, monkeys, birds, turtles, beavers and many more. We went around the first two a second time as those animals were more elusive, fish and birds tends to be more visible. Probably the best part for me were the diving seabirds. They stayed down for ages and really did look like they were flying underwater.
Then it was on to the botanical gardens for the afternoon. We took a guided tour and the guy was very informative as well as entertaining. They have an amazing rose garden, Chinese and Japanese gardens, a huge collection of vegetables from al over the world, and insectarium with heaps of spiders (and other insects of course) and a whole series of greenhouses with orchids and tropical plans and ferns and rainforest plants. It was a really great way to spend another fine hot day.
We were delayed on our evening flight back to New York and so got to our hotel around 11:30 with Mum catching a 4:30am shuttle the next morning, so not too much sleep Wed night. She is in LA for Thu and Fri before arriving back in NZ on Sunday morning. We talked to Dad and he is certainly looking forward to having her home!
So now I'm on my own. Yesterday and today I've spent cycling around the city, and getting some practical stuff done as well (finally got my watch strap fixed that broke on about day 2, and replaced a couple of items either lost or worn out along the way). It's been great to have a bike and be able to go wherever I want and not be too tired from it. I've seen heaps of the city as well as a good chunk of the greenway that circles Manhattan island. There is a footbridge to Randell's Island so I went there and around some of that island too. It feels like there is heaps of public space here, but I suppose for the population they need it.
I'm off in a few minutes to catch my second tour. I do expect to have less net access so the posts might be less frequent. I do hope everyone in NZ is well, and do feel free to keep testing through the website as I have hung on to Mum's phone.
Love
Sarah
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