Quick quest in Quebec

our little yellow bus
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Quick quest in Quebec:

St Johns to Quebec via Montreal. Montreal is to be the linking bit of our Eastern seaboard part.

Quick quest in Quebec

We thought we’d fly into St Johns but travellers over a period of time have complained that stopping there caused them inconvenience as only a few international travellers stopped there. So we flew to Montreal and then back to St Johns. Going through customs and immigration is always fun. I have now been drug searched 3 times, baggage checked twice, been told off for taking photos of a sunrise that was beautiful (there happened to be a plane tail in view and that was a “security matter”. I don’t think that the person who told me off had heard of satellite imaging and what that tells nasty guys. I’m one of the good guys and I was only interested that the tail fin and the building beside made a good photo.

secondary transport
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We were met by a lady who drove a yellow school bus. Yes, they really exist. They look just the same as the pictures. I’d been told by my sister-in-law Stanny to look out for and take good attention of “the Plains of Abraham, the painted buildings and Old Quebec”. Well, imagine the surprise, well done Geoff, our hotel was just outside the walls of Old Quebec, about 50m from the Plains of Abraham and 10min walk from the painted buildings. Yay!!! A very good hotel too.

We had the best of everything. A pool in the hotel; good restaurant selections (from Subway, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, French, Maccas, within 100m and about 10 others up the street); buses in the street adjacent; a tourism office 75m down the road and horse drawn “taxis” going past the door. This was a wonderful place to wake up in.

wide open walkways
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We walked, took photos, ate, took photos, swam, took photos, walked, took photos, took tours, took photos and came back each morning for more. Great food and great company. The photos will tell more of the story as we travelled around.

Next year is the 400^th anniversary of the founding of Canada in Quebec. So there is frantic work going on to get ready for celebrations that are planned. Construction, cleaning, restoration and archaeological digs abound. There are talented buskers and we have bought some CDs of sax players and harpists. If Trish had been a better teacher I’d have learned how to transfer some of these to my Ipod. (Or maybe if I’d been a better student? Nah!! Her fault.) So I just listen to them in the background as I type.

not fired in anger
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Our next port of call is Buffalo New York where we will do the “Niagara thing”. That should be fun. There are bridges across the river to look at the falls and attractions so we will have to change countries as we do.

More on that later. Hope you are all well. Marg and I are.