What a difference a night in a comfortable bed makes. It basically wrote the whole day off as we took a good while to get going. We had a lazy look around Fredericton before relaxing back at Andy & Kath's place again enjoying their fine hospitality.
24/7: We really did nothing at all today
Tuesday September 11th
With our day of doing nothing behind us it was time to pick the pace up again and head onwards. We saw Deryn off on the school bus in the morning and then said our goodbyes and headed west once more. We're enjoyed our time with Andy & Kath and the kids but it was back to camping out for the time being.
We were bound for Quebec City but due to the huge distance from Fredericton we decided to stop just shy of the city and take in another RV park, just can't get enough of them! The sky was looking threatening but there was confidence from at least 50% of us that it would be OK so camp we did only to be caught in a torrential downpour, still at least the tent is good and anyway we're on holiday!
24/7: We'll camp she says, it'll be fine!
Wednesday September 12th
An early start and off we headed into Quebec City and what a lovely place it is. Very European in its styling, unsurprising given its huge French influence. We spent a good while wandering the streets taking in the look and feel of the place. It's so unlike anything else we'd seen and is very un-Canadian. The old part of the city is enclosed by the town walls and contains narrow winding streets and cobbled paths. It celebrates its 400th birthday next year so the whole place is getting a spruce up, which meant it was looking even better. Happened upon a chocolate museum as well that was also giving away some very fine free samples, which it would have been rude to have declined. This is the first major town that we would recommend a visit too certainly. Sadly we had to head onwards in the afternoon with Montreal beckoning, but we'd enjoyed our brief visit.
24/7: Big breakfast, chocolate, baguettes. That's much better
Thursday September 13th
Another day, another city. This time the really big smoke of Montreal. We were booked into a B&B in the centre of town for the night meaning that we could actually go out and enjoy some of the evening entertainment, or just have a few drinks! The B&B was a very strange affair run by a furtive French bloke with a penchant for small red hats. It was a really old townhouse but despite its strangeness, or maybe because of it, it was a really great place and very central. We looked around Old Montreal and the waterfront area again taking in the old architecture on display. One minute you are in shiny skyscraper land, the next old 1800s buildings and the narrow streets seen in Quebec City.
In the afternoon we headed underground to the pedestrian network that is used heavily in the wintertime because the conditions above ground are so cold and snowy. As the weather was actually very good it was strangely quiet but fascinating to see this city below a city. To complete our whistlestop tour of the city Rach nagged and nagged that being a huge sports fan she wanted to see the Olympic stadium, I gave in and agreed and we headed off to have a look. Its a bit of a concrete behemoth but an impressive structure nonetheless. Fascinating too for the fact that the huge tower that you can now go up wasn't completed until 1989, 13 years after the Olympics of 1976. It was completed despite the fact that the project was already way over budget and to this day the city still owes over $1billion for the construction, Londoners take note.
We relaxed a little in the evening and found a good place for some food and some local brews. It rounded off a packed but enjoyable day.
24/7: My French is apparently perfect Quebecois French!
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