Goodbye Quebec

   Thanks for the beautiful change of scenery, Quebec; we had a great time. The city was beautiful, people were very friendly and there were no waiting times for great restaurants inside the city walls. We got lucky with the weather (daily highs in the 20's) but I think we could have handled it for a few days if it were colder.

   It was easy to see there was full employment for snow plow drivers in Quebec, and they were really good at their jobs. A car wash business wouldn't work in winter though, a clean car would never make it to the end of the block before the road salt and snow covered it again. There's no need to even think about washing your car until Easter.

   The winter carnival was a good reason to come up for a visit when we did; we're sorry we missed the weekend events like the night parades, sled races and the downtown building illumination shows. But when a couple of pee wee hockey teams with parents and equipment arrived in our hotel lobby for check in on Friday we could understand why it was hard for us to find last minute hotel rooms for the weekend.

   We left Friday morning during another gentle snowfall with temperatures in the 20's. When we landed in Phily at 2:00 it was sunny and 50 degrees and it felt almost like a heat wave. With a good look at the Quebec airport on Friday I could see why we flew in on a small jet, every plane in the airport was smaller sized, even the military ones.

   Thanks again for following along, hope you liked the pictures. It's good to be back home, and next week's cold spell will seem like nothing at all.



  

City Walk

   Thursday was our last full day in Quebec and we decided to walk the few remaining streets of the old city that we haven't yet seen. After breakfast we went through St Jean's Gate and headed for the west city wall and followed rue De Ramparts around and up to the Hotel Frontenac at the top of the city. From there we had a great view of the massive amounts of ice flowing in the St Lawrence from upstream.

   We then walked down a long series of wooden steps to the bottom of the hill where an even older part of the original city developed near the river docks. The government helped restore the original buildings and convert them into a neighborhood of tasteful shops and restaurants. We walked through and spent a few hours at the nearby Museum of Civilization. By the time we were heading home, we were really happy the Funiclaire' was working so we wouldn't have to face all those stairs again to the top.

   Something we both really enjoyed around the city were parents walking their little toddlers all bundled up in the cold air. There were lots of them in the winter carnival area and many were pulling their kids behind them in plastic sleds that seemed to move well over the dry patches of sidewalk as well as through the snow.

   We fly home tomorrow after having a great time; the weather was cooperative all week and we both handled the cold well. We didn't even need the warmest clothes we brought, but it was wise to have them along anyway. For my next trip like this I learned that I need waterproof boots with good traction. My boots kept my feet pretty dry, but they were smooth bottomed and I spent the whole week being really careful where I stepped. So far I haven't fallen on my butt.... we'll see if I can keep it that way till we get home.

   I'll make one more post on the weekend; there are a few more pictures I couldn't get to without my digital card reader.

   Thanks for following along for our winter change of scenery. Hope you had a good week also.

   John

Quebec Winter Carnival

 

 

   We spent most of the day at the winter carnival grounds. It's in a large park overlooking the St Lawrance River called the Plains of Abaham, an historic place in the war between the French and Englsh.

   Much of the carvival activity happens on the weekends so we'll miss some of the fun events like the parades, ice canoe races and pee-wee hockey tournament. But there's still lots to see in the carnival grounds and we started the day with a horse drawn sled ride around the park. We had a good look at the many ice sculptures and things like cross country skii trails, ice sledding, somthing that looked like skee-ball with hockey sticks and a life-sized footsball game where kids strap themselves into player positions on an ice rink and try to kick the soccer ball without falling on their butts.

   Later we walked inside the walls at St Louis Gate for dinner. The old city restaurant was built in the 1700's and had a warm fireplace. We went to the carnival grounds again at night to see the lights and have our picture taken with Bonhomme, the carnival mascot. Mary was pleased to see there were many Christmas holiday lights and decorations still up; I was wondering if it was just too cold to take them down.

Quebec - February 12, 2013

Mary & I decided to do something different this winter so instead of taking our usual trip south to Florida, we headed north to experience a little more-than-normal winter in Quebec City. We found a hotel room with a good rate and decided that Monday to Friday would be a nice change of pace from the dull winter routine at home.

After looking at maybe driving or taking the train, we decided that flying was so much easier even if it was a bit pricey. There was a daily non-stop on a smaller 50 seat jet and the flight was less than 2 hours. The train connected through NYC and Montreal and would have been a pretty ride up, but it took the better part of two days to get there.

Our flight north was right on time and the taxi into the city was less than 30 minutes. Quebec still has the old walls around the original parts of the city and our hotel was just a block away from the gate on St Jean Street. We were also close to the Winter Carnival grounds, so we can walk to about everything we wanted to see for the week.

We checked into our hotel and were out wandering by 2:00. The temperatures weren't bad with highs in the 20's most all week. We dressed warm anyway to be safe, the previous week was much colder with 9 AM temperatures below zero (F) on a couple of days. It snowed all day on Monday, steady and gentle with no wind, and by the time we got to the carnival grounds our hats and shoulders were full of snow. Almost right away we were reminded how much we appreciated hats, scarves, dry shoes and traction underfoot

Winter Carnival lasts for 15 days with events all over the city. The main carnival grounds are just outside the city walls with enough outdoor winter activity for a full day. We took plenty of pictures but I had trouble with the camera card, so I won't be able to post our first days pictures until after we get home on the weekend.

On Tuesday after breakfast we went inside the walls and walked the old city. We had a lunch snack and beer at the Frontenac Hotel bar with a picture window overlooking the frozen St Laurence River. We came back to our room for a late afternoon rest and nap, then headed out again and found a really nice dinner at the Boulay Bistro Boreal on St Jean Street just inside the city walls. After taking some night pictures in the city we stopped for desert and were back in our room before 10:00.