Day 48: Travel Day. Quebec City to Toronto

 Dear Gilles, 

12:30 pm train to Montreal. 2 hour layover for supper in the Montreal station. 

Plenty of selection available. 

Back at mom's house around midnight. 

Post Script: The train was delayed by more than an hour. Made it back to home base at 1:10am. Exhausted. 

Day 47: Quebec City

 Dear Gilles, 

I booked a tour (in English) for the Provincial legislature. Horizontal distance was not very far away. But, we climbed many stairs, and at the top of the stairs there was more up hill ahead of us. 

The reception hall and public welcome to this building is well done. There's an ongoing self-guided tour that persons can take and they pride themselves that the public are always welcome to come in. 

The tour was 60 minutes long and full of explanations for the symbolic references throughout the building. 

The archival library is also open to the public - so we went. 

We were not far enough away to fit the building into one camera frame - so, it's in pieces. Yesterday when looking at it from the Wall - we didn't know what the building was - it is huge. Built in a square, with a courtyard and fancy restaurant in the centre, with a less fancy cafeteria in the basement. 

The tour ended at noon. Boys were hungry. We went to Poutineville. Ordered a MEGA-poutine for the table to share. Then, wandered back in to the centre of Old Quebec to City Hall. City Hall security guard stated that they didn't have any pins - but the reception person overheard our conversation - and found a single pin - so Patric gets the priority. Along the way we had some more ice cream from COWS. 

Then we meandered - looking for Umbrella Alley.   We found the location. Without umbrellas - just the wires. 

2.5 km walk back to the hotel. 

We got caught in a passing thunderstorm to make the walk interesting. 

Pizza for dinner and a movie in the room to round out the night. 

Day 46: Travel Day. Montreal to Quebec City

 Dear Gilles, 

Here's one panel of the Montreal Train Station - national anthem cement carvings. 

We travelled to Quebec, Quebec today. We arrived at the hotel at noon, dropped off our bags, found some lunch and were able to get into our room once we finished eating. 

We had a whole afternoon to find Old Quebec City. So we headed out. UPHILL.  I had no idea how high up it is - considering it's fortifications along the St. Lawrence River. 

We walked uphill. 

We found the surrounding wall.  We found the Chateau Frontenac.

We wandered back amid shops and narrow streets. And found COWS ice cream. 

No other ice cream shop was acceptable -- and the story behind it is:  At the Mint in Ottawa, I asked after the L.M.Montgomery silver coins. They are sold out on the mint.ca website. Sold out at the source. While I was asking, a dad with a kid was also taking the tour - he pipes up - He's related to Montgomery - and waves his drivers license to give credibility. After the tour, I asked Mr. Montgomery for the 'must see' bits of PEI. His son's ONLY recommendation was for COWS ice cream.  

And so we did. 

Dinner was a rotisserie chicken and salad picked up from the local Metro grocery store. It was quickly devoured. Leftover chicken and salad went into wraps for the next day. 

Day 45: Montreal

 Dear Gilles, 

SNOW. 

Plans adjusted to head out after noon, when it should stop - instead of our regular 9am out the door to maximize our time in these locations. 

We have an 8th floor balcony. This is the view of construction and rejuvenation of Montreal. 

We headed out and walked 2.5 km to a glass exhibit. We met my friend there. 

Espace Verre

We took advantage of a later start in the day - to get half of a ZERO day in. Just to chill. We need to catch the 8:36 am train tomorrow morning - so it's out the door at 6:30 am. 

We met up with my friend at the Glass Space. There wasn't much there but it was a neutral meeting space 2.5 km from the hotel. After we saw what there was to see - we headed to the Old Port of Montreal. Amazed at the abandonded storage silos and all the land they still occupy. Demolition looks necessary - but the amount of material to be moved out of there - steel, concrete etc. will be a transportation and delivery logistic complication to be worked out. And who knows if the soil is considered hazardous waste and would need to go to a land farm. 

It's impossible (for me) to capture the feeling and look of Old Montreal from a phone camera. I took snaps to job our memories for later. The monument Patric is standing in front of is a John A MacDonald tribute - where the statue has been removed. 

We meandered back to the hotel via Rue Ste Catherine. Made a quick stop at M0851 to admire their latest bag line. Checked out a GameStop for Patric. Once we got back to the hotel, we ate up all the food/groceries we had to minimize transporting them on the train. 

Day 44: Montreal

Dear Gilles,

We bought ourselves a 24hour Metro pass and got on public transit to go to the Biodome and Insectarium.

We met up with my friend at Viau Station and headed over to the Biodome. 

It rained. And rained. 

I tried to get in with my Saskatchewan Science Centre membership - but it was only good for the Planetarium. And the planetarium was not our priority this visit. 

I have a neutral impression of the Biodome. There were a lot of strollers and persons under 4 feet tall. I didn't take a lot of photos. I don't think we need to visit it again. I do think we missed an opportunity of going to Muttart Conservatory in Edmonton. 

Patric tried to melt a handprint into the ice wall. The Arctic display had penguins and puffins and not much else. 

I was impressed with the live sturgeon swimming around. They were a good 6 ft long. 

We WERE impressed with the Insectarium. It's the largest of the four in Canada. It starts with a walk through dark tunnels - built like you're walking through dirt like an ant. It has interactive displays along the way to simulate how flies see through their multi-faceted eyes. Upside down sight and ultraviolet sight. 

Once through the tunnels, we ended up in a 'nest' which served as a gallery for 72 mounted panels of bugs - showcasing camouflage, colour, male/female and all of the fun aspects of seeing bugs up close and fantastically preserved. 

Mom spent a lot of time beside Luc - learning, observing, commenting. And Luc enjoyed the time to just immerse himself in bugs. 

There was only a single ant colony though - leaf cutters. But they had them out in butterfly habitat and it was super fun to observe them. 

Since we're in Montreal - with a built in 'person who knows things' - we went to find some AMAZING donuts at berniebeigne and fresh bagels from the same neighbourhood. I got a maple donut, Luc an oreo donut and Patric got the Simpson's donut (of course). 

Still a misty/wet walk, but not a downpour of rain like earlier in the day. 

We found a restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner - took the Metro back to the hotel to drop the boys off - and then went to the Irish Pub across the street to have a good solid chat and catch up together.