Quebec City, I want to go back.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

In my top three of most beautiful cities that I have personally been to, you will find Quebec city.

I was fortunate in that we arrived at 8am, and weren't scheduled to sail out until 11pm that night.  I made more out of this one day, than probably any other day on my travels so far.

So our first order of awesomeness was a bike tour from the lower city all the way out to Montmorency Falls.

Half an hour goes by, and we're out of the city passing by a marshy grasslands.  I saw birds and even a few hunters.  I didn't see ducks, so I don't know what exactly they were hunting, but they were hunters.  I saw the guns.

Our next stop was a place our guide had hyped up for an hour.  He kept saying, "We're almost to 'Chicken Corner!'" without giving us any explanation.  And then suddenly, we had arrived.

Chicken Corner

In French Canadia, they aren't just proud of their language, it's written into the law.  Every place of business has to display its name in french.  Therefore, KFC becomes Poulet Fris Kentucky.

After chicken corner, our next stop was Montmorency Falls.

Now, you could drive all the way up the mountain and enter from the back.  But we were on bikes.  So, we found another way up.

I know you can't really capture a waterfall in a picture, sooooooooooo here's a video.

There were other really neat things up on the hill besides the waterfall.  For example, these amazing purple flowers!

I love purple flowers.

The view looking out from the falls.  The US state of Maine is in the distance.

Because I like foreign signs, especially ones with dogs on them...

Aren't you glad we use 911?

Really, Frenchies?  Really?

Before heading back down to the bikes, we took a little hike up top.

And I experienced first hand the inspiration for the Canadian flag.

Okay, pause: this concludes my bike tour.  Part two of my day started when I dropped the guests off at the ship, and then turned around and walked right back into the city.

I'm going to pull up my first picture one more time:

What you need to know about Quebec is that it's safely located high on a hill.  In the picture above, I'm looking up at the upper city from the lower city.  Being there in person, you realize why there is a French Canadia.  Once the French established this city, it was impossible for anyone to take it away because of the impregnable advantage the geography gives its residents.

To get a sense of what it would have been like to try to invade this city, I didn't take the tram up to the upper city.  Instead, I walked left around the hill to see if there was another way up.

There wasn't.

Above you can see what the side of the hill looked like.  Sure, a semi skilled climber could scale it, but not an army.  Not to mention, the army would first have to take the harbor, another not likely thing.

Anyway, about a mile or so, I found a set of stairs!

I'm smiling because I think I'm almost there.

I had never climbed more stairs in my life.

I'm frowning because I realize I'm not even half way.

Turned out that once I emerged on the top, I was in the middle of an old fort.  Here's one of the old cannons used to protect the harbor.

The next series of pictures are all from my walk around the upper city.

OoooOOOoOooooh!

Real Life Disneyland.

Same picture, but with a horse and buggy.

Here's one way to get down.

I remember now that I had to run back to the ship by 4pm because it was my turn to do afternoon tea.  Ugh, there's nothing like losing time in an incredible location to get back on the ship for some contractually obligated socializing.  Nope, nothing like it in the world.  :-(  Note: I don't mind socializing.  I do it quite often.  I just don't enjoy it when a hotel director tells you when and where to do it because the guests know the difference between when I have to be somewhere and when I want to.

So tea happens, and whoopdie freaking doo, no one shows up because why?  They're all in Quebec City.  OMG, imagine that!  Anyway, I head out for the third time



My day part three: night.

I hopped in a cab.  My driver didn't speak any english, and my french is not that great.  It turned out that the driver was serbian.  Hey guess what?!  My serbian is worse than my french.

He drives me through most of the city, and then I decide to get out.  He looks at me like, "Why are you getting out here?  There's nothing here," and I look at him like, "Why do you care?  Here's your money."

I walk around for a little bit, then I get on a bus going back the way I came.  By now it's dark, and I realize I'm the oldest person on the bus.  Just like Amsterdam, the city seems to be full of young people at night.  Or maybe older people drive cars?  Whatever the case, I saw something incredibly beautiful, so I got off the bus.

It turns out that this is the harbor.  At night, the city hangs cloth and illuminates it purple.  They didn't have to do anything, they could have left it alone.  It wouldn't have been ugly because it's night time.  No one would have seen anything, but instead they chose to make it amazing.  That's why I like Quebec.

Add caption

In fact, I was so mesmerized by all the purple, that I almost walked right off the edge and into the water.

I came this close.

That same spot, looking to the right.

And that concludes my day in Quebec City.  After I almost walked into the water, I thought it was time to go back to the ship and stay there.

This is a place I would come back to sometime on my own.

Next stop, Montreal!