Looking for parking is not fun in Quebec. We had to park in a garage ($17.00 a day)! We were picked up by a small bus to bring us to the main pick-up place. Our first leg of the journey was a city tour. The guide spoke pretty good English. It wasn't a full tour so Rae, Burl and I each had our own seats, which was nice to take pictures. The guide told us the history of Quebec. We saw the government building, the Citadel and the war spots. We saw where they fortified the city so no one would be able to overpower Quebec again, as they had done in the past. We saw the most famouse hotel (most photographed) in the world. The Chateau Frantenac. Very beautiful and didn't have time to go inside and check it out. There are lots of Horse and buggy riders in Quebec City. It sounded like fun until I realized the guide is turned around talking to the patron while the horse goes on. How does the horse know when the light turns RED?? No thanks.. I'll stick to busses!
We had lunch at the "Shack". When we were seated it looked like a window was in front of us. But after sitting there a minute, we realized the window was open and we were just about on the sidewalk as we ate our dinner! People walked by, smelled our food and came in. We should have gotten a discount! It was really fun though. Rae was trying to take our pictures together, and the waitress felt sorry for us and took the picture with our cameras. She was young and knew us "older" folks weren't as adept to self portraits as these younger kids are. I'm sure they were in back of us laughing their heads off!!
When we finished our lunch, it was time for our countryside tour. We drove to the Montmorency Falls, which are higher than Niagara Falls (83 meters) , but not near as wide. We took a gondola up the mountain to see the top of the falls. When we got to the top, guess what? It started RAINING! How different! Well, that wasn't going to stop me! I waited it out for a few minutes as the rain was really pouring down. But I got tired of waiting and headed out to the falls. It was a long walk but worth it! They were so beautiful! And the mist at the bottom was spectacular. When looking down at the falls, with the rain pouring down and finally the sun coming out, .... I saw a rainbow in the bottom of the falls. Beautiful is not good enough to describe what we saw. Now I am really anxious to see Niagara Falls the week of July 7th!
When we all were ready, we went across a long bridge to the Isle of Orleans which is totally different from the city. There are farms, strawberry fields, hills, barns, horses etc. Very country, but at the same time, there were Million $$ houses on that island! We also went to a chocolate factory that had Ice Cream and coffee. Eveyone was thrilled with this place. I walked along a side street to see the coast line of the St. Lawrence river running through this area to meet up with Quebec City. It was a quaint area with lots of history and liveliness.
We were then off to Maries. Now Maries is a small house in a small town. She makes homemade bread and Maple Butter. For $1.50 we got a very large slice of homemade bread with Maple Butter slathered all over it. It was delicious, but very sweet. My teacher friends would love it! Too sweet for my taste but I enjoyed that sample. Rachel bought both the bread and the butter. We ate the bread, and the butter is for her kids. While we were there, two (2) busloads of kids came in. They were from America (some PA bus company) and were so Rude and Obnoxious! I wanted to start speaking German so they wouldn't think I was part of their American group! It was embarrassing.
Then next place was a copper making place. A man started the company 50 years ago. He died 5 years ago at 83! His 3 daughters, wife and 2 employees work at this Copper making store. The daughter told us the history and explained how the copper items are made. They made pictures, jewelry, figures etc. It was so fascinating to see. He also make the life of Christ in copper pictures. Mary being told she was pregnant, all the way to Jesus leaving the diciples after rising from the dead. The picture depicted the scripture at the bottom... It was very moving to go through 3 rooms watching the life of Christ, in Copper.
The next place which was our last stop was Saint Anne de Beaupre' Church. What a HUGE church!. People come from all over the world to this chuch as it has been said many people who were crippled, or some severe sickness were healed in this church. There are crutches and canes etc as you enter, showing how people came with the items and left without them. Quite fascinating. Rae and I walked all over the place there. Burl did his own thing while we read all the enscriptions and stories about men of past times, including saints of the faith. Rae walked outside and we couldn't find a way back in; then found a door and went downstairs. Why? I don't know. But we found a beautiful chapel for people during the week. It was so beautiful, charming and quaint. Then we were trying to find our way back to the sanctuary. I found an elevator so we pushed the button. When it stopped, 2 men with communion crackers were getting off. NO ONE SPEAKS ENGLISH! So we just got on the elevator hoping to go up. BUTTONS - WHERE TO? I'm feeling like I'm in a scary movie and a monster is going to jump out! Finally the elevator goes up! Thank GOD! The door opens and we are on the side of the altar in the sanctuary! Weird... There is so much in that church and outside to see that it would take a full day to explore it all. We had an HOUR! When all the people assembled back on the bus, we headed back to Quebec City. It had been a long day, but so interesting and full of history. There is so much to see in Quebec and surrounding areas, that it would be a month before you could feel as though you know where it all was. I thoroughly enjoyed our bus tour and our time in the city. The driver took us to our car and we head home. Again, we slept really good. I still see so many pictures in my head. I have to get the pictures off my camera and on the computer. I'll have pages of pictures following this blog. Hope you are enjoying our time seeing this beautiful country. You know, Canada is so beautiful and so much history lies there. However, USA has everything I know and believe in. Guess I'll stay right here and see our beautiful America.
Talk to you next time from somewhere in America!
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