Today was the last day of the trip for us.  When we woke up we packed up our suitcases and loaded them into the car and went exploring once again.  By the way the dinner from last night was exceptional!  We noticed that many of the restaurants use dairy products from Chilliwack!  We saw [...]]]>  

Today was the last day of the trip for us.  When we woke up we packed up our suitcases and loaded them into the car and went exploring once again.  By the way the dinner from last night was exceptional!  We noticed that many of the restaurants use dairy products from Chilliwack!  We saw butters and creamers created in Chilliwack.

So we started our day with a walk in the slightly cooler, breezier day and returned to Old Quebec.  We had a great lunch at one of the hundreds of tourist-centric restaurants – roasted chicken for Andrew and salmon linguini with Asparagus soup for Steve.  We then carried on with the intention of taking a horse and buggy tour around the old city but when it was discovered the cost was $80 for a 30 minute ride, we decided against it, and just stole a couple of pictures beside the horse.

We then went to another Citadel – they are very popular in the old-war provinces – but were discouraged from getting a close look by the Canadian army who use the Quebec Citadel as an active base.  Something about national security, but you can take a picture of the dudes dressed up in red at the front door – so we did.

We continued our walk and saw some very large people getting dressed up on the way to see l’Hotel de Parliament,  By this time our day was running out and we had to get to the airport, but not before wasting some time in the pub with a game of billiards.

Alas, the vacation has come to an end and we had to return our trusty Chrysler 300 and hop on the planes home.  No little TV screens were on the return flights.  Instead we were shown two projector movies, Fractured and Shrek 3.  Our flight was an hour late in Toronto because we had to return the plane to the airport just before taking off.  There were a couple of pensioners that must have been security threats because they were taken off the plane.  Then we had to wait for clearance because we botched our last alloted time.   The same friend picked us up at the airport when we returned to Vancouver at 2:00 am August 2, 2007.

Thanks for joining us on our adventure.

The End.

 

We walked up to “Old Quebec” where all the buildings are totally vintage and it has the real feel of an old european city.  There were a lot of touristy chachki shops and cobblestone [...]]]> Holy Cow what a beautiful City.  There is tonnes and tonnes of history in this city.  It is quite incredible indeed.

 

We walked up to “Old Quebec” where all the buildings are totally vintage and it has the real feel of an old european city.  There were a lot of touristy chachki shops and cobblestone streets and it was loaded with tourists (like ourselves), but the atmosphere was very historic and quite enjoyable.  Every block contains an equal share of street cafes and souvenir shops.  The buildings in “Vieux-Quebec” are all made of stone, marble and brick and it gives a sense of pride and heritage that you rarely feel in other Canadian cities.

The city of Quebec provides an interesting juxtaposition of history and modernism.  In one block you have skyscrapers of steel and mirrored glass less than 10 years old and across the street will be a celestine chapel of granite and mortar built in the 1800’s.  Walking along the streets you can hear someone asking a question in english and receiving an answer en francais.

Andrew is currently getting ready for dinner.  He has taken a pole lamp into the bathroom for better light.  When I saw him taking the lamp he said “oh look” and pointed away.  I looked and saw nothing and when I looked back, he and the lamp were gone.

We had a minor camera malfunction today (ie. dead battery), and therefore a limited photo selection.  Plus thanks to everyone for sending us emails.  We haven’t had a chance to reply but thank you for the nice comments.

It has been no problem that we do not speak French at any of the places we have been, although its fun to try speaking french and getting the “there, there, isn’t that sweet that you tried” look from people who then say “I speak the English, ‘ow can I ‘elp you?”

The service industry [...]]]>   

It has been no problem that we do not speak French at any of the places we have been, although its fun to try speaking french and getting the “there, there, isn’t that sweet that you tried” look from people who then say “I speak the English, ‘ow can I ‘elp you?”

The service industry here is incredible!  We like the way that in every restaurant we have been to the wait staff always asks if we would like 1 bill or 2.  They don’t do that in BC so much.

When visiting any city its best to just take a single tour because all the tour guides always tell the same stories.  I have a friend who used to be a tour guide and she tells me that they just lie to you anyway.

The drivers on the East Coast are very good.  They all understand that the left lane is for passing and once you have finished passing, you get back into the right lane.  Although we have noticed that Quebec-plated vehicles like to follow very close behind, giving the impression that they would like to pass, but when they are given the opportunity, they just stay right on your rear bumper.  Maybe they are just afraid of being left behind (separation anxiety?).

The Days Events:

It’s hard work traveling!  We started early today at 6:00 am and headed over to Adam’s Restaurant for the “Gaspesian breakfast.”  This is 2 eggs, toast, 1 sausage, 2 bacons, some ham, hash browns, beans (the pork-and- variety), and some kind of a spread which was unidentifiable.  The Gaspesian breakfast is very similar to the Acadian breakfast we had yesterday in Bathurst.

We were going to take the quick route thru the mountains to maximize our time in Quebec, but that road was closed due to a washout from heavy rains the day before, so we had to turn around and follow the coast line route.  We passed thru 16 little villages enroute to the main freeway (about 300km).  Once on the freeway, it was a pleasant drive into Quebec City.

 

Quebec City is an exceptionally beautiful city with tons of funky little stores, eateries, pubs and places to hang out.  You will have to wait until tomorrow’s report to find out more about it.  We had a great dinner at an open air cafe just a couple blocks from our hotel and were able to do some people watching.  We even saw someone get arrested by the local gendarmerie!

Then we had to go to bed after a swim because we are old and road weary!  Bon Nuit!

It was a lazy day for us today. We slept in until about 10:00am local time and didn’t get on the road until noon. We travelled about 45 minutes to Bathurst, NB where we had an “Acadian Breakfast” at the “Dixie Lee” which seems to be a very common chain. The New Brunswickians are [...]]]>

It was a lazy day for us today. We slept in until about 10:00am local time and didn’t get on the road until noon. We travelled about 45 minutes to Bathurst, NB where we had an “Acadian Breakfast” at the “Dixie Lee” which seems to be a very common chain. The New Brunswickians are very gracious and easily switched from French to English when recognizing that we were “foreigners.” Although our hotelier from last night was from Germany (by way of Nelson, BC) and neither we nor a french speaking couple could understand HIM very well.

After lunch we carried on and crossed into Quebec and a new time zone. Our route took us along the Acadian coastline (about as far east as you can get before jumping onto Newfoundland).

This route is dotted with many tiny little towns and villages which makes for a slightly lengthy journey caused by slowing down to city speed then resuming highway speed about every 10 kilometres. Aside from that, the drive was absolutely incredible. Every village appeared to be in perpetual summer mode, with the beaches and water being so close to the roadway, there was constant pedestrian traffic crossing the road between cottages/residences and the beach. Many of the places we passed thru were looking very festive and inviting and many times we commented on how great it would be to live so close to the water. Incidentally, the water is amazingly warm for what we think of as the “atlantic” ocean, caused by, we found out later, the warm waters of the gulf-stream from Mexico.

Most of the day was a slow meander up the coast and we now find ourselves at Gaspé, QB. We are currently staying at “Adam’s Motel.” There is a restaurant right next door called “Adam’s Restaurant” with the subtitle of “Salle de Diner.” We did not want Salle for dinner but we are going to give it a try for breakfast tomorrow.

This morning we woke and were served a delicious breakfast by our hosts at the Evening Primrose.  Then we were off to explore the island.

We started by renting a couple of bicycles in Charlottetown and rode around the city checking out all the hot spots.  Charlottetown has a nice boardwalk that runs [...]]]>

This morning we woke and were served a delicious breakfast by our hosts at the Evening Primrose.  Then we were off to explore the island.

We started by renting a couple of bicycles in Charlottetown and rode around the city checking out all the hot spots.  Charlottetown has a nice boardwalk that runs the length of the harbour so we rode along there to look at the boats and other things. We also saw an outdoor performance on the history of the settlement of PEI.  There is a lot of history here and the PE Islanders are very proud of it and like to spontaneously burst into historical performance if you get too close to them.  There was an Anne of Green Gables girl on every second corner.

They don’t have very good TV reception on PEI, except for this one house.

After getting our exercise we thought we would sit back and relax and take part in a chauffeured tour of the Island so we boarded the London Double Decker Bus.  This bus was hot … temperature wise.

After the tour we decided to forego the trip to Anne of Green Gables land in Cavendish (see Prince Edward Island: Virtual Green Gables) and since we had driven across most of the island the day before in our attempt to locate the bed and breakfast, we decided we had had enough of Anne and the Fathers of Confederation and headed to the mainland.  This time we took the confederation bridge.  This is an incredible engineering masterpiece and was very impressive to drive across.  It costs about $40 for a passenger vehicle, but that is $20 less than the ferry. It is 13 kms long and is only 2 lanes (one each way) and you have to drive 80km/hr and its radar enforced.  It was quite interesting indeed. Although there are barriers on the sides, if you crane your neck or are driving a high vehicle, like a truck, you could still see the ocean on either side of it.

So that takes us to New Brunswick, the beautiful province which is the only officially bilingual province in Canada.  What did we do with that French-English dictionary?  Bon chance, travelers!

Andrew & Steve

We started the day off with the alarm clock going off at 6:30am. I guess the last guest left it set to that time, though I’m not sure why we didn’t notice it on our first day in the hotel. Steve thought it was a conspiracy of the housekeeping staff to wake people up [...]]]>

We started the day off with the alarm clock going off at 6:30am. I guess the last guest left it set to that time, though I’m not sure why we didn’t notice it on our first day in the hotel. Steve thought it was a conspiracy of the housekeeping staff to wake people up and get them out so they could clean the room.

So we went down to “The Breakfast Room” for our complimentary Continental breakfast which was quite good. The buffet featured scrambled eggs, a frittata, french toast, has browns, brown beans along with some juice, coffee, toast or bagel and a few other things.

After breakfast we packed up and headed down to the maritime museum and wasted a couple hours inside the cool air conditioned building. We learned more about the big explosion of 1917, plus pirate’s, and passenger ships. Then we drove to the location of the Anchor that blew off of the exploding ship and landed 2.35 kilometers away. A park was built and here the anchor fragment is displayed. Around noon (8:00am BC Time) we departed the fair city of Halifax and headed toward PEI. The highways here are quite nice and they make good use of the roundabout, so that has been fun for the driver (Andrew). We stopped for a little picnic lunch (see yesterday’s post re: the shopping trip), and got a snack at the nearby Dairy Queen.

We arrived too late for one ferry to PEI and too early for the next, so we had to wait in the line-up for 1.5 hours in the car in the hot and humidity of the afternoon. Thankfully there was a bit of a sea breeze to keep us cool. The ferry or bridge is free to get to PEI but a toll is required to get off of PEI. This must be their way to get people to immigrate to the Island!?!?

The ferry ride over to PEI was uneventful, and almost everybody speaks english here, so we are not having any trouble making our wants and needs known. After we got onto PEI we had to find our next pre-arranged Bed And Breakfast. We learned that this was supposed to be a 40 minute drive from the ferry but it took us 2 hours since we were trying out all various highways. We thought it would be impossible to get lost because there wouldn’t be that many roads, but the island is one very big complex grid of roads.

We arrived at our next bed and breakfast, The Evening Primrose. Two ladies live here (Susan and Jeannie) and Susan (on the right) has lived in this house her whole life.

Andrew & Steve

We awoke this morning to the rapping of the housekeeping staff on the door. It was 10:00am after all, but it seemed like 5:00am our time. We dragged our bodies out of bed and headed out to explore Halifax.

We walked 18 blocks to a restaurant that had a pub on the top floor. We [...]]]>

We awoke this morning to the rapping of the housekeeping staff on the door. It was 10:00am after all, but it seemed like 5:00am our time. We dragged our bodies out of bed and headed out to explore Halifax.

We walked 18 blocks to a restaurant that had a pub on the top floor. We had read about this place in Vancouver and didn’t want to miss it. During our travels we learned that Halifax had more pubs per capita than any other place in Canada; but to offset this Halifax also has more university (5 different universities) students per capita as well. Anyway, for breakfast Andrew ordered basted eggs and the waiter had no clue what that was. Those types of eggs must just be a west coast thing. This was a very nice spot all-in-all.

After breakfast our first stop was Citadel Hill, the military fort on the highest point of Halifax. It was very impressive and had a lot of cannons. Steven asked Andrew to take a picture of him shooting a canon but a security guard yelled at Andrew to get off of the hill area. Andrew sure had to jump to avoid getting put in the brig.

We used the free downtown bus service to get around (the bus’s name is FRED – Free Rides Everywhere Downtown), then went to Canadian Tire to buy a beverage cooler to put drinks and sandwich fixings purchased at the “Sobeys” (Eastern Canada’s version of the Safeway).

Then we went for a tour of the city on an amphibious bus called the “Harbour Hopper” and learned many things about the history of the city. We learned that Halifax locals call their two bridges the “old” and the “new” bridge, even though the “new” bridge was built in the 1950’s. We learned that an ammo boat exploded in the bay during WW-I and that the explosion was felt 100 miles away. Boston sent up a ton of doctors and others to help and to thank them, every year, and still to this day Halifax sends an extremely large Christmas tree to put in a Boston square. Then we went out for dinner (Halifax Lobster) and then came home to reflect on the days events.

Oh yes, its completely frikkin hot here (32°) and it is quite humid too.

Tomorrow: Museum Tours!
Andrew & Steve

Click on the map above to see an overview of our route.

Thanks to the amazing internet, you can now check in, choose your seat, print your boarding pass at home, then print your luggage tags yourself when you get to the airport, then jump on your plane.  And who says service is dead.  The [...]]]>  

Click on the map above to see an overview of our route.

Thanks to the amazing internet, you can now check in, choose your seat, print your boarding pass at home, then print your luggage tags yourself when you get to the airport, then jump on your plane.  And who says service is dead.  The service is great as long as you can serve yourself.

Neither of us slept very well. I guess we were excited about the trip. Andrew fell asleep around 2:00am and it was about the same for Steve.  Nonetheless, we were up at 5:00, putting the finishing touches on the packing, etc.

We started our day with the help of Shawna, the greatest person on earth, who picked us up at our house at 6:30 in the morning to take us to the airport.  Isn’t that a good friend?

We’ll be leaving Vancouver in one of these:

We boarded our first flight – YVR to Montreal – without incident, aboard a Boeing 737-300 and were delighted to discover we each had our own private mini-TV screen on which we could watch a very nice selection of movies, tv programs, documentaries, foreign films, or listen to your own custom designed song playlists from a very eclectic collection.  Andrew listened to 58 songs, ranging from Jann Arden (her latest album), to Elton John’s greatest hits, and some Vivaldi.  For those hard rock fans, there was no Seether available (u kno who u r…).  They even had a selection of short films produced by the alumni of several Vancouver film schools (SFU, VFS, and others).  This jet also had 110 AC power at every row of seats, which all the laptop freaks were very impressed with.  Yeah, that would be us.

The flight out of Vancouver was very pleasant and smooth, although Andrew did notice there seemed to be a lot of haze over the city.  It also seemed to be concentrated in certain areas as well, though he couldn’t determine a cause or corollary for such a phenomenon. We experienced a small amount of turbulence somewhere over the prairies, where we were skimming over the tops of the cumulostratus clouds at 36,000 ft.  We both had the worst roast beef sandwich ever created by the amazing kitchens at Air Canada.  It was a very dry onion bun with about 20 grams of roast beef on it, served cold at a cost of 6 cold hard dollars each.  And we got attitude from the very good looking male steward because we didn’t have correct change.  Poor dear, didn’t quite know how to make change from a $20, but at least he was cute.

We arrived in Montreal and the connecting flight was timed perfectly.  We had an opportunity to have a quick snack, a little walk and a rest, then boarded our short flight to Halifax.  This was aboard an Embraer E190 – a small sleek jet which had the same small TV screens, however the selection of programming was much more slim. And no, there was no 110 power.  This again was a fairly smooth flight, although any time the airplane make any clunk or thud in the normal operation of its many mechanical parts, Steven would say, “I think we hit a duck!”  Maybe you had to be there, but it made me laugh more than once.

We arrived in Halifax (the peninsula on the right, Dartmouth on the left) as the sun was setting.  Once down on the ground we arranged for our car, headed into Halifax, and as directed by Elayne from Andrew’s work, we took the scenic route over the MacDonald bridge. Elayne failed to tell us this was a toll bridge, however; I bet she tells that to all the visitors so she can help subsidize the bridge.  Halifax looks a lot like Vancouver, with the exception that the water is on the wrong side of the land.

We found our hotel, checked in, went and had a “Halifax donair,” then Andrew discovered he left the very important file folder with all the airplane tickets, hotel reservations and maps back at the airport at the rental car counter.  So away we went over that damn toll bridge again and recovered the file.

All in all we had a fairly pleasant trip out here, and with little drama.  So, so far, we are having a good time.  But it’s 2:00am in Halifax (10:00pm Vancouver time), so I guess its time to go to bed. And we didn’t even tell you about dropping the brand new camera on the ground and shattering the lens filtre. Read more tomorrow!

Andrew & Steve