Day 12 Friday June 21,
2019 We had a drivers meeting at 8AM to discuss the trip to our next
campground and the departure and arrival instructions for each
campground. This will be a normal routine for each day we travel to a
new campground but since today will be our first time the meeting was
probably longer than the future meetings.
We departed about 9:30AM and
did a leisurely 150 miles drive to Quebec City KOA where the
Wagonmasters were waiting for us to show us to our campsite. We are
in site N1 about 12:30PM. This is a nicer KOA than the one we
departed today. The sites and streets are in better shape. But like
so many other campgrounds we have used the utility hookups are
located kind of weird.
We setup, rested a little
while and drove about a mile to the nearest Tim Hortons to get a
Latte and use their free WiFi to update the Blog. The campground WiFi
is about useless. After returning to the campground we were talking
to the couple next to us that is on the tour with us. They are
traveling is the man's motorhome but the lady has a motorhome just
like ours at home. They wanted to see some of the changes that have
been made to ours because they are considering selling the one the
man owns and upgrading the one the lady owns.
One of the tour group
started a campfire and our group gathered up at their site and
talked, snacked on chips and roasted marsh mellows until about dark.
Day 13 Saturday June 22,
2019 We rolled out of the campground this morning at 8AM on a tour
bus with Roger, our local guide (who has 50 years of experience
driving tour buses and guiding tourist) and Ray, our bus driver and
headed for Quebec City. The first thing we learned was how to
pronounce Quebec. It is pronounced like “Kay-beck” not
“Que-beck”. The bus driver let us off in the old historic part of
town which sits on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River.
There were a group of street
musicians gathered up where we stopped to listen to Roger talk. They
are licensed by the city to play around the city in different places.
They draw a number out of a hat and number one gets first pick of a
location and number two the next pick, etc. They play for tips, so
the prime locations equals more tips.
The city of Levis sets
across the river from Quebec. The river in this area is about ¾ mile
across and about 200' deep and has a 22' tide. This part of town is
very European like with many old stone historic buildings that date
to the early 1700's. It reminded us very much of our time living in
Germany and some of the old buildings and narrow streets there. Roger
told about the history of the town and how they restored the town and
brought it back to life and now is a great tourist town with cruise
ships docking here.
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| Roger our local guide |
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| An amazing mural in 3D |
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| Giant Snow Globe |
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| Mural |
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| Let me in |
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| Another amazing mural |
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| Le Chateau Frontenac |
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| Parliament Building |
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| Small copy of Ifile Tower |
We drove out to the area
named Plains of Abraham inside the walled section of the city. We
stopped at the Gardens of Joan of Arc to look at the beautiful
gardens and take a group photograph.
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| Joan of Arc |
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| Electronic parking meter pay for parking with a phone app |
Then we went to Chateau
Frontenac Hotel for lunch. This is a very, very large very old famous
hotel. Roger said the rooms are from $500 to $3,000 per night. We had
a wonderful lunch of, soup or salad, a choice of meat (we chose pork)
and then a great dessert. Our pork was similar to a pork chop in shape and was very tender. I am sure it was an expensive meal but was
included as part of our tour package cost as are several other meals
along the way.
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| Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel |
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| Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel |
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| Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel |
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| Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel view to river |
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| Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel view to river |
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| Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel view to river |
After lunch we visited the
Augustines Monastery where a tour guide took us on an hour tour of
some of the original sections of the Monastery that dates to the
1600's. The Augustine Sisters founded the facility to care of the
body and soul of people.
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| Nun's bedroom |
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| 3 key chest |
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| Hospital bed |
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| Operating table |
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| Original stone floor |
Then we went back to the old
section of town where we were first thing this morning for one hour
of free time. Lena and I chose to get some ice cream and set on a
bench and watch all the people. We don't need anymore “nick-knacks”
or dust collectors as we call them. We have plenty from out time in
Germany. We like Quebec much more than Montreal.
I think everyone was tired
by the time we returned to the campground at 5:30PM because we didn't
see much activity around our section of the campground except people
walking their dogs. This is a nice campground and the second KOA we
have ever stayed at. But the free WIFI is useless. The KOA in
Montreal the WIFI was a little better than here, at least you could
get connected but not here.
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| Nice Thunderbird |
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| My "dogs" are tired |
Day 14 Sunday June 23,
2019 WOW, what a day. Again we were rolling out of the campground at
8AM on a tour bus with our guide Roger and a new driver, G.C. Today
we traveled in the country mostly. We drove along a road that
bordered the Saint Lawrence River through a neighborhood of nice
homes both large and small. Roger explained the history of the area
and about the project that Quebec is working on to put all overhead
utilities (electricity, telephone lines, etc.) underground. The first
neighborhood the project was complete and it really did look nice.
Their Winters are so harsh that by having the utilities underground
there will be much less outages during the Winter with all the ice
and snow they get. All the neighborhoods we saw today with the
exception of a couple of houses were extremely clean and the yard
were very well maintained. Roger told us the Canadians take pride in
their homes and keep them nice. What a concept. Another thing we
have noticed in Canada, we rarely see any trash on the roadsides and
rarely any pieces of recapped tires laying in the road.
Roger pointed out the high
power electrical lines that carries hydro-electrical power from
Canada to the United States.
We stopped at Albert Gilles
Copper Art Boutique and Museum for a demonstration on making art from
Copper sheets. They have a history of producing copper art for 90
years. Albert Gilles a self taught artist in the Art of Repousse
(embossing). Once the design outline is drawn on the copper the
embossing is done from the back of the copper. If they break or split
the copper during the process they have to start over with a new
piece, it can't be repaired.
He decorated the homes and
public buildings for many famous people such as Roy & Walt
Disney, Fredic March and Mae West. He also has done many churches in
Canada and the United States including the Basicila at our next stop.
We had a short history talk and tour by Palmyre (his daughter) and
then a demonstration by his granddaughter Sophie. There were 50
panels in the museum that depicted the life of Jesus that took Albert
Gilles 15 years to complete.
Albert Gilles died in 1979
at the age of 84 but his second wife (age 84 and works every day in
the business), his three daughters and granddaughter still carries on
the tradition.
Our next stop was the
Basilica of Saint Anne of Beaupre. It was name after the Grandmother
of Jesus. This building was started in 1923 after the prior Basilica
was destroyed by fire. It is a huge facility and is several miles
from Quebec out in a rural area. We arrived in between Mass so we
were able to go in and take photographs and wander all over the
building. The main chapel was on the upper level and one floor down
was several small chapels. There were hundreds of people milling
around the building. Today was First Nations day so there were lots
of Canadian Indians there.
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| Door by Albert Gilles |
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| Ceiling |
Our next stop was at a
parking lot across from the base of the Montmorency Falls for a photo
op. Then the bus took us up to the top for our lunch stop at the
Manoir Montmorency Restaurant. We had another fine three course
lunch. After lunch we walked along the boardwalk to the top of the
falls. Lena didn't want to climb the staircase up to the suspension
bridge but I did to get some close up photos from the top of the
falls. The suspension bridge runs over the top of the falls. This is
also how you get to the beginning of the zip line that runs across
from one side of the falls to the other. I have always thought I
wanted to do a zip line but decided against doing this one because it
would be my luck I would break an ankle or something and ruin our
trip. There is also a cable car from the top to the bottom but the
waiting line was really long. And there is what they call a Ferrata
which is a cable attached to the rock face near the falls that you
attach a harness to and climb around the rock cliffs – No Thank
You.
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| Kara and Mark our Tailgunners |
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| Emma one of our group traveling solo in a 40' motorhome |
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| Zip line |
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| Boardwalk to falls |
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| Looking for a handout |
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| our restaurant |
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| our restaurant |
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| Chute means Waterfall in English |
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| Roger our local guide |
Then we drove over to the
Island of Orleans that sits in the Saint Lawrence River. This is a
really beautiful island. The island is mostly farm land with more
strawberry fields than we have ever seen. Acres and acres of
strawberries, apple trees and pasture land. The island sits way high
above the river with some great panoramic views down to the river and
over to Quebec City. We stopped at a large farm produce market. They
had fresh strawberries, juices, fresh homemade bread, maple syrup,
etc. Almost everyone of our group bought several items.
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| Yummy |
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| Emma is a farm girl (for real) |
We continued on along the
road to a very popular ice cream and chocolate shop. They really
don't have a very large parking lot and no bus parking but Roger got
out and helped the driver back into the parking lot where we blocked
several cars in. I sure would not have put our motorhome in there.
After G.C got the bus parked we all clapped for him. Lena and I each
got a vanilla ice cream cone dipped in hot dark chocolate that cost
$11.00 Canadian which is a little over $8.00 US but it was really
good and the chocolate was really thick on the ice cream. This was
our last stop so we made our way back to the campground and arrived
about 5PM. I think everyone had a great day.
At 7PM we had a drivers
meeting and some stayed after the meeting to play card games but we
didn't. We returned to our motorhome and ate a piece of our fresh homemade
bread with butter and jelly for supper – yummy.
