Canadian Maritimes June 21-23, 2019

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.

Roger our local guide

An amazing mural in 3D

Giant Snow Globe

Mural

Let me in

Another amazing mural

Le Chateau Frontenac

Parliament Building

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.

Joan of Arc

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.

Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel

Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel

Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel

Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel view to river

Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel view to river

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.

Nun's bedroom

3 key chest

Hospital bed

Operating table

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.

Nice Thunderbird

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.

Door by Albert Gilles

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.

Kara and Mark our Tailgunners

Emma one of our group traveling solo in a 40' motorhome

Zip line

Boardwalk to falls

Looking for a handout

our restaurant 

our restaurant

Chute means Waterfall in English

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.

Yummy

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.