Today I took a morning bus tour of Quebec City (shortened a little due to the significant amount of snow on the roads making some places difficult for the bus – and our little band of tourists – to get to).

Some various bits of information passed on by the driver:

• We saw quite a lot of churches. There were many built in Quebec over the 1800s, with many either now closed as the numbers of churchgoers has reduced, or have been converted for other uses such as accommodation.
• Tourism is the number 1 industry in Quebec City, worth around $5 million per year and employing between 20,000 and 30,000.
• Unemployment is the lowest of the provinces at 4%. There are many jobs without sufficient people to undertake them.
• The government has a social program that allows study to anyone at a reasonable cost (around $2,000 per year).
• The tidal movement of the Saint Laurent / Saint Lawrence at the Montmornecy station (at Quebec City) is between 4-5 metres, with the maximum having been identified at 5.92 metres. The river itself is quite strong. And at the moment is iced over quite a bit, but due to its strength and tidal movements, the ice is in chunks that flow in and out depending upon the tides.
• The Quebec City symphony orchestra is the oldest in Canada, having commenced 113 years ago.
• Oh Canada, the national anthem, was written in a café in Old Quebec City, and was first performed in 1880 at the Plains of Abraham, in the Joan of Arc garden.

We drove into one of the entrances of the Plains of Abraham, to see some of the battlements and cannons. The Plains take up an area of 240 acres, and are adjacent to the old city and include the area of the Citadel. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, a defining battle but by no means the only one that occurred there, took place on 13 September 1759. The battle was between the French and the British for control of the city, and was a part of the Seven Years War which took place at various sites between those two countries and Spain and Portugal

Quebec City (the old part) is quite hilly. The British had been on QC soil for 4 months without attacking, but under the cover of darkness, and commanded by General James Wolfe, snuck up an unguarded steep part of the hill. The battle raged for all of 15 minutes. The British won, however General Wolfe was fatally wounded 3 minutes into the battle. His French counterpart, the Marquis de Montcalm, was wounded and died the following day. The British subsequently took over QC and as a continuation, they took over much of Canada.

The Plains of Abraham now have a museum, the citadel, other buildings, nature trails, a really large oval, a specific ice rink for ice hockey (with a statue of Joan of Arc near it), and a range of other facilities. In winter when it snows, the oval is split into an ice rink for skating and skiing, and the nature trail area is split into different tracks for skiing and snowshoeing. The Musee national des beaux-arts du Quebec is also on the site. Below a couple of photos from the Plains – near the large oval (now under snow). Most of the photos are dull (or washed out of colour) due to the grey cloudy  sky and intermittent snowing.

After we had gone through some of the Plains of Abraham site, we headed back to the city centre, where we got out to wander through the Rue du Petit-Champlain, where we took some photos and went to one of the shops for chocolate / coffee / etc. and then back to the bus for the final leg up to Le Chateau Frontenac. This is a photo of it from the road below.

Below a couple of photos of the river, one with a Ferry coming in (the ferries operate about once every half hour taking people and vehicles across to the Levis townside and seem to get through the ice quite well)

I then hopped off the bus and headed back to my hostel.

In the afternoon, I took a bus out to a shopping mall called Galeries de la Capitale (the largest mall in Quebec City). I took a wander around for a couple of hours. These entertainment facilities were within the shopping mall. They also had a merry go round and a roller coaster.

I then headed off to Walmart which was relatively close by. I bought an inflatable mattress for $38 at Walmart. The mattress at the hostel has been too hard, my shoulders and back were very sore and I had been tired for the last couple of days due to lack of sleep. So I figured a cheap inflatable mattress on top of the hostel mattress should work. I then headed back to the hostel. On the way I took a couple of shots at the Place D’Youville, which is only a couple of blocks from the hostel. It’s mainly a smallish skating rink with some Christmas displays to light things up.

I then got back to my hostel and put the mattress up. And then read a book for an hour and then went to sleep.