On Boxing Day, after breakfast I got all my wet weather gear on (forecast was rain all day, and they were right) and headed over to the Eaton Shopping Mall which is in a central area about 5 blocks from my hotel. On one side is the Eaton shopping centre, another side is the cinema complex with another shopping complex, with more shops around and a square in the middle, where the information centre for Toronto sits. This is also where the jump on jump off sightseeing bus commences its route. I had bought a ticket for this tour, but since it is Boxing Day (and a Monday) most of the places I wanted to go were closed. So, given the copious amount of rain, I just wandered around inside the malls. There were thousands of people, given the Boxing Day sale is rebadged as Boxing Week sale here. But it was good to see the different variety of things available without actually spending any money.

I had bought a ticket for the hockey tonight, so figured I wouldn’t get much of a meal and therefore decided to have lunch. This is probably only about the third lunch this month – I’ve been eating enough breakfast to see me through until late afternoon so haven’t needed to. I decided to head for the Hard Rock Café. I ordered a pork burger with mashed potato and a glass of stout. It certainly was tasty. And the stout worked a treat given the weather.

I then headed down to the waterfront. I am going to take one of the ferries to the islands later this week so wanted to spec it out. Given the dark clouds and sporadic rain, the photos weren’t great but I am looking forward to getting out to the islands to explore them.

After the waterfront, I headed back towards my hotel. On the way I came across some more store fronts that looked interesting. There is so much done up for kids over the Christmas period here. Not surprising probably, given the population size. And you can see how much the kids (and their parents) enjoy them.

After which I wandered past the ice rink in the city centre. So I took a few snaps at 0.5 seconds to see what came out. The second is taken in pouring rain so less people are on the ice.

I watched some TV in the hotel until 7pm, an hour before the hockey was due to start, so I then headed off again. It was windy and raining quite strongly, so by the time I got to the Air Canada Centre, I was soaked below the waist. I went in, through the various security checks, and got up to my seat. Herewith the ice hockey rink from there. No cameras are allowed into any hockey matches, but so many people have smart phones so it’s okay that way.

The hockey tournament I am attending is for the 2017 World Junior Hockey Championships. It is shared between a few countries. This year it is being held in Canada (at the Bell Centre in Montreal and the Air Canada Centre in Toronto). Canada may have got it as 2017 is Canada’s 150^th anniversary of Confederation. Prior to Confederation, the old (province of) Canada consisted of Ontario and Quebec. On 1 July 1867, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (British colonies) were united with the old Canada into the new Canada. Over time there have been a number of changes, with Canada currently consisting of 10 provinces.

Back to the hockey. So I have tickets for the match between Canada and Russia – not surprisingly the stadium was packed. And vocal.

There was a bit of a ceremony, with various speeches from apparently important people displayed on the screens in the centre.

A few kids were standing in a circle holding flags from the competing countries, and with 4 and a half minutes to go, the Canadian team skated out. And everyone went wild.

 

Then we all stood up for the singing of the Canadian National Anthem. The singer was flanked by two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers.

Then the game started. And after just 3 minutes into the first period, Canada got its first goal. So of course everyone went crazy.

Background (what little I have worked out): The game of ice hockey is played for 3 periods of 20 minutes each. But with stoppage the periods go for around 40 minutes each. There is a break of around 16 minutes between each period. Each team has 6 players on the ice, including one goalkeeper. Players who get penalised for various indiscretions get to spend 2 minutes off the ice, without replacement. This means that one team will have 4 players (excluding goalie who stays in goal) against the other team’s five, so there is two minutes of significant pressure on the team with less players. It is quite a skilled game.

In the end, it was a great game, with Canada beating Russia 5 to 3.

Then there was another ceremony at the end for the best players.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself tonight. After the ceremony, I headed back to the hotel and hung up all my wet clothes to dry, had a shower and went to bed.

Happy / Merry Christmas!

I got up this morning, and was very surprised to see that Santa had found me!

I loved the fact that he had found me, but I was concerned that he had given me such sugar filled gifts. I guess that’s what the bicycle helmet was for, to work off all the sugar on one of the hire bikes in Toronto. As well, it looked like a reindeer had gotten into one of the chocolate packets. Plus, because I had obviously forgotten to leave out a stocking for him, he used a couple of my camping socks. That was okay, but it would have been better if he’d found a couple of clean ones in my suitcase rather than used the pair that I wore yesterday. But I guess he was pretty tight for time. I will certainly enjoy the whiskey and cheeses.

After opening my Santa gifts, I went to breakfast, after which I got to speak with Aunty Carol, and wish her a very Merry Christmas, and then I got to tell her about my trip, and we talked about the state of politics and business in Australia and the USA. That’s always interesting because we don’t always see eye-to-eye, but we are very respectful. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So I lay down for 5 minutes, and got up 4 hours later at 2pm. I decided I was too tired to do anything more so I just watched Television for the rest of the day.

Got up, had brekky, read the paper, shopped for some consumables to cover the holiday period in case cafes etc are closed, went for a walk, found out about bike hiring from the multiple bike stations then planned what I want to do for the next week.

Could not get into any of the Christmas Day lunches I wanted to (have tried since midweek) so organised dinner at TOCA in Ritz Carlton at the 8.15pm sitting Christmas Eve (tonight).

Thus I spent the afternoon relaxing and reading, then headed out at 7pm to walk to TOCA for dinner, with time enough to stop off and take some photos. I got out of the hotel and looked up into the sky – and this is what I saw.

It’s a Christmas Eve sign! The Trump-meister, President-elect of the USA, has a building here in Toronto. I really have to stop in on the way to dinner. Here it is in all its finery.

To be honest, it was pretty underwhelming. I did a little research (after I got home). Construction commenced in 2007 and was opened in early 2012. Like many buildings in Toronto, there is a hotel at the bottom and lots of condominiums above, with the building being 57 or 65 stories depending on who you believe. Trump Corp does not own this building. The Trump Corp has licenced its name to the developers of this site, and a Trump company has the contract to manage the building – nothing to do with the construction. The above information comes from some internet research, so it must be accurate.

The one interesting feature of this building is the mural that can be seen at the left of the first and third photos where the indoor cars are. It is actually a large mosaic which from afar is of a crowd of people of different colours and ages all waving their hands. Here are some Christmas lights from some of the nearby properties.

I really like the two shots below, where the lights reflect into the glass walls of the building. They would be better with a tripod, but still I like the effect.

After browsing the area, I reach the Ritz-Carlton in time for dinner. I had to wait a few minutes for my table to be ready, and after I was seated I was given a New York Times newspaper to read. The meal was a set 4 course meal, and I chose a Mission Hill (British Columbia) 2013 Pinot Gris to accompany it. Being an upmarket restaurant, the first two courses were small but artistically put together and professionally presented. For the main course and dessert I served myself (roast Turkey and vegetables followed by dessert including cheeses), so that’s where I made my money back. It was a lovely evening and the staff were very attentive.

After dinner, I wandered back to the area near where my hotel is, to the St Michael’s Cathedral.

The cathedral was built in 1848 and is the principal church for Canada’s largest Catholic archdiocese. The church was holding a choir session from 11pm until midnight, prior to the midnight mass; so I had planned to attend the first half hour before calling my father and family for Christmas (Toronto time is 13 hours behind Perth, so 12.30pm in Perth was the time I agreed with Dad).

The choir started on time, although the first 5 minutes was just the organist performing “Christmas in the Old Mary Church, Krakow, Opus 31, No. 3”. I was seated right at the back due to having to leave early. So it was interesting to watch the organisation of the seating. There were 4 security people inside the church. They wandered up and down the aisles looking for spare space for people coming in. They would have 6 or 7 persons waiting against the back wall and would find them seats in amongst others, and then some more would come in and do the same. The singing went well, but the quality was nowhere near as good as the Royal School of Church Music that my Dad and Jacky were involved with.

So at 11.30pm, I headed outside the Cathedral to make my phone call. Out the front of the cathedral, the two sets of metal gates were locked, and being patrolled by a couple of security guards. There were a large number of people outside along the footpath. Because there are so many homeless I wondered whether they were all lined up, but there were far too many so I was perplexed. I called Dad, and got to wish him, Jacky and Chris my brother Merry Christmas. It was good to speak with them. My twin brother Gerard was too unwell to attend Dad’s Christmas Day lunch, so I called him after getting off the phone with Dad etc. I was able to speak with him and wish him all the best too.

Then I headed back to my hotel. I was ushered out through the side gate by a security person and found out what was happening. There were police and security at the one gate, and a queue of around 110 people outside. They were lined up to get into the cathedral, but they were only letting in a couple of people in as a couple of others would leave. Who knew choir music was so popular? Having the police involved in helping organise the attendance arrangements for the Cathedral was what surprised me. I’ve seen them involved in traffic management, but this was a first.

Anyway, I then headed home and then left a Christmas voice message for my Aunty Carol who would have been out for Christmas lunch. Then I went to bed to see if Santa was able to find me so far from my home.

Today had minimal action. I packed my bags for the hotel, using a small weighing device to ensure I met the 23 kilogram limit for each of my two suitcases, and 11 kilogram limit for my large carry-on bag (the backpack with all my camera gear). I got the suitcases to 22.9kg and 22.7kg, and the camera backpack to 11.1kg. I thought that was pretty good. I took a couple of photos outside the hostel, including this one, as a goodbye.

I then caught a taxi to Gare du Palais, the Via Rail terminal, booked in my suitcases and awaited my trip. I also took a photo of the entrance to the terminal, where I stood a week earlier in the dark awaiting a taxi when I arrived. What a great week it has been.

The first leg of my trip was from Quebec City to Montreal. I was in an aisle seat so had no chance to take photos through the window. And I felt really sleepy anyway so just closed my eyes and listened to Christmas albums. When we got to Montreal, there was a 30 minutes period before the next train (Montreal to Toronto) departed. So I found out where the departure gate was and headed there. The queue was already at least 60 metres, snaking through half of the terminal. It was the longest of all the train queues, so I got in line with everyone else. I the end we boarded pretty quickly and left on time. By then it was dark and again I had an aisle seat. The trip took 4.5 hours, so I used the time to do some Sudoku and listen to a few lessons from the Great Courses’ Behavioural Economics course. Very interesting.

We ended up getting to Toronto around 10 minutes after the ETA, but that wasn’t a big deal although some thought it was. I checked out my suitcases and caught a taxi to my hotel (the Comfort Inn City Centre) and checked in. I was glad to get into the room, have a shower and drop onto the bed. The mattress and pillows were great. I watched a bit of the news (mainly about the UN vote of 14-0 that USA abstained, regarding the Israeli settlements in the West Bank; the USA President-elect Trump’s intervention in that decision; and a decision by the Prime Minister of Canada to purchase some fighter jets and why retired military generals think it’s a bad idea). Like our morning and late news, there seem to be only 3 or 4 news articles that just get repeated constantly.

So I switched the TV off and went to sleep.

Again this morning, it was overcast and snowing when I got out of bed for breakfast, so I grabbed a few more sets of 5 minutes of snow flakes coming down to watch later. At the same time I sat and watched the snow, mesmerised. I also know this may be the last time I see snow coming down, apart from my planned skiing trips – as there hasn’t been much happening in Toronto, and Vancouver has only just had its first snow in 1000 days. So I made the most of it. After brekky, I headed up the street to a church steps to grab some more clips, so of course it started to rain. This meant no more snowflake clips as I can capture rain anywhere. Plus the benefit of the snow flakes is seeing each individual one. With rain you don’t get the same effect

So I headed back to the hostel to start to plan the packing for tomorrow’s trip. After that I headed out for an hour and a half walking around and taking a last look at the various buildings of Quebec City. On the way I spotted this bench outside of Hotel des Coutellier. I scratched it and it is actually made of ice. It’s the same as one that Chris and I sat on in Melbourne’s ice bar. So I had to get a photo.

I ended up at the shore front near the port, just watching the ice floating around with snow on it, and the ferries cutting through the ice. This was the third day in a row doing this, but I’ve found it not only quite meditative but also interesting to watch.

After that I headed out to the photo store to pick up my camera that I left with them on Monday. I picked up my camera and talked about the black mark with the technician. He was able to tell me about a couple of marks he thought may have been causing the problem, so I’m hoping that has fixed the problem. At the bus stop I took a photo of the houses nearby. You’ll see that there is a tent like (temporary) structure for a car in front of one of the houses. There are plenty of these around Quebec City and the suburbs nearby that I have travelled through. According to our tour guide from earlier, the council sets a date in November when these re allowed to be erected, and another in February when they have to be taken down. So they cannot be used all year round. It’s interesting because a number of hotels have them up to cover pathways etc.

On the way back to the hostel I stopped for a while to watch the ice skaters at Place D’Youville. If I can find an ice rink with a 1.3 – 1.4 rail or fence on the outside I might give it a go myself. I just need the rail to push along at the start to get my bearings before I fall over and fracture some bones.

After that I headed to a café for dinner. For my last dinner in Quebec City, I started with a Fresh onion soup (which had a crust of cheese and onion over the liquid), then finished with a beef burger with a side of fries, washed down with two glasses of Napa Valley (California) Grenache. A tasty meal. I then headed back to the ice rink for another couple of photos, now that the sun had gone down and the lights were on, including this selfie.

I then headed back to the hostel to update a couple of days of my blog with CC and cola, before heading off to bed.

Today was very overcast and had snow showers all morning. So I used my camera’s video facility to grab a few minutes of snow flakes floating down, so I can watch them when back in Karratha! I’ll do the same for another few days. Unfortunately, because the clouds are light grey, I cannot see the snowflakes against the clouds, and so have to have a dark backdrop to see them. Which means that I cannot use the picturesque open areas, I need to use buildings. So I did a couple of videos outside my hostel window. They came out pretty okay I think.

Then leaving the camera at the hostel, I took off for a 5 kilometre walk around the old city, just soaking up the old buildings (and the rain because that was what was coming down by that time).

By the time I got back to the hostel it was 1pm. So I prepped my full camera backpack and headed down to the wharf to take a ferry across the river to the ferry port close to Desjardins. I wanted to wait until the sun started to go down, so I could take some photos of Quebec from the other side of the river. Again given my narrowest lens is 50mm, I know I’ll have to stitch some shots together but that’s not going to be too difficult. And getting shots of La Chateau Frontenac (the most photographed hotel in the world, apparently) would be nice.

The sun was out, there was only around 25% of the sky covered in clouds as I left my hotel. What could possibly change? So off I went. I took a long way just so I didn’t get to the ferry terminal until 2pm (sun going down at 3.45pm). The terminal was great and I got to watch a couple of ferries come and go. The ferry crossing and getting to the wharf is very interesting given the strength of the water. The ferry will take a relatively straight trajectory off the wharf on the other side and then turn towards the QC (Quebec City) side. With the river coming in, it goes a few hundred metres away and then just seems to sit there and let the river carry it back. In reality it is slowly inching its way forward, but it’s coming in sideways. And it stays sideways until close to the end, when the front end is against the wharf and roped, then it brings the back of the ferry in. On the way out, the back section remains roped until after the front has gone close to a 90 degree angle from the wharf. And it’s a large 4 storey ferry with vehicles at the bottom, 2 levels for passengers and then the bridge.

I am also really fascinated by the ice chunks floating up and down the river, with piles of snow on top. And the ferry “ploughing” through the ice. Memerising to watch. These photos are across to where I am heading.

So by the time I got onto the ferry at my side, the skies had clouded up, and by the time I disembarked at the other side, there were strong showers about which created an inability to see more than about a kilometre. Of course that would happen. There was nowhere to set the tripod and camera up inside the terminal unless I wanted to shoot through glass, so I headed out to the side of the terminal opposite from where the snow showers (which converted to rain showers and then after a while back to snow showers) were coming from. It was a really nice, partly sheltered spot next to what looks to be a park or a carpark that was covered in snow.

Eventually the showers stopped, the sight cleared and the lights of the buildings started to come on. So I took a few handfuls of photos. I got to play around with the different time, aperture, ISO and white balance settings on the camera too. Here are a few shots with the changing time.  It’s likely not hard to work out which is La Chateau Frontenac.

For the first shot below, the shutter is open for 2 seconds, and for the next two it is open for 5 seconds. I changed the aperture from 4.5 for the first shot to 10 for the next two, hence they are darker. I like the first one because the ice in the water is not as smoothed out. It’s fun to play with the camera settings!

 

After these I took the next ferry back to QC, and took some photos back of the other side. Both of these two below had the shutter open for 20 seconds, hence the lines where the ferry travels in the first photo. The second photo has a brighter area due to the light from the moon which was coming up.

I headed back to the hostel after these photos as the second cameras battery was running flat. Then off to bed I went.

 

Today I headed out to Walmart again. My small carry-on backpack has started to fall apart, so I wanted to buy some glue and tape to help hold it together. I did more research this time on getting the right bus number, a map of the whole route, the street and stop to get off, and added them all to my iPhone. I also brought along my “PocketJuice” battery backup to recharge the iPhone if the battery went flat due to the cold. So I got to the right bus stop, got onto the right bus, knowing that I had 9 stops until I had to get off. Except (and the buses here have a screen listing each stop – and the next 3 at any one time) – my stop was in 5 stops from when I got on. Thanks again Dr Google Maps. I will write to them when I get back to Karratha to assist in their improvement.

Anyway, I got to Walmart, wandered around to the hardware section and got some glue. The only tape that they sell is box tape of duct tape, neither of which would be strong enough for the backpack. Not a big deal maybe but given how enormous the store is, I’d have thought they’d have the material tape that Bunnings has. I also bought a packet of two torches, one small one for a key ring and the other a normal size. I find I need one of these to change the settings on my camera when the sun has gone down. So that was a good purchase.

Anyway, I got back to the hostel and then arranged my bookings for Toronto. Firstly the train from Quebec City to Montreal and then after a 30 minute stopover, another ticket from Montreal to Toronto – for this Friday 23^rd December. I then booked my hotel, after which I prepared for my visit for the day – the Plains of Abraham. It was only around 1.5 kilometres from the hostel, so even though it was snowing, I rugged up and walked. The air was crisp (around minus 10C) and I enjoyed the walk. I went to get into the museum, however the building is under significant renovations with scaffolding all around the front.

So I walked around it and found a way in through the back entrance. The museum is situated in one of the nearest buildings to the Old City itself, on the Grand Allee (the road I walked along to get there). Whilst built in the late 1930s, it works with the design of the Military Barracks. Given the history and background of the Plains of Abraham, I purchased a DVD that I can watch later. Interestingly, I learnt that the Plains were used not only to hang baddies and as a place for ladies of ill repute, in the 1830s, a gang led by a Charles Chambers used the Plains as a hiding spot and a place to recruit new members. He was caught and found guilty of theft in 1837. His punishment? Deportation to Australia!

There was lots of information in the museum around the way the troops and their families lived, some of the battles fought on the site, and a number of archaeological artifacts from the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s. All in all quite an interesting spot (like most museums).

By the time I was ready to leave the museum, it was 2.45pm and getting cooler. So I decided that this would be the perfect time to go snowshoeing. My philosophy was that if I could move around with wide shoe bottoms like snowshoes, without breaking my neck, then I could move up to something thinner like skis. So I found out that the snowshoeing hire chalet was collocated with the ski and ice rink – and that was right at the other end of the Plains (another 1.5 kilometres away). I therefore headed off. On the way I took a few photos.

The last photo is of the Statue of Joan of Arc, which is placed in the Joan of Arc Garden (the scene of many hangings in the past). Not that it looks like a garden at the moment.

The Chalet was at the large oval. The way it was set up was that there was an ice rink in the middle, a skiing area to the side of the oval (to the front of the site near the river), and then there was a road. On the other side of the road was a walking path about 2km long parallel with the river, then closer to the river there were two skiing paths the same length as the pathway, and they went in an oval shape, and then closest to the river was the snowshoeing pathway. So I then spent 20 minutes working out how to put the snowshoes on (I did ask two people and neither of them could work it out either) and then after that I went for a walk. Frankly I don’t see the appeal. The walking was okay but after a while of hard slogging, my knees started to ache due to the pounding. I found that they were no good in the soft snow, as I just pushed lower into it. So really it was only good when the snow was hard, in which case I may as well have used my Nikes.

The snowshoe area was also supposed to be along the Nature Trail (there are little signs along the route of plants and animals that are around that area). But those signs were along the skiing trail, so I suspect the skiers hijacked some of the snowshoe trail because it was better placed for them. This pushed some of the snowshoe trail right near the edge of the cliff (very little fencing), meaning that the snowshoe trail kept going down from the ski trail into the scrub, and then back up again when the ski trail was close to the cliff. But it was an interesting walk. The descriptions of the trees and plants were useless as of course it’s winter and the trees all look the same, and there were no birds around. There was nobody snowshoeing on my way from the start of the trail to the end, but after I turned around to come back, I came across a couple of other snowshoers, a couple of people with dogs, and a pair of young ladies running in snowshoes. But theirs were smaller and narrower than mine (I could barely walk fast as my hire pair were very long and wide), so maybe if I had my own snowshoes it would be more enjoyable.

Also on the way back, I went down closer to the cliff so I got some photos of the wharf and ships in the river. So I’m glad I got to do  it.

Despite the lack of sensible showshoes (you have to start somewhere), it was quite an enjoyable couple of hours on the trail. Wandering through the snow in solitude is just such a great thing to do. And I know now that I am no longer “dreaming of a White Christmas”.

I thought of going back tomorrow and hiring some skis, but decided it would be more sensible to have some lessons first from someone who can provide feedback, rather than just get onto Youtube to see if I could find a video on learning to ski in ten minutes. So that will be in a few weeks. Below is a photo of the Musee national des beaux-arts du Quebec, with the skiing grounds in the front and Quebec City’s revolving restaurant (Ciel!) in the background.

By the time I finished, it was 5.15pm and starting to get dark. I decided to take a long walk home (it would end up being a 20 kilometre walk for the day), and just get to admire some of the decorated houses and buildings.

I then headed off to Beffroi Steak House to treat myself to a delightful steak meal. The seafood bisque had a great range of seafood, in an interesting bowl that was on an angle. In fact just the right angle to accidentally spill half the soup on myself (which I didn’t thank goodness!). I followed up with a prime rib 14 ounce AAA steak with mashed spuds and a Madagascar green pepper sauce. All of this was washed down with a bottle of Woodbridge Californian Zinfandel 2014. I imagine it will be even more tasty in a few years’ time, but certainly I got the good berries and pepper and plum flavouring. A great bottle for a great meal with quality service. I finished off with a trio of sorbet and a small porto.

After which I went back to the hostel, rested a little while and headed down to the lunchroom where they have a bar from 1800 to 200 hours. I had a couple of CC and colas, and got chatting to some young ladies who have recently finished their legal studies, one from Brisbane, one from Germany and one from Chicago. Had some interesting discussion about the refugee crisis, but it always ended up going back to the President-elect of the USA. The young lady from USA is really not looking forward to the next 4 years. However she is more concerned with those without the means to stand up for themselves, which was really good to hear. There seems to be a lot of that in the USA.

It’s been good over the last few weeks to speak with people from countries like the USA where their media representation is usually pretty negative, and to see that the people are generally not as they are portrayed. And to get a different slant on events that occur in different areas. I did learn a lot about how their political system works. I also apparently promised to follow the Chicago White Sox in the Major League Baseball competition in 2017!

Today I started to slow down a little – although buying the inflatable mattress was a brilliant idea if I say so myself, I had a much better sleep last night.

Today being Monday, none of the museums or items of interest to tourists are open.

I’ve been think about the quality of some of my photos. My main camera (Canon 70D) looks to possibly have a dirty sensor, due to some small marks I have noticed on some photos. After cleaning the lens the marks remained. I wasn’t sure whether it was the camera sensor or the lens, as one of the marks changed depending on the rotation of my 17-70mm lens. So I decided to take them in for checking.

After breakfast, I did some research on camera stores around Quebec City, and then headed off to catch the bus to one of them – called Gosselin Photos. I went through it with one of the camera guys – they had to find me one who spoke reasonable English as my current French is mainly just Bonjour and Merci (most people in Quebec City speak French, virtually all the signs are in French, and probably only a half of the population speak really good English). Which is fine, it’s their province. Anyway, he said it would be ready by Thursday afternoon.

So this left me for most of the week with my backup camera (Canon 600D) and the rest of my lenses, but the lowest lens width is 50mm (it’s a prime – or fixed – lens) , and the next best is a 70-200mm zoom lens. So I cannot get any good real close-ups, like buildings etc (since that’s what the 17mm end of the lens is for). As can be seen below, from my shots of Chute Montmorency (Montmorency Falls), which I went to visit this afternoon. In the end this is okay as it’s a relaxing holiday, not a photography tour – but the photos are really not only something to show others and display at home, but are also memory pegs for me in the future, to remember these travels. But at least I got to spend more time looking at the beautiful scenery.

It was quite a bus trip – about 40 minutes, a little longer than Google Maps said, but at least I got off at the right stop.  I still had to walk a kilometre and a half through ice and snow to get there. But when I did – it was spectacular. It’s taller than Niagara Falls, and is quite iced up. So I went to take a couple of photos from my iPhone, but the battery died (the temperature is around -25C today and the iPhone and camera batteries go flat very quickly). So I took a number of photos in a matrix which I hope to be able to stitch together (I think my free time in 2017 will be consumed by this), but in the meantime I shall table these few. They really do not do the Falls  justice in terms of their sheer capacity and raw power.

The first is of part of the top of the waterfall, and shows the ice and snow on top of the waterway; the second is of the start of the waterfall and shows part of the mist spraying upwards. At times the mist reached the bottom of the bridge. The final three are from the highest of the front viewing platforms. There are around 6 platforms at different levels from the top to the bottom, with wooden steps between them. By the time I got these photos, it was getting very cold and I still had another 2 kilometres to get back to the bus stop, so I stayed at the top level, took my photos, and then headed back to the hostel.

There is an interesting story in the spooky stories of Quebec City that relates to the Montmorency Falls, the story of La Dame Blanche. The Battle of Montmorency occurred on 31 July 1759, around 6 weeks before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham (see yesterday’s blog entry). This was another important battle between the British and the French, and the commanders were General James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm. The British had around 4000 regular troops and the French had around 10,000 being a mix of regular troops and militia. The British attacked the French line at Beauport, which is about halfway between Quebec City and Montmorency Falls, the battle being within a kilometre of the Falls. The French held the line and the British retreated with 440 killed or wounded, against 60 on the French side. One view is that the battle ended just due to the disparity of sheer numbers, however another is that the humidity and heat from evaporation caused the British army’s gunpowder to cake, rendering it of no use. The spooky story is that the fiance of one of the deceased fighters wandered around the Falls calling his name after the battle. In an apparent state of shock or emotion, she put on her wedding dress, and plunged over the Falls to her death – but her body was never recovered from the Falls. It is said that some visitors see her through the mist and water, and others hear her calling his name against the roar of the water. An interesting history.

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.

Herewith a photo of Auberge Internationale de Quebec, my hostel.

Today I went on two short tours.

The first tour was a walking food tour of the Saint-Roch District, an area a little north west of Old Quebec where I am staying. Getting there I had my first experience of the non-infallability of Google Maps. I left an hour early just in case the place was difficult to get to, plus as it was snowing I wanted to buy an umbrella. The seventh store I went to on my route had umbrellas for sale, although only one type, so I bought one. One of the umbrellas that are about 35 centimetres long and you push it to open up. Instead when I pushed it, it did not lock into place. I read the cover and found it was an automatic one with a button on the handle. You press the button and it opens. It uses a piece of string so does not lock into place. Then you press the button again and it closes. When carrying a camera bag, wearing gloves and trying to manage the umbrella, you’d be surprised how many times you accidentally press the button so the umbrella goes down and up and down and up – not exactly what you want when you are trying to shield yourself from the snow. So in the end I held it by the metal shaft instead of the handle.

On my way I saw a taxi but decided to keep walking.

Further to my journey to Saint-Roch, I found that the streets Google said were in place were not the same as what was on the side of the buildings. I ended up about 500 metres the wrong way until I closed the phone and decided to rely solely on the paper map I had. Which was okay, apart from now having a sheet of paper which is around A2 size with about 16 folds to juggle under the umbrella just added some complexity to my attempt to locate where I was going. In the end I made it just as the snow shower was increasing in strength.

The meeting place was Fromagerie des Grondines on Rue Sainte Joseph (rue translates to street; and the majority of the rues in Quebec City are names after saints). It was a nice little shop / delicatessen with a broad range of cheeses, prosciuttos and other meats, plus the olives, dried tomatoes etc. that one would use for a picnic or an antipasto plate. It also has a few tables to sit and eat / drink / talk. Hopefully the new Fiorita deli in Karratha will get to this standard.

We had some of those tables reserved for the 9 of us plus our tour guide, Florence.

Florence introduced herself, then went around the group and we all introduced ourselves. She then talked about growing up in the area and how it had become a real foodies paradise with many different types of food and drinks being made here. We then started sampling. We started with a sample of cheese, then a drink made from a sea buckthorn berry which then has some water, oxygen for bubbles and some maple syrup for sweetness added to it. Delicious and something I may try when back home. We then finished with a toasted cheese sandwich. It had, as expected, cheese; but added was a thin slice of prosciutto, sun dried tomatoes, and pesto. This really added to the taste, and it was good to have on a cold morning. We then headed out into the snow shower for our next stop.

Stop 2 was Om Prana, a Vegan Bistro. The owners had visited as tourists, a year ago, liked the area so much that they decided to move their and buy a business. They purchased a vegan restaurant and changed it a bit by making it a bistro and adding some other items not eaten by vegans, but have kept the vegan foods as well. We got to sample a Raw Avocado – Lime Pie. Our walking tour booklet even has the recipe in it. For vegan food, it was quite tasty. I generally think vegan and vegetarian food goes really well with a 400 gram medium-rare T-Bone steak so am unlikely to try the recipe myself. But that’s okay, to each their own. And with the range of ingredients and final products at the bistro, I think the new owners will do well.

After we left the bistro, we walked through the streets in the snow and had some information provided about some of the buildings and history by Florence. There are some very interesting stories and history behind these areas and Saint Roch itself has obviously come a long way from its past. The area in this photo was a shopping mall 20 years ago but is now more boutique shops below and condos above, as the shopping malls in the suburbs mean that many urban dwellers no longer need to travel into the city.

This building – originally built as a factory – used to be a place where ladies of the night plied for trade, drug dealers hung out and generally was a no go area. To clean the place up, an art school was developed nearby and artists were moved into it. As urban renewal it worked really well.

The next stop for us was Noctem Artisanal Brewers. It had a large dining area, with a bar to the side and the brewing room at the back behind glass. So we could see as one of the owners was in testing some of the brew (mainly by sight and smell) whilst we were there. It was a nice clean spot and we started by having a glass of their IPA. It was a mid straw colour with a low aroma (that I could smell) and a slight sourness but with a herbal and nut feel to it. Tasty. To go with it, we had a small plate of pickled salmon and cabbage (I think it was), and I had a pickled salad whilst the others had black eyed peas, which I cannot eat. We then followed up with a stout. Very strong, very bitter with a nice long aftertaste. Whilst we were dining, Florence discussed the microbrewery scene (there are 4 in this area) and how they work together to an extent as they see themselves taking customers from the commercial breweries rather than each other. And in a place like this, customers can tend to go on a pub crawl, so they will visit each of the microbreweries and may then get hooked onto some of their products.

The next place we were heading to was dropped from our list, as it was a tea house and was very small, so with other customers in the store we would have gotten in the way. Or something like that. So then we headed down Rue Sainte Joseph to Chez Ashton. This started in 1969 as a little food van, and has grown into a fast food outlet. We went in and our food tasting here was Poutine, that great Canadian food, which it is said Mr Ashton brought to Quebec City. According to our host, it originated in Quebec and there are three small towns that claim to be where it originated from. It consists of French fries, cheese whey and gravy. Hearing the story of the three towns made me chuckle and think of pavlova. So this was my second time trying it. It is an interesting concoction, and is apparently similar to the kebab for those from Perth, that is: it’s drunk man’s food – you line up to buy it when the pub closes at 3am. And apparently here in Quebec there are very long queues for it at that time.

We then headed off to our last stop – the Champagne Chocolatier. Always a great ending to a tour. We got to sample both a chocolate, in this case a raspberry chocolate, and have a hot chocolate drink, in my case I had a dark chocolate drink. It’s usually stronger but has less sugar than the milk chocolate drinks. It was perfect for a morning wandering through snow showers. Then others then started buying gifts. Everyone else on the tour was from the USA and would be heading back within the next week. Any I buy I’d end up eating myself so I took the opportunity to thanks the tour guide and head back to the hostel. I didn’t hurry, I browsed around, looked in windows, at buildings and generally just taking my time. Even though it was lightly snowing, it was a pleasure to be outside in Quebec City at that time. It was a very enjoyable tour.

I got back to the hostel and browsed a bit through my photos and read up on some activities for Quebec City.

My next tour, the Ghost Tour of Quebec City, was to start at 2000 hours at 94 Rue du Petit-Champlain which was close to Saint Lawrence River, so I headed off around 1830 hours to scout the locations on the way for photos one night when I’d take my tripod etc. So I headed over to the top of the Quebec City wall near Le Chateau Frontenac – apparently one of the most recognisable and photographed hotels in the world – to see down the embankment to waterfront, and across the river over to the area of Levis.

With much of the wall around the old city mainly still standing, and the steep embankment around the waterfront, it can be seen that it was a very tactical position to establish the settlement. Quebec City was founded in 1608 by explorer Samuel de Champlain, although it had also previously been the site of a fort built by another French explorer, Jacques Cartier, in 1535. This initial settlement was abandoned not long after it was started for various reasons including unfriendly natives and harsh winter conditions. Tactical for a reason – there were many battles for it over the following 200 years. More of the history later.

So from the peak, I headed down L’escalier Casse-Cou (AKA the Breakneck Steps) very slowly so as to land at the bottom in one piece, still alive. The snow and ice on the steps make them somewhat dangerous in winter, so holding onto the rails for dear life seemed to be the way everyone dealt with them, and I followed suit.

I wandered over to the riverfront – the ice in the waters was just something else – and then made my way to Rue du Petit-Champlain. I met up with Trevor, our tour guide, around 1930 hours, which gave me the opportunity to wander around and look in windows and take more photos.

So we started at 2000 hours sharp. The tour turned out to be more about death and spooky stories than ghosts, here were a couple of those thrown in. Because (a) Trevor didn’t want us electronically recording his stories (quite rightly since he had done all of the research and was the entertainer not wanting it to be uploaded to YouTube), and (b) my iPhone battery died pretty quickly – it always goes flat in the cold – and I didn’t have a notebook, I don’t have as much info on this tour as on the last. Plus they are his stories so I’ll just go into a small number of them, a couple of interesting ones and a couple that are publicly available.

Herewith Thomas, our tour host, at our commencement point.

The first story he told was of a farmer who had been involved in an incident at a pub where a young girl was killed. This farmer had a wife and three children. The farmer was sentenced to death. The gallows was built in the town centre right near where we were, on the steps of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (more about this below). However, on the day of his hanging, the hangman dropped dead. Given the difficulty in finding hangmen due to the antipathy the community felt towards them – they were despised and ridiculed by everyone – the warden came up with an offer. The farmer could wait in prison until the hangman was replaced and he would be hung, or he could become the hangman himself and be set free. Naturally he took the latter option. This meant his family was looked down upon and so had to settle outside the walls of the city. Also, due to the community outrage and their treatment of the family, some of the kids became thieves, and on one date the hangman had to put his own wife in the stocks and watch the community throw rotten fruit etc at her. Obviously the role of hangman had some other duties.

Another story was a proposed murder of Samuel de Champlain himself, to allow for the taking over of the fledgling colony by the murderous crew with the aim of delivering Quebec to the Spaniards. The planner of this plot was by the name of Jean Duval, a locksmith, and he had plotted this with 3 other ringleaders, however there were also a large number of others aware of the plot. However, one of these others, another locksmith by the name of Antoine Natel got cold feet and had word sent to de Champlain about the plot. De Champlain met with Natel to confirm the details, and then set his own plan in motion. He had the 4 ringleaders invited to a ship of his that was in the harbour, on the pretext that it was to share alcohol with a group of Spaniards to congratulate them. All 4 attended the event, and were seized by those loyal to de Champlain. Duval’s body was then hung from a gibbet at the top of the embankment as a warning to others. At this time, the tour guide turned around and pointed to the spot the body, and then after, the head, was hung from.

One of the interesting stories told for mine was that of the Empress of Ireland (I was the only visitor who was aware of it due to my visit to Halifax). The Empress of Ireland is otherwise known as Canada’s Titanic. The tour guide talked through the story from the point of view of a couple of the passengers of this ship. It set out from the port in Quebec City on Saint Lawrence River at around 1630 hours on 28 May 1914, and included a theatrical team of husband and wife who were finishing a show and heading back to England. The wife was very worried about the journey as this was only two years after Titanic had set sail and sunk. After much justification and reasoning, her husband convinced her to take the trip. At around Rimouski in the early morning hours, the captain, Henry Kendall (promoted to captain of the ship earlier that month), and crew sighted a Norwegian ship (SS Storstad) on her starboard bow several miles away. SS Storstad acknowledged also sighting the Empress of Ireland. Fog then came down to cover the area. The ships continued to communicate using fog whistles. However something went wrong as at around 0200 hours on 29 May, Storstad ran into the side of the Empress of Ireland. Storstad remained afloat however the Empress began flooding and listed to starboard. It sank within 15 minutes, resulting in the deaths of 1012 people (172 crew and 840 passengers). The Empress had watertight doors, however there was insufficient time to close them in the 14 minutes. The reason that this story is part of the tour relates to Captain Kendall. In 1910 (four years earlier), he captained the SS Montrose for the Canadian Pacific Line. He spotted on the ship a disguised Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen (Dr Crippen being known and wanted for the murder of his wife and her burial in their basement) and his lover Ethel Neave, who was dressed as a boy. Kendall sent a message through to the British Authorities of his suspicions – the first ever use of wireless to capture a wanted person – they dispatched the Chief Inspector from Scotland Yard, who had interviewed Crippen before he fled. The Chief Inspector boarded the ship as it was coming into port, in the uniform of a ship’s pilot. He then made himself known to Crippen, and he then arrested him. Crippen then swore a curse on Captain Kendall. It was believed by some that the sinking of the Empress of Ireland was that curse being fulfilled. Except that in this instance, the captain did not go down with his ship. Captain Kendall was thrown from the ship when it keeled over, survived and lived to the ripe old age of 91.

The last story was set in The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, which was consecrated in 1804 and was the first Anglican Cathedral built outside the British Isles. We were able to sit in the pews inside the Cathedral (in the dark except for one candle) as the story was told. Apparently the Cathedral is haunted by a ghost. The ghost is a female who has been spotted by many people, especially organists who generally play at night when the building isn’t used for other things. At one time, the papers of the organist have been blown around on the floor, even though there is a screen to stop this happening. In the upper balcony is a seat reserved for the Royal Family, who have sometimes visited. And Queen Elizabeth the Second is said to have commented to the bishop of having seen a women in black walking around on a visit in the 1960s. There are a number of stories as to the woman’s history. One is of a nun who became pregnant, knew she would be unable to retain her position and so sacrificed the baby and buried it in the grounds of the Cathedral. When one of the ghost experts visited and spent some time in the Cathedral, after an organist raised this, he said that the ghost meant no harm and that to placate it the organist just needed to bring childrens’ toys with him when attending. The organist quit instead. Other stories of who the ghost is relate to the cholera epidemic. This covered a period 1832 to 1866, when there were a number of short epidemics. The story goes that a woman was so scared of catching the epidemic that she refused to go outside (cholera passed from person to person contact). When her husband had to go away for two days, he stockpiled enough for her and so she locked the door when he left and refused to open it for anyone. When the husband returned, his neighbours informed him that his wife had died from cholera and so they buried her. He refuted their claims as he said she would never go outside, or come to the door, so it could not have happened. Their belief that it did happen made him more upset, and he demanded that they unbury her so he could see for himself. They dug her up and found that she had died, but there were many scratching marks inside the container she had been buried in. The belief then was that she was so worried about cholera, that when her neighbours knocked on the door to check on her, she went into a shock where she was temporarily paralysed (it has been confirmed as possible), the neighbours thought she had died, and so they buried her alive.

So that was a spooky end to an interesting tour of the haunted properties and spooky stories, just in time for me to wander back to my hostel and jump into bed.