Old Quebec City at night.
One small ding! It was enough to wake us both at 2:30 am this morning. It meant that we had an incoming iMessage from Keenan. Keenan is currently off on his three week bicycle adventure in Sweden and we have been trying to find a moment when we can Facetime together. We received one email to say he had arrived safely but had no further communications, and got no answer when we tried ringing him the previous evening. So when we heard that ding, we knew he was sending us a message and we popped out of bed to try calling him directly. He answered! We had a few brief exchanges before the connection started going buggy so we switched to audio and managed to learn that he was having a good time and to set up our next connection.
With that night interruption, we ended up sleeping very late but rose to sunny skies! Perfect for walking all the way around on top of the extensive walls that enclose the old section of Quebec City. They were built by the French and expanded by the English.
The Citadel is a fort at a high point off one corner of the city walls. It is very well preserved and part of it is still used in some sort of official capacity, although we assume none of the cannon or mortars still work. We were also in suspense as we watched a UPS truck make its way through one of the old stone entrances veerrrry slowly, clearing the sides by what seemed to be inches.
Tami thought she could score for sure with a soccer ball shooting cannon.
The Citadel.
UPS squeezing through – there was maybe two inches on either side.
Our ship from the Citadel.
It was a great way to see more of the city and after so much walking, we easily justified our stop for lunch. We found a sidewalk café with a table facing the busy sidewalks and enjoyed some savory pork burgers as we basked in the sunshine. Here are some more pictures from walking around:
Canuck graffiti, or is that Mike?
Carriage driver waiting for his next passenger.
We then had to hustle back to the hotel for some free internet connection and another Facetime session with Keenan, by audio. He is putting in as much walking as we are and sounds like he is having a great time. We are so anxious to hear more when we aren’t plagued by iffy connections and delays of our messages!
At last it was time to go to the ship so we gathered our numerous heavy bags and trundled across a couple blocks to the terminal. While our load was cumbersome, it was great to have it so close, and there were also no lines so we were soon on the ship. Just long enough to dump our stuff, rest our feet a little, and then head back into town in search of a bike shop (we forgot a couple of things, of course) and dinner.
We finished out the day back on the ship at “Movies Under the Stars” (a very large open air video screen up on the top deck) watching the Baltimore Ravens play the Pittsburg Steelers on Thursday Night Football. We were part of only maybe 6-10 people who braved the cold to see the game up there.