Unpacking bike.

We found ourselves sleeping in very late again, which meant we had to curtail our plans for the day. We had planned to go biking, but by the time we had unpacked the bikes from their suitcases and assembled them, had brunch, and got ready to cycle, it was around 1:00, and we had to be back on the ship no later than 4:00. Our first stop was the bike shop again for even more things we were missing (and replaced the mini safety vest that Keenan had already rejected as ridiculously small with a much more reasonable model). While there the bike shop personnel gathered around, we thought at first to admire our Bike Fridays. Actually, since they sold folding bikes and had seen Bike Fridays before, it turned out what they were really interested in were our bike locks – TiGr models they had never seen before (Mike’s model was a kickstarter project this summer).

Some sculptures near the bike shop:

Big pigeons!

Cargo container losing its load.

We then took a short ride up the shore of the St. Lawrence, bucked a headwind back, and stopped at the public market to look around. We found some wonderful “croustillants” – sort of like egg rolls filled with meat. One was filled with lamb and the other with duck (LOTS of duck in Quebec!). We also picked up a couple bottles of wine for our stateroom.

With our bikes

Back on board we went through the non-optional Passenger Muster Drills and then headed up on deck to watch us pull out and head down the St. Lawrence, past the Ile D’Orleans, a large rural island out in the middle of the St. Lawrence that seems to be a major agricultural source for Quebec City, as well as a popular biking destination. We would have liked to try biking there, but the bridge out to it did not look bike friendly. We suspect even bikers use cars to get to and from the island.

Up top, just missing people.

We were amused by the empty top decks even for the sailing out. The initial sailing, when the experience is still new, is usually when most of the passengers gather up top to take pictures and admire the view. It was just a bit too “brisk”, but we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

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.

Streets near hotel

At last we had a full day to explore Quebec City. Our hotel is situated in the old part of the city right below the old city wall and the streets all around us are filled with restaurants and art galleries. Just what we like! There are three galleries just steps from our hotel (and another half dozen or more within a couple blocks). We could also see our future home for the next week and a half just two blocks away. The ship terminal is very conveniently located on the river directly opposite our hotel so no taxi needed for the transfer to the ship tomorrow.

Our ship lurking in the background – do you really think we can’t see you?

The weather was blustery but not enough to deter us from traipsing through as many of the quaint streets as possible. We covered the lower area around our hotel and then climbed up the hill to the upper area of the old town, where the famous Hotel Frontanec is located. We could have taken the funicular, but when we saw how short the climb actually was, we opted for the picturesquely winding street to the top.

Hotel Frontanec

We crested the top of the hill and the overlook of the Saint Lawrence River just as a lovely stormy squall hit. The flags on the summer pavilions were completely horizontal and the rain obscured the view of the other side of the river. We had thought to walk along the city walls, but decided it was wiser to leave that for tomorrow. We instead headed for the protection of the building-lined streets and were rewarded with yet more picturesque streets that are more reminiscent of Europe than of anyplace else in North America. It was fun just wandering and soaking up the ambiance.

Many Halloween displays around town, this one in front of City Hall

Because we knew we wanted to have room for another good dinner, our lunch was a selection of delicious croissants from a patisserie. So then we had to make a dinner choice- tough times! After the rather brisk and damp afternoon of shopping, we could not resist the pull of Le Lapin Sauté, a restaurant with stone walls, low lights, and a very cozy interior. It was the perfect atmosphere and we had to start with the rabbit poutine with a mustard sauce and Perron cheddar cheese curds. We’re in Canada, eh? Scrumptious. Then we could not resist the Duck and Rabbit Duet which very nicely gave a taste of many of the other locally sourced and homemade features of the menu, including rabbit rillette, wood smoked duck breast, potatoes sautéed in duck fat, duck sausage, and confit of both duck leg and rabbit leg. Ça suffit, n’est-ce pas?

Our dinner restaurant – loosely translates as The Cooked Rabbit.

Okay, so they speak a lot of French around here. The people in the shops always greet us with “Bonjour!” but try as we might, when we respond with our own “Bonjour!”, they always switch to English. So we entered one shop and the clerk approached us and said the usual Bonjour. She then started asking a couple of simple questions in French, and Tami realized with amazement that she understood the questions! She responded appropriately! The clerk asked Tami if she spoke French. A little, itsy bit. So then the clerk launched into further French. Oops. It was far beyond Tami’s ability so we all quickly switched to English, but Tami had her little thrill of the day. And Tami’s other thrill? She found one of those elusive 2’ x 3’ flags she loves so dearly, this one for Quebec. And what was Mike’s big thrill? An awesome new bike jersey, of course!

Now THAT’s a jersey for Mike!

Some more pictures from our walks:

Where is that ship?

Getting ahead in Quebec.

For Brent.

Our hotel — Le Priori

At last we were ready to begin our next adventure to Quebec and beyond, but the trip from Seattle to Quebec City did have its issues. Not only did we start with an EARLY pickup at the house (4:30 am), but we had to get ourselves and our bikes squared away at the airport, and make sure Keenan was ready for his flight to Stockholm a few hours after our flight.

Mike was NOT pleased when we pulled out his new Kindle in the airport to do a bit of reading and discovered it was completely frozen. He tried researching the problem with his iPad, but none of the suggested solutions worked. It was looking like the Paperwhite was actually a Paperweight. Fortunately the iPad also had a kindle app on it, so books could still be read.

The real adventure started when we hit the Toronto airport. After exiting the plane, it was very unclear as to what direction we should walk to go through immigration and customs. We sort of followed the flow but had to ask staff people just to find out which way for connecting flights if you were arriving from the US. We also received no real direction as to what we were going to need to do to get our luggage through Canadian customs. We assumed, and even checked our assumption with someone in the airport, that we would have to get our checked luggage back and take it through customs with us, then turn it back in for the next flight. We entered one room with huge lines for Immigration, but then Mike noticed another sign indicating a different direction if you were continuing on another flight. We managed to make it through (supposedly) the proper immigration line. We guess we’ll find out when we try and leave Canada.
We then proceeded to the baggage carousel and waited and waited, but none of our bags appeared. We finally flagged down someone who worked there, who pointed us to someone else, who told us we didn’t need to pick up our checked bags and directed us to the next room for “Connections”. However, once we got there, we noticed other people were bringing large bags through and putting them on a conveyor once they had gone through customs. SO we checked with two more people who also told us we were fine. SO with our fingers crossed, we went through.

Unfortunately we then discovered that the path had taken us outside of the security zone, so we had to go through the security check again. We arrived to find a long line and overheard one staff member say that it was an hour and a half wait. Of course we did not have an hour and a half, as our plane was supposed to start boarding in 20 minutes. The line actually only took about a half hour, but we were still cutting it very close and had to sprint for our gate. We made it OK and got on our plane, still breathing a bit heavily. And here we thought that with a two hour layover we would have time for a leisurely dinner. Ha!

In Montreal we switched to a small turboprop plane. The gate for that was to hell and gone – we walked and walked, and found ourselves wandering through a deserted hall with no one else about (we were really starting to wonder at that point), but eventually we emerged in a room where they put the gates for the small planes you have to walk out to. No sign of the plane at first, but fairly soon it pulled in, they let us on, and away we went (actually, we sat on the tarmac for a half hour and THEN away we went). Our plane was late arriving and leaving because of bad weather, evidenced by the river of water washing across the tarmac.

Finally we landed in Quebec City. A cab quickly got us to our hotel (though Mike had to keep showing the cab driver the map of Quebec on the iPad so he could find the way). But once in, it felt SO good. The hotel (Le Priori) is a beautiful little boutique place on a quaint little street. We were tuckered, but the restaurant downstairs was still open, so we were able to start Quebec out right with a wonderful dinner. Mike had the “surf and turf” which consisted of BBQ’d octopus and sweetbreads. Tami had the “piglet cassoulet” with roast pork, foie gras sausage, and bacon in the beans. Perhaps she was the piglet for eating all of it?

Quebec City