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Quebec and New Brunswick

July - August 2019
A 15-day adventure by JoAnne Read more
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  • TravelerQuebec and New Brunswick
    Day 1

    Getting to Montreal

    July 24, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    It was a long day of travel. Since we had to fly to Calgary to get to Montreal and most of Canada did not have clouds, I got to see the changing landscape of Canada from the sky. Pretty cool to see it all in one day - mountains, prairies and lakes and trees of Northern Ontario!
    Not too much to say. We got to our hotel around 8:00 pm. Went out for all you can eat sushi and went to sleep.
    The only picture I have is one dad took of the luggage on the bus, which took us to the metro (subway), which took us to our hotel. On the bus I noticed a lot of graffiti. A lot of graffiti. It's kind of disturbing. I'll write more about this in the next footprint.    Read more

  • TravelerQuebec and New Brunswick
    Day 2

    Just for laughs festival

    July 25, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    I am writing this a day later so things may not exactly be accurate.
    After breakfast we walked around the area of the hotel to orient ourselves with the streets. Turns out our hotel is short walks to the places we want to go or just a quick ride on the metro. Glad we didn't rent a car for this portion of the trip, it would have been useless. Parking is very difficult to find.
    Back to the graffiti I was talking about yesterday. Its everywhere. Much like Regina, there are murals on many buildings, I think to discourage the graffiti, but sadly some of these also have graffiti on them.
    After figuring out the streets we walked to the Just for Laughs festival site. Turns out nothing at the site is open until later in the afternoon, so again we just walked around and got to know the place.
    Then we headed off for Old Montreal. It is a pretty cool place. Cobble stone streets, Notre Dame, lots of shops and the old port. We are going back on Saturday.
    In the evening we saw our first Just for Laughs show, The Ethnic Show, it was pretty funny. After the show we walked through the festival site again. There was much more going on and this time was quite interesting. Buskers, food trucks, an outside stage for free shows (these were in French 😔) and just things to see. We went into the Cabin of Jokes. It seats about 4 people and you get a free 5 minute comedy show.
    We took in lots on our first day. We both really appreciate the metro. I am really appreciating how people who work/live in Montreal are so accommodating with language. They are very willing to speak English. We have not run to anyone who doesn't speak both languages. Makes me think I should do a better job a learning to speak our nation's other language.    Read more

  • TravelerQuebec and New Brunswick
    Day 3

    Schwartz's Deli and Kale Salad

    July 26, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    This morning we went for a walk away from the downtown area towards the neighboring residential area. The goal was to walk to Mont Royale to see the cross and then for lunch have a Montreal smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's Deli. We got to the base of Mount Royal but it was way too hot today for either one of us to want to venture to the top. So we just hung around the park for quite a while.
    Once we started getting hungry we wandered over to Sainte Laurent Blvd to find Schwartz's Deli. This place is supposed to have the best Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich in the city. It was lunch time when we found it and the lineup went down the street and around the corner. We decided to go have a poutine from Patati Patata while waiting for the line up to go down. The poutine was very good. We then slowly made our way back to the deli. The line up was a little shorter so we joined. As we waited Gerard noticed another door with people moving in out quite quickly. Our line was quite slow. We were told that what Gerard saw was the take out door and that we were in line for the restaurant. We just wanted take out anyways so in we went and got our smoked meat sandwich. The sandwich was really good and now that I am writing this I think I want another one.
    It was super hot so we went back to the hotel to cool off and get ready to go out to see our second comedy show. We discovered an underground mall yesterday. It is under the festival site. So we went to the mall food court for supper. I was craving salad so I went to a kiosk that clearly sold salads but the menu was all in French. So far we have been able to figure out the French menus. I got a salad and the greens were chou frise, found out the hard way that means kale 😝. It was actually pretty good and that is coming from someone who really doesn't like kale.
    After supper we saw our second show, which was really funny. All British comedians. Then we did another tour of the festival site. Came back to the room and wrote blog posts.    Read more

  • TravelerQuebec and New Brunswick
    Day 4

    Montreal Botanical Gardens and Old Port

    July 27, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    This morning we went to the Botanical Gardens. It is right by the Olympic Stadium. We took in the stadium only from the outside but went to walk through the gardens. It is very nice and wasn't restricted to just flowers. There were quite a few different gardens. Useful plants (vegetables), toxic plants (Gerard took a picture of poison ivy, so now I don't have to wonder what it looks like), medicinal plants. My favorite was the First Nations garden, which was pretty much a natural forest area. Once we got way too hot we went back to the hotel to cool down and get ready for supper.
    Gerard wanted to go to a French restaurant for supper. He found one that good reviews. It was hidden in a hotel just outside of Old Montreal. When we found it we discovered it was really fancy and we definitely were not dressed enough for this place. So of we went to Old Montreal to find a French restaurant for sweaty people dressed in wrinkled clothes.
    We didn't find one but we found the liquor store so Gerard bought a couple bottles of wine. More on that later.
    We finally decided to eat at an Italian restaurant, Mimmo. It was very good and neither of our dishes had pasta 😄. After supper we walked down rue Grande. We were going to a show that was too involve all the senses. I was concerned that we wouldn't get in with the wine. Gerard asked at the ticket booth they said it was okay and sold us tickets. Got to the door and security made it very clear that we could not bring in the wine. So back we went to the ticket booth to get our money back. They were very apologetic.
    We decided to walk though rue Grande. Its like the exhibition. Food trucks, all sorts of booths selling a variety of souvenirs, a zip line, a huge Ferris wheel. Once we were done looking around we went back to the hotel and watched the football game🏈🙂.    Read more

  • TravelerQuebec and New Brunswick
    Day 5

    Kamouraska

    July 28, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    So we stopped for a bathroom break and found a cool rest stop.
    It was right on the shores of the St Lawrence Seaway. It was really windy around there. Not sure if that is common but what we saw was a group of people kite surfing - not sure if that is what it is called but that's what I am calling it. 😁 Took some pictures of them surfing on the water. Gerard got some videos of the surfers getting some air and flying off the water. It was a pretty cool place to have a little break.Read more

  • TravelerQuebec and New Brunswick
    Day 5

    Rimouski in the evening

    July 28, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    We got to our destination at about 6:00. Eight hours for a five hour drive, not bad. We took the scenic route and drove along the St. Lawrence Seaway, much nicer than the main highway.
    Got to our bed and breakfast. It is called Gite de l'Onondaga. Gite is a small hotel and Onondaga is a submarine which is resting on the St. Lawrence and is walking distance from the hotel. So we drove because we didn't realize it was walking distance 😕. It was nice to be so close to the water at sunset. Kind of felt like bring beside the ocean. The day is fine and there is more to see tomorrow.Read more

  • TravelerQuebec and New Brunswick
    Day 6

    Le Bic Park

    July 29, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    After having a wonderful breakfast at our gite (bed and breakfast) we did something we don't usually do. We back tracked. Very close to the town of Rimouski is a provincial park at the town of Le Bic. It looked nice and had the promise of seeing seals. We went on a 4 km hike and saw the St. Lawrence Seaway at high tide. Unfortunately there were no seals 😔. On the hike I was amazed by the size of the wild Rose bushes, which were everywhere.
    After our hike we drove the north side of the Gaspe Penninsula. It seemed like a long drive, probably because we have now had two days in row of 5 hour drives. This 5 hour drive only is took us 7 hours. It was a nice dinner along the St. Lawrence.    Read more

  • TravelerQuebec and New Brunswick
    Day 7

    Forillon National Park

    July 30, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    This morning we went to Forillon National Park. When we went to Le Bic National Park we discovered that there are provincial national parks and federal national parks. On the signs the only way to tell the difference is a beaver is on the sign for the federal natural parks. Anyways, today's park was a Canada National Park. It is on what's called lands end. Pretty much a huge cliff that drops of into the Gulf of St Lawrence. It was a very spectacular sight. Decided that we need to see this place again.
    We went back to Gaspe for lunch. Last night while looking for a restaurant that was open at 9:30 pm got confused and thought the restaurant was at this hotel. It wasn't but the hotel looked cool but I wanted to take a picture. They must have parking at the back because I am not sure how you would get your suitcases up all those steps.    Read more

  • TravelerQuebec and New Brunswick
    Day 7

    Roche Perce

    July 30, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Roche Perce (pierced rock) is pretty cool. It is a large rock on the Gulf that has a hole in it. Gerard watched a show a few weeks ago that said that due to erosion this rock won't be around in 10,000 years, so we thought we better go see it 🙂.
    It was really kind of cool but I really liked the cliff at the rest stop just outside the town of Perce.    Read more

  • TravelerQuebec and New Brunswick
    Day 8

    Magnetic Hill

    July 31, 2019 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Magnetic Him is a place I remember hearing about when I was a kid. It was a place that your car rolled up hill. Sounds like a tourist trap and it is but in a Canadian way. It wasn't too much to pay for the experience and it was pretty cool. The explanation is that the tree line confuses you about where the horizon is and makes you think you are going uphill when really you are going downhill. In theory this makes sense but when you are there it is mind boggling.Read more

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