Day 11 Quebec City by Bridget

This was another slow-start day.  We enjoyed the generous breakfast at the hotel. With make your own waffles, bananas and oranges, chocolate chip muffins, yogurt, egg, sausage and English muffins etc, it was quite good for a hotel breakfast.

Then we braved the drive into the old town again with the GPS set for a specific parking lot near the Plains of Abraham. We kept being stymied by road closures. We finally saw that there were huge stages and pedestrian zones set up for the FEQ music festival.  This is the mainstage that can hold 90,000 people!

We also saw hordes of families with preschoolers rushing down sidewalks and across streets, streaming in the same direction. It felt bizarre but we guessed there must be a children’s concert at the festival and later we confirmed it was an Arthur (from the cartoon) performance.  Mystery solved but we couldn’t get to our intended destination but lucked out in finding  street parking right near the plains of Abraham.  

The boys ran around in the beautiful park. the structure below was one of the guard towers they built during the war of 1812.  We got some info about an informational  bus tour so we made the longish trek to the bus stop. We kept having to detour around the fences for the festival.  

View of the St Lawrence from the Plains of Abraham 

We bought tickets for the bus in the museum and saw an exhibit of historical reproductions (furniture, art, clothing and everyday objects) that were made by HIGH SCHOOL students! They were all amazing and looked very accurate and detailed. 

The tour was led by “Marguerite Martin” the mother of the first child born to the French colony. Her husband Abraham was always tending his animals in his fields and that’s where the name came from. At least that’s what “Marguerite” told us 

The bus tour was very relaxing and informative but not great for taking pictures. But she described the battle between Wolfe and Montcalm in a really interesting and understandable way. As well as sharing other interesting information about the park and the city’s history

We passed by the Quebec Legislature with beautiful gardens 

And we ate lunch at a poutine/burger restaurant chain

Finding ways to entertain themselves 

First poutine of the trip and it was pretty tasty! 

Walking back into old town

We had a lot of guesses as to what this sign represents but no actual answers 

The kids chose to use their own money on cotton candy as a treat. The guy making it was riot, making the cotton candy go bigger and bigger saying “is this enough? No, I don’t think so” until it was massive! Especially Sam’s. 

Pretty crowded

We were pretty hot and tired at this point so we gladly shelled out for a funicular ride to save walking a few hundred steps. 

Back to the Dufferin Terrace 

An even higher vantage point

Sam and his vending machines. He did a lot of walking and zero complaining so we let him use his money for the double pleasure of a cold drink and the thrill of using the machine. 

All in all we were sightseeing from 11-4:30 pm but we covered a lot of ground. So we went back to the room to relax, eat a dinner of cheese and crackers, fruit, almonds, veggies and other foods we had in the room. 

It was a much needed chill evening to recuperate from all the fun!

Next we are off to see my relatives in the Fredericton area and I’m so excited!