We arrived in the late afternoon and proceded to check into our bed and breakfast and then we went back into the city for dinner and tried to stay out of the rain as much as possible until the fireworks by the river started.
Sunday, August 17th
After breakfast we went to a pottery market in town. We had luch at a lovely bakery that our neighbor had recommended to us the afternoon before. After lunch we walked along a few touristy streets, which are always amusing in the limited doses that we choose to take them in. The afternoon was well spent exploring the old city with a short stop at the market by the old port.
Monday, August 18th
The day started with a trip Beau Port and the waterfall out there. This was was an incredibly convenient destination as the bus that we always take into the city center also goes out this way in the outbound direction. The walk was not bad but not the hike we were secretly hoping for. It is also filled with tourists the whole way. In the afternoon we went back into the heart of Quebec for a stroll and dinner followed up by ice cream. We called it a night relatively early as we had big plans the next day that also had to be formed a little more concretely.
Tuesday, August 19th
This was the day we got the adventure with the Canadian wilderness! We found a bus that dropped us of at the Jacques-Cartier national park. To be more precise it dropped us on the other side of the highway with instructions on how we would get to the park itself and very vague directions as to where the bus would pick us up that afternoon. We also found out that as users of public transportation our best shot at getting to the main visitors center and the start of our planned trip would be to hitchhike there. And we did. We also got very lucky on the way back with the hitchhiking, but had quite the experience waiting for the bus that was quite late and came shortly after a bus from the same company drove right past us.
Is summary: the hike was lovely and it seems like camping for a few days and trying various trails would be great. As non-drivers we learned quickly that there is a lot of time pressure since we are bound by rather unreliable public transportation. I do highly recommend the park, but I would recommend that anyone looking to go by bus be informed and warned that it may be quite the adventure.
Wednesday, August 20th
In the morning we did our best to get out of the house early and made our way over to the botanical garden. It was very small but very nice al the same. My personal highlight was the section with vegetables since I have been trying to plant more and more producing plants and herbs on my balcony.
In the afternoon we walked along the city wall and up to the citadel, but decided not to take a guided tour. We were however able to see the short version of the changing of the guards since the big ceremony is always at 10 am. We then continued walking through the battlefields parc up to Le Musée national des beaux-atrs du Québec. By the time we got out we were all very hungry and had a lovely dinner at a restaurant that we found coincidentally on our way back into the old city. And finally we arrived just in time to see the last night of fireworks being held over the river. We found out soon after tht this was the last of a series that had been taking place in Quebec City throughout the last few weeks.
Thursday, August 21st
We had a very nice lazy day. My brother and I walked along the old harbor and enjoyed the weather while our parents went to the museum of civilization. Afterwards we all met up and went out for a nice dinner.
Friday, August 22nd
For our last day in Canada we diced end to go back into a bit of wilderness and enjoy a very relaxed day canoeing and hiking back in the Jacques-Cartier national park. We learned a little something from our first trip and stayed a little closer to the bus stop. But we still had poor luck with the bus as it was almost an hour late and by that time it was very dark and sitting by the side of the highway that late is probably not the smartet move, but unavoidable for us.
Nevertheless it was a wonderful finale to our vacation.
Saturday, August 23ed
We expected long day of bus rides, but had no idea just how long it would be. Sadly I think that greyhound has been reducing the quality of their services. And on Saturday we really saw a lack in crisis management when the bus from Boston was delayed at the boarder and in turn ours left an hour late. Long story short after our driver change our second driver seemed very in experienced and lost all of the time our first driver had made up and then some. This is too bad becuase my family has been taking the bus for years and it seems our world is continuing to push us to start driving.
The photos used in both parts of the vacation posts were taken by me or my father with his Sony DSLR.
Thank you for reading! Until next time!
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