North America 2022 : Tuesday September 13 Day 15 In and Around Quebec City

Once again we had decided to purchase the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tickets. Our hotel was able to sell us a ticket for the bus and pointed us down the street where we found the requisite stop. Ten minutes later we were headed off on a loop around the Old Town of Quebec City.

The bus took us past all the major points of interest – the Plains of Abraham, Parliament House (no flags flying at half-mast here), the Cathedral, shopping streets and parks – as well as taking for a very brief pass over the river to the city of Levis on the other side.

Canada is supposed to be a bi-lingual country but here was no pretense here, everything was in French. There was the occasional commercial sign in English but all public signs were in French only.

We dropped off the bus when it got to the Tourist Information office. After that we wandered around the city for a few hours, finding interesting street sculpture, looking into shops from some narrow alleys, wandering along the top of the ramparts above the St Lawrence River, and generally getting a feel for the place.

By mid-afternoon we’d had enough and the calves were aching from the pounding they’d received that day, on top of the long, hard climb the night before. We grabbed the h-o-h-o bus again and did another loop, getting off at the hotel for a rest.

The hotel recommended a French Bistro a few minutes’ walk down the street so we headed off in that direction noting that all the eating places along the way were shut. As was the Bistro when we got there; Tuesdays in Quebec. We wandered around a bit further and found a street with three or four places all open and decided on a Vietnamese/Thai place which turned out to be both reasonable and reasonably cheap.

It was a slow walk home before an early night, something that was becoming more and more common on this trip.