North America 2022 : Wednesday September 14 Day 16 Up and Down in Quebec City

On our second full day in Quebec City we decided to seek the more appropriate option of taking an Uber from the hotel to the upper level of the Old Town.

Robyn specifically wanted to have a look at the Morrin Centre, a cultural centre for English speakers. When we got there it was shut. The sign on the front and the information on their website had led us to believe that it would be open, but it wasn’t to be. Our original, and preferred plan was to take a tour of the building, and that wasn’t an option either, as staff shortages had put a stop to them. We discovered later that the tours were due to start on Friday September 16, the day after we left. Sometimes travel experiences are just a matter of timing, either good or bad.

Having some time to kill we took a walk around past Parliament House and down some city streets, looking into shops, checking out restaurants and generally just passing the time.

The main item on the agenda for the day was a Food Walking Tour starting at 11:30am. This tour was tighter in its walking schedule and lasted about two and a half hours. Our guide was a bright and cheerful university student earning extra money as a your guide. We started with a very strange deconstructed shepherd’s pie, followed by French onion soup, maple taffee, a croissant, another poutine (but the best we’ve had so far) and we finished off with a half measure of gin and maple biscuits.

The bunch of people on the walking tour was the usual mixture of Americans and Canadians, and it was here that we realised that we were yet to meet any Australians on this trip, other than the ones we already knew at the convention in Chicago. This seemed a little strange to us as we normally run into Australians everywhere. It only takes a word or two for us to realise we have fellow travellers, or they recognise my hat, but not this trip. Not one. We had certainly chatted with Canadians who had been to Australia, or always wanted to go there, but no natives in sight.

We had walked past the Morrin Centre near the end of our food tour and noticed that it was now open, so decided to take the opportunity to check it out. As suspected they had been having troubles with staffing, like everywhere else. We only got the chance to have a look at the library section, and that would have to suffice for Robyn to be satisfied.

Another long stroll across Old Town and the ramparts took us to the Fairmont Hotel – reportedly the most photographed hotel in the whole of North American – where we stopped for a drink, before wandering back to the hotel.

We tried the hotel’s restaurant suggestion again only for us to find they were fully booked. We cut our losses and ate across the street from our hotel.