After a good stay in Montreal I took the train to Quebec City, which was about a four to five hour trip. I was reminded of the previous train trip I’ve done in North America back in 2014 from Boston to Salem (and back). I was particularly reminded of how slow trains are here. When you take a train in North America it’s almost like you’re going back twenty to thirty years compared to train travel in Europe, and the Netherlands in particular. Trains drive very slowly and stop often, for indeterminate reasons. Here they take tickets and put little slips of paper above your seat to show the seat is taken.
This was a nice (or not so nice) harbinger of what was still to come for me after Quebec City, when I took the train to Halifax. But that’s a tale for another blog post.
In Quebec City I stayed in a private room, arranged through Airbnb. So far my experience with Airbnb is very positive, but initially I did not intend to stay in another private room so soon. I try to alternate where I stay and since I’d not done a hostel since Toronto I felt it was time for one. Alas, the hostels were all booked. Hotels too, for the most part, leaving only those left who were very expensive and far from the downtown area. Fortunately there was a very nice private room available in the downtown area. Good room, great location for exploring the city and fantastic hosts, what more can you ask for? They made me dinner the first night so I didn’t have to go out and get stuff through the rain – yes, there was rain in Quebec City.
Another plus was that the place was close to the train station, so I felt I could walk it. That’s when I discovered that while the train station is in the lower town area, the place I stayed at was in high town. I am happy to say that I did get used to long walks up the hills, but even then dragging your luggage uphill is not fun.
The first real day in Quebec City was also rainy, so I stayed in most of the morning and early afternoon. Later on it became dry, so I went out for a walk in a nearby park. When I was there it started drizzling a little bit, but I wasn’t ready to call it quits yet. That short walk turned into a long walk as I found a very long wooden stairs down one side of the hill. On a whim I followed it down, discovering only as I went that it was a bit longer than I expected. It took me from high town all the way to the riverside. Of course by that time the rain had picked up too. Already wet I just followed the road along the water back to the lower part of Old Quebec and went back up from there. I knew right then that I would have to come back to Old Quebec when it was dry to take pictures.
Like Montreal Quebec City was in a festival mood, with free venues and paid ones. The paid ones were all sold out, and had been for some time. Lots of big names like Selena Gomez and the Red Hot Chili Peppers played there. The free venues had people I’d never heard of before, but that didn’t make the music any less good.
Quebec City, or rather the Old Quebec area, was a little bit like France in miniature, a combination of Paris and smaller rural French villages. Very picturesque, but also very touristy. It was nice to walk through, which is what I did for about two of the days that I was there. Chateau Frontenac dominated the area and it dominated a lot of my photos too. It was especially beautiful at night, both from a distance and from the high boardwalk (which also had a good view of the lower town and the river).
A great thing to do is to take the ferry over to Levin close to sunset and stick around for a while. The view of old Quebec as the sun sets is very beautiful and afterward you can take some photos of the city in the dark when all the lights come on.
As was recommended to me I had some more poutine in Quebec, or as I like to call it, heart attack in a box: fries, covered in gravy, covered in molten cheese. The poutine at Chez Ashton’s (a fast food place) squeaks in your mouth when you eat. I liked poutine and have had far too much of it while I was in Canada, and Quebec Province in particular.
Another recommendation I followed was to eat at Le Lapin Sauté in Petit Champlain, which is a small but very crowded shopping street. This restaurant had a great selection of rabbit and duck. One meal in particular is meant for two people, but they could also do a version for one person. A little bit of rabbit, a leg of duck, some cheese, salads, breads, and some other stuff, made for a good meal. A couple from Toronto who sat next to me saw me eat it and ordered the same thing. None of us were disappointed with that meal and we had some nice talks while we were there.
