Aventure #7 - Part 2 (Un voyage à Québec avec beaucoup de sirop d'érable!)

Un voyage à Québec avec beaucoup de sirop d'érable! (A trip to Quebec with lots of maple syrup!)Yes that's right it was time to receive some cultural training, and also the first time I have felt like a foreigner in Canada!! We shot off to Quebec to hang out with the Poirier family, who were in Canberra with us when both Yan and I were at Staff college.

Out on the highway - note the great weather.

We grabbed a hire car for the 5 hour drive to Quebec and shot off mid morning, driving past Montreal into Quebec City then to Fossambault-sur-le-lac (Fossambault on the Lake). We arrived around 4pm and then reacquainted ourselves over a number of beers and a couple of bottles of red wine. We hadn't seen Yan & Petrina and their two sons, Will & Thomas, since December 2008, but it didn't take long for the 5 boys to get back into it.

Day 1 saw a trip into Quebec City where we went to the Mall for some Ice Skating (the same one Jac went to about 20 years ago when she was on youth exchange), then after Poutine for lunch we headed to the old city, where we travelled up the walls on the Funicular and had heated Maple Syrup in tiny ice cream cones - this took the kids to Stage 2....instantly. We had a wander around the city before heading back to the Poirier's for more vino and something they did very well - food!

Mmmmmm Poutine - soooo fatty!

Tom and Jared off while Petrina deals with Ben.

Jac being escorted by Tom Poirier and Petrina.

The Chateau Frontenac - Churchill, Roosevelt and others apparently planned D-Day here in 1943.

MIMS in Quebec Old City

An Icy St Lawrence River.

The Funicular.

 Day 2 was the opportunity to get rid of the additional 10kgs we had put on over the previous 4 meals and we headed tubing at what would ordinarily be a water park if it wasn't frozen. You picked up a tube and were dragged up the hills by another set up tubes, so you could fly back down the large number of tube runs.

Benny staring down a big run.

Yan and the boys in the line for the Tornado!

The boys chilling over lunch.

Jac and Tom ready to head down in a life raft. 

After another round of meals (Salmon this time), we had an early night as it was quite a big day, and an even bigger weekend. The next morning we said au revoir and headed back along the St Lawrence to Trois Rivieres and then to Grand-mere (where Jac lived on her youth exchange). After a bit of a look around there we headed off to Montreal where we would spend the next couple of days.

Day 1 saw us all get on the Metro - I wasn't real keen on driving there again unless we were leaving!! The best way to describe Montreal is to think of Western Sydney particularly around Liverpool - just with more English speaking folk (in Montreal that is). We took the metro out  to the Olympic Stadium from the 1976 Olympics. First stop was the Bio Dome, which was the velodrome at the Olympics turned into three separate environments, Tropical Forest, Canadian Maple Forest and the Arctic. We toured around there for a while checking out all of the animals, then headed up to the top of the Olympic Stadium which is the tallest man made leaning tower at 165m tall and at an angle of 45 degrees. We then went up to the Insectarium and that was enough creepy crawlies for one day, heading back to the hotel.

The Montreal Metro. 

The Montreal 1976 Olympic Stadium.

View of the Athletes village (past the stadium) from the Funicular  heading up the Stadium.

The flags of the Gold Medal winning nations - that's NZ not us - they beat us in the Hockey Gold medal match.

The Olympic Pool with lots of construction under-way. 

The boys bashing out a sprinkler on our balcony.

 Day 2 saw us walk the 4km out to the Science Centre with plenty of hands on stuff for the boys and an Imax theatre where we saw an Arctic 3D movie. At the end of this we were all quite worn out so we caught a taxi back to the hotel with Stephano, the Italian taxi driver. His English consisted of a limited number of phrases, but we got by. His favourite phrases were - Faster, faster, just for you Australia; Nice to meet you (over and over); Australia is the best country; you have lots of sharks at your beaches. He was a genuinely good bloke and the boys thought it was great.

The Science Centre.

 So with all of that under our belts we had reached the end of our time and had to make tracks back through Montreal traffic, with a bit of a storm brewing. Down the road a little, it started to get a bit untidy (safety wise) and fearing that this could turn into another driving debacle I stopped for a coffee at my mate Tim Horton's. I think we are acclimatising when I can cut about in minus 10 in a t-shirt....

Minus 10 isn't too cold for a t-shirt!

 So the roads got progressively worse with lots of black ice, I went for a bit of a slip on one patch but was going slow enough not to totally lose control. We saw in total 6 car accidents and 4 truck accidents over about 20kms.

The result of black ice.

40kmph behind Snow Ploughs.

Our next adventure is still as yet undecided, but may potentially be Toronto or Ottawa for Easter. Summer has seen a change in plans with us most likely heading over to the Maritimes (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland  with Banff and Jasper etc being saved for fall when there will be far less people cutting about.

All for now - Happy Easter!

MIMS.