July 24 - July 26
Monday - Day OneWe leave Quebec City in brilliant sunshine. The city is almost unbelievably gorgeous, and we know we will be back. (For you people we missed in Quebec, keep that in mind - we were so taken by the city itself that we wanted to spend all our time wandering around and sightseeing. Some cities are like that. San Francisco was one, and Washington was another.) We were impressed not only by the beauty of Quebec, but by the warmth of the people. (Greg & Chrstina - we can only conclude that you slipped into the Twilight Zone or went to Bizarro, Quebec. Yes, there was a lot of tax, but, hey, it was in CANADIAN DOLLARS, and in our case it was worth it. And by the way, we never had to pay $7 for ice.) I found it quite different from when I was here twenty years ago, but of course that was during the Levesque years when most Quebecois were very patriotic and refused to speak English. Everyone we met was bilingual, and Philip had no problems either speaking to people or feeling belittled for not speaking French (which was his experience in Paris). For my part, by the end of the weekend I was speaking French (un petit peu) without people reverting to English with me (I hope this will spill over into our time in Montreal!) WE WILL BE BACK!!!!! We check into our hotel in Montreal just over three hours after we checked out of our hotel in Quebec City. We are in the heart of downtown having passed both McGill and Concordia to get here. We get connected and send emails to Kelly, Nicole and Andy to let them know that we are in town for the next three days and, if they are here and if they are free, we let them how they can contact us. We have lunch in the hotel and spend most of the rest of the afternoon there. Nico puts in some time at the gym and I gets some rest. We walk to dinner at a Japanese restaurant and Nico is now feeling the effects of her workout. Dinner is pleasant. As we walk back to our hotel we pass an empty lot whose sidewalk has been taken over by trailers and equipment - the stuff of a movie shoot. We look, but don't see any stars. When we get to the hotel, we contemplate all the exploring of the city that we will do tomorrow. |
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