Hi guys,
After spending the last day in port at Quebec city, actually swanning about on the ship, we felt ready to hit the city. As it was a day for sightseeing for most of the people on the ship, we had the place pretty much to ourselves. We spent the morning sitting in the lounge of the Exploration lounge - big leather recliner chairs, in the sun. Very quiet, and we had a first hand view of what it's going to be like when we've been consigned to an old people's home.... Omigod - sitting there reading, we looked about and we were amidst a whole bunch of oldies, who could barely stay awake - and this was 11am!! There was the odd loud fart emanating in the silence, which made us hysterical (quietly hysterical anyway)... The occasional conversation started up, and they were talking so loudly, it could be heard everywhere. We were actually spooked at what might await us!!!
Went to a wonderful restaurant on board for the last night - had steak to die for - Arch stupidly ordered and tried to eat an enormous rib eye steak.... It was so magnificent, he tried to eat the lot, and we barely made it up to our room... The Americans eat this size meal every day, AND have entree and dessert!!
We exited the ship yesterday, and are now ensconsed in THE Chateau - the most photographed building in Quebec city. Amazing and so surprising how little English is spoken in this town - shocking to think that this is actually Canada, and many people have absolutely no English. I'm trying to imagine going to Brisbane and having them speak another language, and not having English. Really sad actually.
The old town is very pretty, and not surprisingly, the architecture is very French too. We've hired a car for tomorrow, and plan to run away for a couple of days. Hope they don't think we've been abducted when they come to clean our room and discover the bed hasn't been slept in. Arch is going to brace himself for the wrong-side-of-the-road driving, and hope for the best.
Will post again when we get back to Quebec City. We're here until Friday morning when we catch the train to Montreal.
Cheers,
Ann