After we awoke at a rest stop on the A40 highway in Quebec we drove into Quebec City and spent most of the day there biking and walking around the old fortified city and the Plains of Abraham (while flurries were beginning - our first snowfall of the season). The Plains of Abraham was a pivotal battle in the Seven Year War between France and Britain over the rights to Canada. The battlefield was a large piece of farmland owned by Abraham Martin, hence the name of the battle, which overlooked the St. Lawrence Seaway. The British were able to hold off the French and their tenacity there led to the British takeover of most of Eastern North America.
We were able to park on the south side of the battlefield and bike through it and over into the fortified city of Vieux Quebec (Old Quebec). Due to the width and age of the streets we quickly locked up our bikes and set off on foot to check out this unique, quite European city and the surrounding fortifications.
The Old City was quite unique with small twisting streets and buildings stacked next to and on top of eachother with exquisite stone work and blinding metal roofs (the bright ones were new aluminum not the tin of old). We were able to see two beautiful churches the most interesting being the Notre-Dame Basilica-Cathedral of Quebec with its intricate gold work and stained-glass. The sounds of footsteps dominated the Cathedral as we and others looked around which only added to the intensity of being inside something so ornate.
As we finished up our tour of the city we remounted our bikes and
headed back to the car. We were quickly side-tracked by a cool looking path which
wound us even more into the depths of the Plains of Abraham. This ride
was awesome. We were flying down gravel paths overlooking the Saint Lawrence River, rolling through leaves and
mud soaking in as much of the outdoors as we could before cooking ramen
in a school parking lot (only a couple weird looks).
Then we were
back on the road and headed towards Vermont. Instead of taking the major
highways we opted for the scenic route which wound us westward into the
sun, along the river all the way to Trois-Rivieres where night began.
We pushed South, crossing the border around 7:30pm. We ended the night
at a rest stop with a nice talk with Jena's mom and our
Mangolandia friends Jax and Caye.
We awoke this morning to frosted grass and a beautiful view of fog
pushing its way out of a valley. We thought that heading south would
mean warmer temperatures but as of this morning there is a snow storm on
the forecast with more winter advisories for tonight. Luckily we
brought our snowboards so snow actually sounds nice.
So far, we have no plans and no costumes for Halloween. Would it be creepy to hand out candy to children from the comfort of our unconventional home?
*A couple notes on driving/parking in Canada, primarily Quebec because Ontario wasn't much different than the USA. First off, one thing we found interesting is stoplights are different shapes. Red square=stop, green circle=go, and yellow triangle= yield. A blinking green light means you have the right away (not many turn arrows here). Secondly, once you're in Quebec know your small French words, especially days of the week because the parking signs are only in French and they have weird daily no-parking times. Thirdly, they don't give you nearly the same amount of warning before roads exit (1-2 km in most cases) so don't get caught in the far lane. All-in-all our time in Canada was filled with wonderful scenic views and was immensely enjoyable.
