Post date: Jan 24, 2014 3:13:12 AM
One word: WOW!
This is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. Old Quebec is amazing with the fort walls still mostly in tact and the churches and castles. So much history in this city and they take such pride in keeping it maintained and the stories and events alive. Old Quebec is one of the only fortified cities left in the world. Most cities that were fortified and had complete defensive fort walls surrounding the city in the 1600s and 1700s have taken the down over the years or they have become dilapidated and collapsed. However Quebec has fought (excuse the pun) to have them maintained. In fact the tour guide was telling us that a few years back some people in the area pushed for the walls to be torn down and the stone used to build housing, but they have now brought in laws that they must remain. I think this is great. It gives the city a soul.
We only have a total of about 40 hours in the city. Big mistake. If we come back this place will be one of the first places on the list to return to. So to see as much as possible we toured the area today on a bus.
As I mentioned we toured many of the historical sites and some of the new ones too. The afternoon saw us visit the Hotel de Glace (roughly translated "Ice Hotel"). This hotel is completely built from ice and snow. It is rebuilt every year at this time and stays in place for 6 weeks. It takes 20 people working 7 days a week, 24 hours a day on rotating shifts, one month to built it. And they tear it down after 6 weeks and build it again the next year! I know some of you are reading this and thinking it is so cold why would you go to an Ice Hotel. Well very good reason actually. Maximum outside temperature in Quebec today, minus 18 degrees (and that does not include wind chill which makes it feel like minus 30 something). Temperature in the Ice Hotel, a balmy minus 5. Quite warm really. It is all relative as they say!
Following the tours of the city and hotel we ventured onto the public transport system for a bus ride out to the Montmorency Falls. This waterfall actually freezes over during winter. Due to the other things on the day we were a little late getting there, arriving just after dusk. But still the falls are lit up and you can see a lot even after the sun sets. The falls don't completely freeze, but about 80-90% of the water stops running over the falls so the bit that remains flowing actually hits the bottom, which is a mostly frozen lake and then creates the normal spray you get in a normal waterfall. However due to the surrounding areas being frozen this spray freezes to form snow. So at the bottom of the falls you have snow drifts 10s of meters high from the spray turning to snow. A very unique situation and something we are not likely to see again.