So we decided that it was such a nice day, and such a quick walk to la Citadelle, that who needs boots, ski pants, etc? We were taking a tour at the museum! Sadly, once again, we underestimated Quebec. It was fine to walk to the Citadelle street...but then it was another twenty minute walk to find the freaking guard gate, into the teeth of the wind off the river, the sudden snow, and the suddenly grey skies. We finally had to ask a friendly soldier for directions, I'm sure they are used to it. Poor Morgan was freezing, and then when we got there, we were told the majority of the tour was outside. Even I was cold, and I don't usually get cold, and spent most of my time blocking the wind for Morgan. He had gloves, toque and scarf, but this was the one and only day that I would have had us wear the ski pants we brought halfway across the continent. Happily, the guide managed to have us walk outside a bit, then spend time in the warmer parts for a bit, so no one froze anything too terribly important. It's been the coldest day of our trip, and the windiest. We gave up on the rotating restaurant and the observatory - too cloudy!
The Citadelle itself is very neat, at least what we managed to discern throught the wind and snow. This is an original powder house, which held thousands of barrels of gunpowder. It's one of the few original French buildings here - I believe the Citadelle itself was built by the English to protect the St. Lawrence and Quebec from the Americans after the War of 1812, and that fort incorporated some of the buildings from the 18th century, such as this one. Now it's a museum building.
Duelling pistols!
This was neat. This gun is named Rosalie, and belonged to a member of the Royal 22e Régiment in WWI. He would carve the name of each battle he took part in, and also carved the name "Rosalie" into the stock. Morgan and I identified Vimy, Passchendaele, Arras, Courcelette, etc. When he returned to Canada, he had to pay the damages on the gun he'd so carefully carved. He lost track of Rosalie after that, and finally saw her again in a museum - more than 30 years later! Quite the story.
This won't stay rotated no matter what I do, but it's cool. It's Canada's first observatory. Also, the ball on the right was raised and dropped once a day so the ships on the river would know the correct time for the tides - once a day lol.
Another of the original buildings that was incorporated into the Citadelle - with musket slits facing into the fort in case the fort is overrun.
Looking out a musket slit from the inside. Shooting blind, as far as I can tell!
Vimy Ridge.
After the tour we hustled back to the hotel and finally met Santol, the dog at the Chateau. Once again, like the Aquarium dog Cascade, this is a companion dog who could no longer do the work, but loves to be around people.
More exploring and we found lots of cannons!!
After our tour of the Citadelle and the exploring, we took the ferry to Lévis across the river. It took about half an hour round trip, it's about a kilometre across at this point - right under the hotel. This is the view looking back at Quebec City. The Chateau is on the right, the Citadelle to the middle, then the Plains of Abraham to the right of the Citadelle - that's where Carnavale is as well.
What was really neat about the ferry ride is that the ferries act like mini ice-breakers. In fact, this channel is kept open in the winter by ice breakers as it would freeze solid otherwise. Here is a video showing how the ice reacts when the ferry goes through it:
And here is a video showing the ice moving past the boat on the current. The boat is tied up and not moving, but it sure feels like it is!
Our visit here is coming to an end and this will be the last update from Quebec City, but we will for sure update tomorrow evening or Saturday once we are settled back at home. I have a lot of things I'd do differently, and have a lot of things I'm really pleased with, that I would like to share with you. The one thing I can say right now that I am happy about is that Morgan seems to have a pretty good grasp of the significance of this area and its history, and has had a good introduction to its culture, and this was the whole point of this journey. He was surprised to discover two of his history books for sale at la Citadelle - maybe it made it a little more "cool" than it was before :)
Good night from Quebec,
Carol-Lynne
Big Sis Says: OH WOW!! Wish I could have been with the 2 of you in the Citadel < POUT >!!
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