Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2024 Part 2, O Canada Edition Days 6 and 7 (9/13 & 9/14) – Quebec City

Where We Spend A Splendid, But Awkwardly Timed, 26 Hours In Quebec City

Day 6 Friday afternoon on 9/13

The timing of our “full day”/overnight in Quebec City couldn’t be much more awkward. The ship was scheduled to arrive at noon and depart at 1:30 the next day. Therefore, it wasn’t a full day during the day. Booking excursions was a challenge on all fronts – all the ship’s Quebec excursions were sold out. Finding a private tour that operated within the odd time frames took forever. I finally found one for Friday afternoon (9/13) from 2:00 to 6:00 from ToursByLocals.

It was originally supposed to be a tour of the old city. Our tour guide, Diane, reached out to me immediately to confirm the itinerary; I told her since we knew nothing about Quebec, we were sure whatever she had in mind would be fine.

And then she found out that the “Grand Prix” of Canadian bicycle races was scheduled for 9/13, which meant many roads would be closed off, including access to our ship and the old city. She came up with a different itinerary, which didn’t mean anything to us, but that didn’t matter.

On the morning of our arrival, the cruise director excitedly announced that the captain was able to dock a full 90 minutes earlier than scheduled! which still didn’t mean anything to us, because our tour didn’t begin until 2:00 p.m. But the people who wanted to walk into the Old City were happy, because they had an extra 90 minutes.

Diane our tour guide texted me to tell me that we had to meet her at a spot away from our ship, because she couldn’t get any closer. It wasn’t too much of a problem – we exited the ship and followed the Google maps directions that mostly followed the race course.

We found Diane without a problem. Her little white Honda was parked outside the main cruise terminal. For some reason, we couldn’t get to this cruise terminal from our ship.

Diane’s itinerary took us out of Quebec City itself to the suburb of Charlesbourg (pronounced Sharlzburg), and into a neighborhood with some very old houses, some dating from the 1700 and 1800s.

On our way, we stopped at a building mural depicting the history of Quebec City:

She talked about the French style vs the Quebec style of roofs. The house below is a Quebec style house from the 1800s:

• It faces south, not the street
• It has a steel roof
• The roof extends beyond the house to allow snow to slide off the house onto the grass.

This is a more French style house – flat house front, it faces the street, and it’s very close to the street (not set back):

After driving around for quite a while, we opted to stop by a fudgerie (a fudge store). The store had a building mural depicting the “King’s Daughters”: about 700 women who came from France in the late 1600s to marry the first men settlers who came a few years earlier. Here’s a link to more info.

The fudge was fabulous. We bought a bunch (no surprise).

Heading back into Quebec City, we stopped by (one of?) the oldest hospital in Quebec. Some parts of the building date back to the 1700s.

The hospital was across the street from a military cemetery, where the soldiers who died during the British-French wars in the 1700s are buried. The wars finally ended in 1770 with the British retaining control of Quebec.

As our tour drew to a close, we asked Diane for a recommendation for a restaurant for dinner in the city. On our way there, she drove down Cartier Ave with its colorful lampshades that are swapped out periodically, each one its own mini-art installation.

We had dinner in a restaurant called Cafe de Paris: terrible service but great food:

At least we had a great table by the open window on a beautiful evening, while we waited almost endlessly for our food to arrive:

Since we were not 100% sure of the actual physical address of where our ship was docked, we decided to take a cab instead of an Uber. Diane had assured us all the cabbies knew what “wharf 93” would mean. The restaurant called us a cab.

The cabbie didn’t quite know what I was talking about when I said “Wharf 93”, but I showed him the address that Diane had thoughtfully texted me. The cabbie said that the best way to refer to it was “Quai 93” – pronounced “key”. Good to know, in case this ever comes up again.

We had nothing scheduled for the next morning – all the Celebrity sponsored excursions had been booked back in April. Andy had the brilliant idea of going to shore excursions to just ask to see if something had become available.

Lo and behold! there were 2 spots open on a 3 hour Quebec City tour that included Montmorency Falls! Even though it meant getting up at Oh-Dark-Thirty, we grabbed it. We had thought we wouldn’t be able to see the old city this trip. Problem solved!

Tomorrow: The Old City and the Falls.

Day 7 Saturday, September 14

We were indeed up and about at Oh-Dark-Thirty and on the bus by 7:40. The city was still cleaning up from the bike race on the previous day – the trash trucks were everywhere. Our bus driver managed to squeeze past them with an inch to spare.

Our first stop was the Chateau Frontenac. We had some time to wander around.

After the chateau, we drove by the Parliament building.

Then it was time to go to the Montmorency Falls just outside the city. These falls are taller than Niagara Falls {but, sorry not sorry, not nearly as impressive…}

This a view of the Quebec City skyline on our way back to the ship.

Once back on the ship, we watched the scene off our veranda as the ship pulled out of the dock. There were a flock of sailboats – one guy really took a HUGE chance by not getting out of the way as the ship backed up. You could hear the ship’s horn blasting away at the idiot – who did make it past the ship just in time.

The rest of the day was “scenic sailing”.

L’hit-rah-ot, Quebec. G0d willing we’ll be back.

Day 8 is a sea day, as we make our way to Prince Edward Island (which in my mind is associated to the “Anne of Green Gables” books.

Monday, September 16: Prince Edward Island