~Montreal, Quebec~

Hi Everyone.  We have had no internet for the last week so are a bit behind on the blog.

Here we are arriving in Montreal. What a zoo!!

Lovely view as we came across the Pont de Champlain.

We parked our van at a Walmart and took the Metro into downtown Montreal. We had such a fun time trying to figure out how much we were to pay for the tickets – the lady spoke NO English at all and we tried  our best French, but she couldn't help us. We ended up finding a very nice man who was able to help us. The metro went SO fast and we were downtown in no time at all. Lots of fun!!

We started off at the “Bank of Montreal” - this is Canada's oldest bank. The bank has huge columns, a beautiful dome and a monumental lobby!! We went into the bank's museum which had old and rare coins, bills and other memorabilia.

This is the famous Notre Dame Basilica.  This church was built between 1824 and 1829.

There were SO many beautiful old historic buildings throughout Montreal.

Throughout Old Montreal (Vieux-Montreal) are lovely cobbled streets. 

This beautiful building housed Canada's parliment in 1849-1852, then served as Montreal's city hall until 1878 when it became a market and now today it contains municipal offices.

Rue St.Paul is the city's oldest thoroughfare (1672). All very pretty.

Clock tower – can you say “ I think a storm may be coming in”?

There are many quays in Montreal and the waterfront is now a year-round recreation and entertainment complex.

After we had walked all around the Old and New part of town we went down into the “Underground Pedestrian Network”. Beneath Montreal's huge buildings and busy streets is the world's most extensive underground pedestrian system. There are about 22 kms of passageways which connect almost all the city centre's offices, hotels, stores, restaurants, theatres, high rise apartments etc.... When the cold weather “hits” - life can still go on while underneath the city.

~Kite Flying and Rainy Days~

We have spent the last several nights here in Bromont, QC and it is such a lovely park.   There are very few rv'ers staying here (it may look like there are lots but those are permanent trailers and they have all been locked up for the winter) so it feels like we have it pretty much to ourselves.  We did go into the quaint town of Bromont one afternoon and Granby the next - a lovely town right on Lac Boiven.  The weather has been warm, very windy at times, POURING at times, cold and cloudy too!  The kids made these kites at the Graham Bell Museum and were finally able to try them out - woo hoo!!!

See if you can find Trav's kite??

Still LOVING all the beautiful fall colours.

Yesterday it poured with rain so in the afternoon we enjoyed the lodge - we took turns playing ping pong......

doing lego.......

playing mini sticks...........

and the girls "hung out at the bar" !!!!!   Actually they were doing a song together!!!    I also had a chance to look through the thousands of books that they had and did some trading!!!!   About 980 of the books were in french so it took me a while to look through them all !!!  FUNNY!

~Quebec City~

We are now in Quebec and had such a lovely drive here. The vibrant colours of the thousands and thousands of maple trees are just incredible.

We stayed in this lovely campground surrounded by maple trees and right on Lac St-Augustin - we had a carpet of beautiful leaves right outside our front door.

Dad and Mum took us all out for a wonderful buffet lunch - THANKS SO MUCH.

We spent two days in Quebec City.  The Old City is so beautiful with many old stone buildings, cobbled streets and horse drawn carriages.

 The old part of the city has the Lower Town by the St. Lawrence River and the Upper Town  atop Cape Diamond.  It is the only walled city north of Mexico.  We walked along this lovely boardwalk which took us down 480 steps to the lower town.

There were multiple cruise ships in the harbour.  

This is the famous Chateau Frontenac Hotel.  It has a bronze roof on one side and can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. It was named after the governor of New France in 1893.

The Chateau is perched high on Cape Diamond and is above Place Royale, the heart of Quebec City's historic Lower Town.

Samuel de Champlain monument - in honour of the founder of Quebec.

This is the Lower Town - hundreds of tourists enjoying the cafes and restaurants, souvenir shops and boutiques.

From the Dufferin Terrace (where the Chateau is located) you can either take the stairs or the funicular down to the lower town.  There were a lot of people who took it going back up - it was quite a steep walk up and down.  We chose to do a bit of exercise but we did have a few "wobbly" legs at the bottom.

The town had two beautiful murals.  This is the "Mural of Quebecers" depicting 400 yrs of Quebec City history.

Jacques Cartier.

View of the St. Lawrence River.

These are the "Plains of Abraham" (Battlefields Park) where British forces defeated the French in 1759.

These are the Parliment Buildings.  The building's facade is decorated with 26 bronze statues that pay tribute to the men and women who helped shape Quebec society.  The architecture is beautiful.

This is the Tourny Fountain in front of the Parliment Buildings.

One of the gates into the city.

The "Fortifications of Quebec" surrounding the old town are close to 4.6km in length.  We walked some of it.

Then off to the "Artillery Park Heritage Site"  The French built various defensive works there in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The kids are looking at a mural and listening on phones to some questions about it - Explorer program.

This is Dauphine Redoubt - the officer's quarters.

Another fabulous day of exploring, learning and having FUN !!

~Grand Falls~

After Hartland we stopped off at Grand Falls. This beautiful waterfall plunges 70 ft into a 5 ft long gorge.  There are 27 ft deep potholes in the gorge.  The energy from the falls goes through a power plant which supplies electricity for the province.