tbaroundtheworld

After 2 days of gray skies, rain, and wind it was very nice to pull back the curtains and see a beautiful blue sky framed by the bright yellow leaves of the trees along the escarpment. Our hotel was only a block away from the cliffs that made Québec City a military stronghold and the view from our 7 th floor window of the trees in their early autumn finery providing a front-piece to the historical sites on the plains up above, greeted us each morning. One last breakfast in the hotel restaurant and we were back out on the cobblestones heading for a morning up above. Having a late flight (5:00PM) and arranging for a late check-out allowed us a lot of flexibility to visit the upper town - Haute Vieux Québec – it was almost like having another day.  We followed our now well-worn path back to Place Royal, past that most amazing trompe l’oeil ever, and once more by the Sun King in the snow globe. The biggest difference on this morning was that the streets were mobbed with people, no doub

We woke up to another rainy day this morning, so after breakfast rather than spend outside getting wet, we went to the Musée de la Civilisation de Québec, conveniently located directly across the street from our hotel. It’s housed in a modern stone and glass building, cleverly built to mimic the old Normandy-style buildings that surround it. Devoted to history of the province, there were two special exhibitions that made the visit quite worthwhile. We started with the Age of Discovery exhibit, jointly produced with the British Royal Museum of Natural History. Tons of examples of flora and fauna collected during the 18 th , 19 th and early 20 th century by European natural history scientists. Included was a 1 st edition copy of Darwin’s “Origin of the Species” and one of his original logbooks. Among the butterflies, fossils, skeletons and pressed botanicals were a Moa skeleton, a saber-toothed cat skeleton and an original Audubon plate. My favorite display was a stuffed Dodo,

If we tried to go from one weather extreme to another in only a few hours travel, it would be tough to beat this trip -70’s to 80’s and sunny at home, 40’s to 50’s here, windy and rainy. Let’s just say that my last-minute decision to throw that down vest into my suitcase was a good one. One of the reasons I chose this hotel was their offer of a free breakfast. It’s so nice to not have to think much about that particular meal (one of the reasons we always rent apartments in Europe) because hunting and gathering is not the first thing you want to do in the morning. My hotel breakfast habit was thoroughly ingrained while traveling to China – hotels there always put out a grand buffet with food for every type of breakfast eating traveler – cold cuts, bread, cheese and boiled eggs for Europeans, congee and fish for Asians, yogurt, fruit and cereal for Americans and so I still tend to shop hotels with that in mind. Lots of choices and one less meal to think about. Therefore, I was a bi