Hiltons in Canada 2018

A beautiful day in Vancouver for our last day. Perfect blue cloudless skies with mid 20’s temperature. Another day in the ‘burbs. Seeing a story on news about the corpse flower in the gardens, decide to check it out. On skytrain out to QEII Park. Fabulous big park with massive trees. Find the Conservatorium. A huge glass house containing a rain forest with exotic plants and birds. Lots of interesting birds of all shapes and sizes. And the corpse flower. Fantastic huge flower that apparently smells like rotting corpse when it opens. Sadly it had not reached that stage yet, but impressive nonetheless. Back to town for food court lunch. Then back on skytrain for longish trip to New Westminster. An historic area based around the Fraser river and the timber industry. Nice wooden boardwalk for a long way along the river. Otherwise unremarkable. Back to town and waste some time before heading to airport. Flight scheduled for 23:50, delayed to 01:05! Now in lounge. Had nice shower here to fre

Last morning in Quebec. Bit of last minute shopping. Train to Montreal. Good trip then stay in ok hotel near airport. Early flight tomorrow.  Up early for flight to Vancouver. Good 5 hour flight. Check into Sutton Place hotel in central Vancouver. Bit of a walk around then rest. Down to gas town for dinner. Looking for something simple. Come across little hole in the wall pizza joint. Fantastic mum & Dad Place. Great pizza and dirt cheap. Stagger home and pass out. 3 hour time difference from east. Tuesday. Decide to look at some places not seen. Out to the ‘burbs. First bus to Kitsilano. “Beach” suburb. Picture St Kilda beach and you’re close. Walk along beach front park. Massive low tide with water about 100 metres from high water mark. Huge public heated pool about twice the size of a normal public pool. Beautiful homes along the shore line.  Back to downtown, then sky train out to Richmond / Aberdeen, Chinese area. Bit like modern Hong Kong, but we found one shopping centr

Je me souviens - Quebec motto by which they mean "We do not forget, and will never forget, our ancient lineage, traditions and memories of all the past". Suffice to say we will have great memories. Great history, architecture, hip vibe, food! Spent our last 1.5 days, revisiting much of the old city, upper and lower. Many tourists on weekend inconsiderately  getting in our road. Lots of shopping which generally entailed me standing around in the street while Judy looked at stuff. Anyway, happy wife etc etc. Last night decided to do something different. Bought spaghetti, arabiatta sauce, basil, bread, wine and cooked dinner at home.  Now on train back to Montreal then fly to Vancouver tomorrow.

Very lazy start today. Laze around at home in the morning and head out around 1 pm. Decide to explore some of the streets we haven’t done. 3 major streets starting near us, Cartier, Rene Levesque, Grande-Allee. Cartier has a shopping strip, mainly restaurants, cafes, fruit shops, supermarket, wine. The street has many big lamps. Circular lamps around 6 feet in diameter each with its own design. Grande-Alle has many grand buildings now housing hotels and businesses. Great architecture making for interesting street scapes. I can’t stop taking photos. Further down is a restaurant strip which is known as a party area. Near here is the Quebec provincial parliament. We do a guided tour of the beautiful building which is very interesting both in regard to the history of the building and the political structures. Back home via Cartier for a coffee and some supplies. One of the most remarkable features of today is the weather. After a week of high 30’s temperatures, today it is less than 20! T

More walking today. Tried to catch bus but card we had in Montreal didn’t work here even though uses same system. So walk back down to old city. Some info searching at tourist info. Headed off to walk around walls on the citadel. Had short walk around inside. Guards in British style outfits at entrance. Some of the walls inaccessible due to festival preparations. Spend some time watching street performers in park. Good and funny. Decide to do bus tour which was good. Showed us some parts of city we hadn’t seen and plan to visit tomorrow. Stages set up throughout city for festival which kicks off tonight. Trudge back home picking up some supplies on way. See some performers getting ready on stages. Guy playing banjo with violin bow! Dinner at well reviewed Greek restaurant close to home. Exceptional dinner and service. Nice smallish restaurant looking like Greek taverna. Other side of room is Greek deli. Taramosalata, dolmades, spanakopita, kalamarakia, lamb shank in tomato sauce with

Had good 3 hour train trip from Montreal. Interesting agricultural scenery and rural towns. 10 minute cab to apartment. Funny little apartment at ground level with entry directly from street. Bit odd, but really good inside. Very well set up inside with all amenities you would want. Head out to explore. Walk down rue st Jean for about 1 km to Vieux Quebec. Many restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, old buildings. Main section lorded over by the Fairmont chateau Frontenac. Massive hotel built by Canada railways in early days of the railways. One of many built this way e.g. Lake Louise, Banff etc. the Dufferin terrace on the cliffs overlooking the lower town. Walk home again, pick up some supplies on way. rest. Out for dinner at 8. Head down rue St Jean looking for something on spec. Happen on a quaint little place and unable to read menu outside, venture in to check blackboard menu. Young waiter explains blackboard menu not for tonight and offers English menu. Slightly odd tapas-like menu.

Today is known as moving day here. By tradition, rental contracts end today and it results in many people moving home. Apparently only 38% of people own homes. Odd and interesting. For us, moving meant catching metro and bus up to Mont Royal. High point overlooking city. Huge park area. Great views down over city. Walked lots of kms through parklands, forests etc. Very hot around 37 degrees. Back down to mont Royal plateau neighbourhood. Interesting funky area with young vibe. Then back to explore Gay Village area. St Catherine street blocked off for many blocks into pedestrian street. Lots of restaurants, cafes, pubs. Out again at night to village.more lively at night with lots of people, predominately men, walking the streets and eating , drinking in places along street. Have dinner at so so Vietnamese. Home to pack up for tomorrow’s trip to Quebec City.

Bit of a slow start due to late night. Catch metro to place du Canada to watch the Canada day parade. Interesting slightly amateur event. Lots of participants with parade lasting well over an hour. Very multi cultural with many cultures respresented. Lots of Indians and Chinese. Not much evidence of French involvement. Very hot day in mid to high 30’s. They had a huge cake in Place du Canada with 1500 slices. Next travel to Vieux port to see what’s happening there. Lots of people but not much Canada day activity. Bit of preparation for tonight. Have nice crepe lunch. Bit more walking around, then back to crash in air con. Out later to get some supplies. Wine and take away pizza for dinner at home.

headed out at 9:00pm in 30degree heat. Walk to Jazz Festival outdoor area. Thousands of people. Multiple stages, food and drink outlets. Watched until started to rain. Back tomorrow. Walk back to old Montreal area and redeem our culinary crimes by having dinner at bistro. Cassoulet! Home at 11:30. D stays up till 2am to watch Tigers lose🐯😤