Quebec City

Quebec City is ideal for a self-guided walking tour. The guide book was very detailed.

I scoured almost every inch of the old city.

I liked the French feel of the city. I missed Europe after living for a couple of years in the US.

I explored both the inside and outside of the citadel.

Imposing buildings on the hill.

Good place for a double-barrelled lunch?

On the Plains of Abraham the British and the French had one of their wars of domination. Both commanders were mortally wounded.  I sat in the park and finished writing the postcards I bought in Toronto, but these didn't get mailed until I reached Halifax, half a lifetime later.

There is a lot of history in this old city. Quebecers are proud of living in a world heritage city.

Back at the hostel, I was asked translate to French by a USAn who wanted to play his guitar and was worried about the disturbing the black guy next to him. So I took a deep breath and did my best. It turned out the guy was from Spain. At first he thought the USAn wanted him to play a tune and pleaded ignorance of music. I don't know if I got the message through.

I had dinner in the old city with H, a cyclist from Toronto.  He had just quit his current job. He enjoyed travel too and had been labelled as a black sheep by his parents.

A girl in the hostel was sitting there waiting for someone. Apparently her friend was supposed to come from Montreal to meet her. (It turned out later that her friend had gone to the other Quebec City hostel and not finding her friend there, had gone home in disappointment.)

A group of us got into a conversation about what we do. One was a demoiselle from Belgium, very pretty and self-assured. Her family lived in Montreal. She wanted to do law. Somehow the conversation got around to which Louis was the Sun King. She insisted that she must know the answer and went upstairs to fetch her book. Most determined lass.