We are staying about a 20 minute drive from the Old Town, which is a UNESCO heritage site, and are near a bus stop, so had planned to catch a bus in. We didn't set our alarms, opting to awake naturally. I got up around 7:30am, and after another look at the laptop realised the bus wasn't very regular. It seemed parking was available with day rates ranging between $15 to $18 so thought we would do that instead.
It was about 9:40 by the time we had finished breakfast, and got our stuff sorted for the day. The drive downtown was along mainly leafy residential streets, lined with some very expensive houses and mansions. Very scenic and with little traffic the drive was easy. Then we started passing parks, and old buildings, and eventually the wall for the Old Town loomed ahead. Once we passed through the gate, it was like we were suddenly in Europe except for all the big American cars. The buildings are mostly stone, of French style, paved or cobbles streets, lots of statues, lots of brass, very impressive. We followed the GPS to find our parking, unfortunately due to construction work some roads were closed, so we ended up driving around many narrows streets, with the GPS going berserk. We could see other parking on the GPS so just touched the nearest and selected "Go". A few minutes later, we arrived.
The parking building is completely secure, needing a credit card to enter, and the same credit card to return to the vehicle and then exit the building (and charging money for the privilege). Anyhow the location turned out to be quite convenient. Except we had absolutely no idea where we were initially.
We followed our noses to reach the information centre, where the people were so friendly and helpful, and we received lots of maps and advice for Quebec and also Montreal where we are heading next.
The Old Town is a natural fortress, set upon cliffs overlooking the river. It was further strengthened in the past, with man made city walls, and gates, and a Citadel at the highest point. Therefore the whole town is contained and would have been very well protected by cannons based on the number we saw.
The view across the river is beautiful from up high, and the Chateau Frontenac (which is now the Fairmont Hotel) is both an impressive and imposing structure.
We walked across town to the same part of the wall where we drove through, then followed the wall down toward sea level, trying hard not to get lost. Once at sea level, we followed around to end up below where we started. The narrow streets are lined with restaurants, antique shops, art shops selling the most amazing paintings, and the usual clothing and souvenir shops. It's very well set up to cater for the cruise ship market. Everything here is in French, no English. All the street names sound the same to us. It's all just so beautiful, and we loved every minute of it.
Here's a view of the town through a crenelation in the wall.
Eventually we found a beautiful square, and stopped here for lunch. Nice to thaw out eating warm French pastries. The wind chill has been absolutely freezing, I regretted not wearing an extra layer, and bringing my hat. In the sun, and shelered from the wind, was somewhat warm, but in the shade or wind very chilly. We think it gets cold in Wellington but I can assure you it can get pretty cold in Canada too and it's only autumn here!
After looking around the shops, we caught the Funicular back up to the top. It cost $2.25 each, and the ride only took about 1 minute. It's very steep and I'm glad we didn't have to walk up.
What is amazing, is how compact the Old Town is, and how quickly we had got around. We were all cold so decided to return to the car and have a rest for the afternoon at the hotel. We took a different route back in the car, along the river, which meant we went under the bridges which is interesting.
Tomorrow we will venture out of the city to see the countryside.
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