Saturday, 19 August 2006

Quebec City

I didn't sleep well again - I'd stayed up too late uploading photos and was past tired. There were some snorers in the room again. Are they worse than mosquitoes? I'm not sure. At least you can swat a mosquito. Snorers are usually big blokes; too big for me to swat. I was up a bit later, 7:30, but still before the main breakfast rush and then went out for a stroll before it was too hot and too busy. I stopped for a latte and to catch up with diary. I sat and watched the world go past, including a big procession of Harley-Davidson motorcycles with their mostly older riders; pot-bellied and grey moustached - and that was just the women.

I took a stroll towards the Museum of Civilization via the city wall, and bumped into Kathy - she'd left John at the museum and gone for a walk. We wandered back down to the museum ($8) where there was a good 'First Nation' exhibition covering the art, culture, history and fate of the various groups of indigenous peoples of eastern Canada and the north-eastern US. Learnt a new word: sedentarization. To do with moving from a nomadic lifestyle to living in one place.

It was stiflingly hot by lunch time when we went to a restaurant along by the ferry terminal. After lunch we took a ride up on the funicular railway back up into the old city and walked around to the Citadelle - still a functioning military establishment, complete with scarlet jacketed guardsmen in bearskin hats. I said goodbye to John and Kathy there (Au revoir, as we may meet in Montreal...) and went back to the Museum of Civilization to see the display on Indonesia (Somewhere else I now want to go) while they took a tour of the Governor Generals Residence. (The Queen's representative in Canada - how does all this constitutional monarchy rubbish work?)

I toyed with the idea of a visit to the microbrewery in the evening, to sample their wares, but in the end I finished uploading my photos to the web over a couple of beers in the hostel bistro/bar and had an early night to get to sleep before any snorers arrived.