Thursday, 17 August 2006

Quebec City

I had a somewhat restive night as the dorm. room was full (4 bunk beds) and had a couple of snorers - though luckily at the other end of the room. Maybe I should invest in some ear-plugs, although I've always found them too uncomfortable. At 5:30 am I gave up trying to sleep and went down to the canteen/bistro where there were some computers. Luckily you only have to pay when connected to the internet so I could use Notepad to type blog and then save via USB to my little hard-disk player to upload later. By 7 am when the bistro opened, I had only caught up 3 days worth. For $5.70 the bistro had an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast; just things like cereal, boiled eggs, 2 crepes, toast, jam, etc.

After breakfast I found that the dorm. room was quiet so I cat-napped for an hour and then went out to explore old Quebec. It was a beautiful sunny morning - great for strolling around and relaxing. Quebec is renowned as a beautiful city, and probably the most 'European' in feel of the North American cities. It was busy with tourists. I wandered around the old walled city to get my bearings, bought a Weekly Guardian (a pale imitation of its UK counterpart) and enjoyed the cafe culture. I skirted around the old Citadelle and through the Parc des champs-de-bataille (Battlefield Park) to the Musée national des beaux-arts du Quebec where I spent most of the afternoon. (Taking the audio-tour so I had someone to talk too!)

It was still a fabulously sunny day when I emerged around 5 pm. The one day I'm not cycling and there is no wind! I walked back to the old city and explored the lower town before heading back to the hostel for an evening of blogging...

Distance: 0 km
Cycling time: 0:00
Total distance: 6345.2 km