ReNe: quebec city road trip (1/2)

Quebec City Road Trip, 5-11 Feb 2011

The last time we visited Quebec City was in April of 2005, and the conclusion was that two days was entirely too short and we must go back one day. It's like a slice of France, transplanted. Later, experiencing my first winter in Canada, I was quite taken with winter and snow and was doing all sorts of random reading about it. I read a statistic that Quebec City has one of the highest snowfall in all of Canada, and immediately my first thought was that I would like to re-vist Quebec City in winter. We finally got around to doing so in February, 2011. 

Day 1 (5 Feb, Saturday)

Quebec City was about 800km from Toronto, a nine hour drive, so we decided to break it up and overnight in Montreal, which was about 540km (6+ hours) from Toronto. The hotel we stayed at, The Hotel Celebrities, was quite memorable. Our room did not look as sleek and urban as the sample photos online; instead, the 'Cedar Room' was rather rustic-log-cabin-eclectic meets 'there-I-fixed-it'. That said, the room does work. We slept comfortably and showering in the closet-like space was fun. Definitely a memorable room.

The mirrored closet next to the room door. There was a large crack in the mirror where the door knob had hit it and repaired with a wooden board nailed over the crack.

'There, I fixed it.' Sawn away boards to allow for the toilet door to open.

The closet-like shower and toilet. In the shower, a T-shaped pipe connected two shower heads in a cheap and innovative idea. 

The irritating and useless wooden structure in the middle of the room. Not only was it slightly dusty, there were pointy bits to bang the shins against.

First time we parked the car outside. It snowed and required some digging out, especially since we parked in the snow plow route. 

Day 2 (6 Feb, Sunday)

As the drive from Montreal to Quebec City was quite short (less than 3 hours) and the hotel's check-in time was 4pm, we decided to swing by Montmorency Falls first. From quebeccitykiosk.com:

Measuring 83 meters high - 90 feet higher than Niagara Falls - the Montmorency Falls are an amazing attraction for all ages. Take the short 15 minutes trip to see this natural wonder. The Montmorency Falls are located in front of the Island of Orleans and were named by Samuel de Champlain for his patron, the duke of Montmorency. Though higher than Niagara, they are far narrower.

The waterfall is surrounded by the provincial Parc de la Chute-Montmorency, where you can stop to take in the view and perhaps have a picnic lunch. The park and falls are accessible year-round. In winter, the plunging waters are particularly impressive: The freezing spray sent up by the falls builds a mountain of white ice at the base called the pain de sucre (sugarloaf), which sometimes grows as high as 98 feet!

We weren't planning anything ambitious at first, though we thought we should at least walk the bridge the spanned the top of the falls. Somehow we ended up walking down the stairs down the cliffs to the bottom of the falls. We admired the vast expense of the snow covered landscape at the bottom of the falls; the area was completely covered in snow and we have no idea was lay beneath. It could be a grassy park or even a lake. We then walked over to the station where we took a cable car back up to the parking lot. 

On the bridge over the top of the falls.

Walking down to the base of the falls. The gate at the top (and bottom) was closed but that didn't stop a few people, including us. If the stairs in the photo look treacherous, they are. I was clutching the chicken-wire sides the entire time. The steps were packed with snow and it didn't help that Ryan kept leaning to the side to see, which severely off-set my balance.  

View of the Montmorency Falls from the base. Note the pain de sucre at the base. And yes, there were people ice-climbing the frozen part of the falls.

Days 3-6 (7-10 Feb, Monday-Thursday)

Our accommodations for Quebec City was Hotel Clarendon. It has the distinction of being the oldest hotel in Quebec City and has good reviews online. Somehow, even though it was peak season, I managed to book rooms for $98 a night.

Four nights in Quebec City, and we were there for mostly one attraction: the Quebec Winter Carnival. Admission, given in the form of plastic effigies that people usually hang on their jackets, was only $12 per person. That's astoundingly cheap since it covered the ice sculpture exhibits and most of the rides in the carnival, for the entire duration of the carnival! In fact, the cost of parking was more than the effigy, working out to about $7 a day, as we parked right beside the entrance.

Most of the activities we were interested in took place at the Plains of Abraham, which wasn't a large area, and the carnival grounds were easy to navigate. The ground was entirely snow-covered, quite thickly packed at parts, and the carnivals grounds were a blinding white. Because it was so cold (temperatures averaged -15°C to -20°C), the snow didn't melt and turn slushy, and because there was so much snow on the ground, our boots were clean by the time we walked from dirty snow in the parking lot to the carnival grounds. Quebec City certainly lived up to its reputation as one of Canada's snowiest cities. It snowed almost the entire time we were in Quebec City and we kept comparing the sheer amount to Toronto's poor showing.

On the first day, I carried Ryan around in the carrier, a terribly cumbersome way of carrying him around. Then I noticed the sleds and found out that they could be rented for free at the entrance. They were a far better of lugging Ryan, and Mike's camera bag, around, and really added to the entire wintry sports vibe.

The first day, we tried out the Desjardins Snow Slides, ducked into a covered tent to hide out from the chilly winds and look at some ice sculptures, shared a beavertail and took a ride on the Ferris wheel. Unfortunately it was extremely cold that day, with temperatures dropping to -20°C, and definitely lower than that with the wind chill. By the time it was our turn to get onto the Ferris wheel, we were too frozen and tired to enjoy ourselves, especially Ryan. And if we thought it was cold and windy on the ground, it was worse up in the unsheltered carriage of the Ferris wheel.

Top of the Desjardins Snow Slides. First activity we tried. High enough to give a decent rush but not too high that it's tiring to walk back up for the next round. As it is, dragging the tube up every time is quite a workout already.

Ryan didn't like it too much, whether I sat him facing in or out. The tube tends to spin on the way down so I guess it can get quite dizzying. Or maybe he doesn't like the bite of the winter air on the face as we slid down.

Bonhomme's Palace. Bonhomme is not merely the carnival's mascot; quote, Upon his official arrival in the Capital, the Mayor of Quebec gives him the keys to the city, making him the undisputed master of the kingdom.

The next day, we rented a sled. We took turns on the Natrel Ice Slide while the other dragged Ryan up and down the snowy paths. Then Mike tried the Zipline while I took Ryan to the Kraft tent to play. There was such a long line at the very popular Zipline that he took about 40mins, and in the end I didn't get to go. The games at the Kraft tent were really meant for older kids so I spent all my time chasing Ryan around the tent. After that, he fell asleep on the sled so we took a walk around the carnival.

As mentioned, the main part of the carnival was held on the Plains of Abraham. We walked uphill, away from the carnival site and towards the Dufferin Terrace. The snow was extremely deep, fluffy and pristine. There was nobody else up on the terrace so it was very quiet and private. The winter scenery was really lovely; as I looked out over the partially frozen St Lawrence river, I could feel goosebumps that had nothing to do with the temperatures.

We didn't do much on the last day. We took a ride on Kraft Snow Raft, which was quite an adrenaline rush. It was even more of a rush than a roller coaster, because you know there was also a tiny chance the raft could flip. Our faces were also frozen; the raft churned up quite a bit of snow as it went down and our faces were sprayed, at high speed, with snow. I don't think Ryan enjoyed it, in fact I think he was a wee bit terrified, but he didn't cry. I wanted to try the zipline but the queue was amazingly long, so I just went a few rounds on the Snow Slides and we walked up to the terrace again. We also thought of trying the dog sleigh rides, but for $10 and maybe 3 minutes of fun, it didn't seem like a good deal. 

Overall, the carnival was fun, though Ryan didn't enjoy himself as much as we did. And if he's not enjoying himself, we can't really enjoy ourselves. Unfortunately, it wasn't terribly suitable for kids of Ryan's age so mostly he got lugged along as cargo. Some of the rides we could bring him along with us, but I think he wasn't too thrilled. It was also troublesome having to take turns on the rides that have an age/height limit. The winter scenery was beautiful but I don't think Ryan appreciated it as much as we did as well. He liked tromping around in the snow well enough but his hands got wet and cold very quickly, so any playtime in the snow was fairly short. Worse, Ryan caught the flu just before we left so he really wasn't a happy kid; he just wanted to go back to the hotel room to 'watch', i.e. watch cartoons on the TV.

On the Dufferin Terrace; the St. Lawrence River is in the background.

Sleeping on the fluffy snow. It wasn't unbearably cold but the feeling of snowflakes falling and melting on your face is rather distracting. We're amazed Ryan managed to fall asleep so easily. Ignoring the sight of the city buildings in the distance, doesn't the deep snow and lamp post give a Narnia-esque atmosphere? 

We were surprised few people came up to enjoy the fabulous view but we weren't complaining. 

Ryan's cheeks are prone to chapping in winter, even with liberal usage of vaseline. However, I've discovered that using my thin neck-scarf really helps.

The sled is a really great way of lugging around a heavy baby and a heavy bag of camera gear.