Canada/NE - QC - Day 27

View of Quebec City from our cabin balcony. 

Canada/NE - Quebec City - Day 26

Via rail from Montreal to Quebec (pronounced Kbec - as in k for kangaroo) City. We are going 135km/hr. We are travelling business class so it’s lovely. Very quiet. We’ve had breakfast, dessert, 2 x coffee (and drinks) and chocolate. 

Saint Lawrence Seaway.  We boarded the Majestic Princess. It’s a big ship but there are lots of space and seemingly not many people around. 

Quebec City at night from a ferry. 

Château Frontenac Is a Fairmont hotel. It was built in 1896 by the Canadian Pacific Railway, to promote train travel. It’s within city walls and is prominent above the city. 

Canada/NE - MTL - Day 25

 Successfully (after much mucking around) negotiated the machine) to buy a metro ticket. There is an English translation button but it doesn’t translate everything). 

Everyone in the city speaks French. 50% are bilingual with English the main second language. Everyone we’ve spoken to speaks excellent English even if it’s not their first language. 

We are headed to the Jardin botanique de Montreal and found the Olympic Stadium on the way to the gardens. We’d see in from a distance a number of times. 

Have to put both these photos because the second one shows the structure better but the sun went behind a cloud and other didn’t look white. The Olympic Stadium was built for the 1976 Summer Olympics. The retractable roof, designed by a French Architect,  never worked. They are currently renovating the building and have a German Architrct reimagining the roof. There is a funicular to get to the top of the tower but it is currently being renovated. 

The Jardin botanique de Montreal main entry. 

One of five glasshouses. All extremely well maintained with great plant name signs and educational material.

Stunning orchids. 

Orchid. 

Orchid.

The entry to the Chinese garden. The stone was donated by China. 

Entry to the Chinese garden. Chinese workers originally designed the building and have added to it and repaired it over the years. 

Beautiful Penjing. 65 year old Juniper.  Juniperus procumbens ‘nana’ . Apparently bonsai originated in China but it’s called Penjing and is more a complete miniature landscape than just a minature tree. 

Juniperus chinensis ‘Itoigawa’  50 years old.,

Bell donated by the Japanese outside the Japanese garden. The bell is strict once a year at the time and date the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. 

We went back to the Chinese garden after an early dinner for the light show event in the gardens. This is the bridge over the pond in the Chinese garden. 

One of the exhibits including the reflection in the pond. 

Fish.

One of the Chinese pagodas. 

Chickens!

Dragon!

Baby Pandas! 

Bamboo lanterns.

Water feature. 

Lights which followed. They went off and on in a wave under the trees the length of the path. 

Dinner at the Botanic Gardens Terrace Restaurant which was a cafe really. 

Canada/NE - MTL - Day 24

 A day in Montreal. 

Breakfast was a grade above “why bother”. Toast (6 different types for non GF) bagels and jam. No hot food. They do have cold boiled eggs that seem very popular in Canada. They do have GF & toast it in a separate toaster.

 People (quite a few) turn up to breakfast in their pj’s!

Be thankful you don’t live in New York. All credit card transactions at 3.5% + tax! 

We are doing a tour with 6 other people - from Sydney, Australia, Dallas, Texas and New York. 

Lovely old stone house. Lots of trees everywhere. 

Saint Joseph’s Oratory on Mount Royal. The only building which exceeds the height of Mount Royal - a building height regulation in Montreal. 

Brother André was a monk of the Congregation of Holy Cross who became internationally renowned as a miracle healer. Due to his reputation, in 1904 he was given funding to construct a small chapel on Mount-Royal to operate out of.

The new basilica named Saint Joseph's Oratory was constructed mostly thanks to public fundraising and wasn’t completed until 1967.  

The Oratory became the largest Catholic shrine dedicated to Saint Joseph.  Brother André lived from 1845-1937 when he died aged 91. He became a saint - Saint André Bessette - in 2010. Today, the Oratory continues his mission of welcoming, prayer and hope. 

They use real candles for the votive candle offerings. 

These are a few of the walking sticks that people left after Brother André cured them. 

View from the top. 

View of the main stairs to the Oratory. The centre stairs are timber to make it a bit more comfortable for pilgrims who come up on their knees. 

A statue dedicated to immigrants who came by boat. 

One of the glass windows.

The original Chapel was 4.5m x 5.5m and still remains today but was moved 100m in 1924 to allow the new basilica to be constructed.

Beaver pond because bevavers used to live here when it was first established. It’s has fish and is used as a great recreational area in the city. It’s also a natural ice rink in winter.

Part of the Berlin Wall given to Montreal by the German Government. It’s kept in a well lit arcade of the underground city so it is protected from the weather.,

Dinner at Pho Ly Quoc Su a fabulous Vietnamese place that looked popular.