Vancouver - 18th Sep

Our last day in Vancouver and the end of our holiday.

The brilliant weather continued - cloudy, but warm and no rain. We walked downtown - less than 1 km from our apartment. More browsing; more shopping!

Then off to Gastown - a short walk from the downtown area. Of course, more shopping ensued - but that seems to have completed the lists.

Gastown Steam Clock sounds the quarter-hour

Gastown is the oldest part of Vancouver. It retains a charm from its part and so it teems with tourists and services for tourists. The old Steam Clock continues to tell the time and to sound the Westminster Chimes from its whistles on the quarter-hour. We found a good final lunch at the Flying Pig.

We headed north a few blocks and caught the trolley-bus to Stanley Park. This large park is an attractive space, with paths, playgrounds and bike paths. We had a walk around the seawall before bussing back towards downtown.

At Coal Harbour

We went as far as Coal Harbour. This is a busy marina with views across the harbour. We watched the ships and the frequent float-planes taking-off and landing. It was a good and relaxing end to our time In Vancouver.

Tomorrow is travel. Out to the airport, a three hour flight to LA, a seven hour wait and then the 16 hour haul back to Melbourne. The travel times are the price you pay for living so far away.

Vancouver Island - 17th Sep

We arranged a day tour to Victoria on Vancouver Island.

This is a large island off the coast and was the site of the first settlement. The names are designed to confuse. So, Vancouver isn't on Vancouver Island. The main city on the island is Victoria. But, it's Vancouver Island, not Victoria Island. By the way, Victoria is the capital of British Columbia (Vancouver, the largest city, isn't).

Apparently, the original settlement was at Victoria and this was quite prosperous. Later, Vancouver was established and grew to be larger than Victoria, particularly as businesses moved from Victoria to Vancouver. However, Vancouver Island only agreed to be part of British Columbia if Victoria was adopted as the capital (otherwise the people muttered about joining with the US).

It's a 45 minute ride to the terminal and then a 90 minute ferry ride to Vancouver Island. these are large ferries, as the island has about 700,000 inhabitants.



Butchart Gardens flowers

A major tourist attraction is Butchart Gardens, set in the countryside between the ferry terminal and Victoria. These are one of the world's major show gardens. The passion of one woman, they we developed from about 100 years ago, particularly in the area of an abandoned limestone quarry.

Apparently, flowers are regularly re-planted to ensure the best show given the season. It attracts over 1 million visitors annually and has over 85 full-time gardeners. It is still run by the family of the original couple that created the gardens.



In Butchart Gardens

The gardens are really very attractive, with various garden spaces and themes. It must be very busy at the height of the season, but as we were towards the end, the numbers were not an issue for us.

In Victoria's smallest shop

From there, we headed for Victoria and spent  a couple of hours walking the town. This involved walking down the main area, starting in the old Chinatown and heading down towards the area around the Fairmont Empress hotel. This actually means browsing and shopping. Bernadette managed to buy a shawl at the smallest shop we have ever seen (about 1.5m x 3m).

The main town is a compact area, with an attractive harbour outlook and the architecture reflects the prosperity of the town in the late 1800's. An impressive provincial assembly building is very evident and there is a striking heritage hotel nearby.

Provincial Assembly - Victoria

Returning is the reverse. Half and hour to the ferry terminal,  30 minutes waiting, 90 minutes on the ferry and 45 minutes back to our Vancouver hotel, to arrive at about 9:30 pm after a long day.

Our driver/guide was an interesting character. He was First Nations (means that he is a member of a local Indian tribe - in fact, one from the western part of Vancouver Island). He certainly had plenty of knowledge and he could certainly talk!

One fact - if there are roadside billboards, then the land adjacent is reservation land. Apparently, roadside billboards are banned, but the Indians are allowed to install them on their reservation land - and they are a source of income.

Rocky Mountaineer - 15 - 16th Sep

Deer in Banff

We were up early the next day to head for the railway station to board the Rocky Mountaineer. Driving there, we spotted a deer cheerfully munching on shrubs in a front yard – having searched on roads outside town for wildlife for three days.

The train is a well-organized affair. While it was late, boarding was efficient and we found ourselves in a car that was abut half-full. The trip takes you through the mountains, across the divide in BC and then through other mountains and alongside flowing rivers. There are tall pine forests and lots to see. An engineering highlight are the spiral tunnels, to looping tunnels under mountains  allow the track to descend with a reasonable grade.

At Banff station

A real Mountie (retired)

We are on the Canadian Pacific line here – the original line of the first transcontinental railway. We pass by where the final spike wad riven to complete the line. The line is very busy and we have lots of stops to allow very long freight trains to pass by. These freight trains can be over 3 km long.

The first day is long – we didn’t arrive at Kamloops, our overnight stop, until about 9pm. Overnight, the trains from Banff (ours) and from Jasper are combined, to double ote train to about 17 carriages.

The second day is shorter and there are fewer delays for passing freight trains. We are on the Canadian National line here, heading west. There is a Canadian Pacific line paralleling ours – often on the other side of a raging river – and all westbound traffic takes the CN line, with eastbound the CP line.

The Rocky Mountaineer

We run through the canyons of the Thompson and then the Fraser rivers, with the track hugging the wall of the canyon. In places, concrete or wood rooves protect the line from the danger of rock avalanches.

Nearer to Vancouver, we travel through temperate rainforest as the weather becomes bleaker, with a grey mist shrouding the steep hills that remain our companions, as the valleys widen.

We pull into the dedicated Rocky Mountaineer station at about 4:15pm, about 75 minutes early.

Banff - 12 - 14th Sep

Again, we faced a day of blue skies and warm temperatures. Our next destination was Banff, which is only about 60 km away. Rather than head off, we went out to Lake Louise again. Again, there were plenty of people here, but we wanted to have a look inside the Fairmont.

The inside is less impressive than the outside - at 10:30am there wasn't anywhere to have a sit-down coffee other than a cafeteria. OK - time to leave.

We headed off. However, we took the Bow Parkway, rather than the faster Trans-Canada Highway. This is a delightful road, tracking the Bow River The road is lined by tall fir forests for the most part, with peaks lining both sides of the valleys.

Banff is a town inside the National Park, but is much larger than Lake Louise or Jasper. It has about 5000 inhabitants. So it has a downtown, multiple malls, many restaurants and clothing stores In fact, there are pressures because Parks Canada don't want the town to get any bigger. For many years, only "eligible residents" are able to live here - to be eligible you have to work in the town or the park or own a business here that requires your day-to-day attention.

We found a good place for lunch (Coyote Deli), before heading off to our accommodation. We also made a trip to the Safeway for supplies, as our apartment allows us to cook dinner. It was a relatively relaxed day - we were all feeling the weariness of the walk the day before. The heat of the day added to this - we even enjoyed a swim in the pool at our resort.

View from Sulphur Mountain over Banff

The next day (Friday) brought the same weather - blue skies and warm weather. We had a slow start and then headed out to the Banff Gondola.

The Gondola takes you high up to the peak of Sulphur Mountain, were you get a great view of the peaks around and Banff in the valley below.

Back to town for a Mexican lunch, then off to Lake Minnewanka (pronounced "mini-wonka"). This a large lake - it started small, but various dams up to 1941 progressively increased the size of the lake and made it a source of hydro-power.

Devil's Gap - end of Minnewanka and end of the Rockies

We took a cruise of about 75 minutes on the lake. It was a good cruise, but not as scenic as that on Lake Maligne. Following this we continued on to Lake Jack, hoping to spot some wildlife. No wildlife, mainly because the places we found were clearly popular spots for picnics and even swimming for locals (mainly young people) on a late Friday afternoon.

Back to Banff to relax and then have a drink.

On our last day in Banff, we caught up with the last few things we wanted to do. We headed out to an area called Cave and Basin. This is what it says – it is a cave that was initially found by three railway workers and which contained a hot mineral spring pool and a subsequent pool or basin that was created to allow people to “take the waters”. The springs bubble up through cracks from far below Sulphur Mountain. Initial disputes over the ownership of the springs and the value seen in such springs led the government to take over the area and create Canada’s first National Park (the third in the world). Later development included a 45m pool, then the largest in Canada. You can’t swim here now, but the area is preserved as a museum of the first park. There is also a small and very new museum detailing the internment near here of European migrants as enemy aliens in WW1.

After a great lunch at Saltlik, we visited the local Whyte Museum of the Rockies, which has excellent displays on the history and culture of the Rockies.

Bachelorette Party at Banff

We dropped our hire car at the Banff Springs Hotel and had a drink on the terrace. This large pile is one of the great railway hotels, built to encourage tourism in the 1920’s. It is built in a baronial style, with a great view down the Bow Valley from the terrace.

More Banff party girls

Back at our apartment, we found the place jumping. There were at least four groups of women’s bachelorette parties, as well as a number of other groups of women and also a couple of groups of men. They seemed to come here for the weekend – from places east like Calgary and Red Deer.

Lake Louise - 11th Sep

Our hotel is in Lake Louise Village, which is about 3 km from Lake Louise itself. The village is small, but it has many visitors in summer and winter.

Lake Louise

We headed out to Lake Louise. This is a very attractive glacier fed lake, with an arc of high glacier-coated peaks around three sides of the lake. The iconic Fairmont Lake Louise hotel is at the open end of the arc.

It's all really attractive and there are plenty of people around even though the peak season has passed.

While all the photos show the Fairmont hotel as beautiful, these pictures are mostly when it is draped in snow - in fact, it's actually an unimpressive concrete file. However, this doesn't take away from the beauty of the lake and its surrounds - glacier coated peaks and green fir forests on the mountain flanks.

Moraine Lake

Moraine Lake is another attractive spot about 12 km away, and equally popular. It's another turquoise lake with surrounding mountains coated in glaciers and, lower down, green forests.

Everything is close here - we headed back to the village for lunch at a table by the local river.

The afternoon was exercise time. We drove back to Lake Louise and took the hiking trail to Lake Agnes. This is a 3.4 km track which rises about 400m above Lake Louise, with the track continually rising through the forest. The prize at the end is Lake Agnes and its Teahouse. Lake Agnes is a small and beautiful glacier fed lake, as is Mirror Lake a little distance below it.

View from Lake Agnes Teahouse

The teahouse is perched on a ledge, with a great view to the head of Lake Louise and the Fairmont Hotel, as well as the land around for miles. They actually serve a great cup of tea, along with scones or chocolate cake, and you feel it is so much more worthwhile after the hike up the mountain. The hike filled our afternoon.

We had a pre-dinner drink, a good meal at the nearby pub and headed for an early night after the labours of the day.

Icefields Parkway - 10th Sep

The Icefields Parkway links Jasper and Lake Louise in a north-south route of 230 km. It was developed in the 1930's as a Depression project to create work, as north-south commerce was never important in the Rockies (everything focussed on east-west links - road and rail). So, it was developed for tourists and it remains a tourist road; commercial traffic isn't allowed.

We armed ourselves with a parks pass, an electronic route guidance device (called GyPSy) and picnic provisions.

Athabasca Falls

Simply put, the Icefields Parkway is claimed to be one of the most attractive roads in the world - it certainly is. It's a very good road and the 90 km/h speed limit encourages you to take your time.

There are some many places to pull over or to call in to see another site - falls, views, lakes, glaciers, stunning peaks and much more. Chains of high peaks flank both sides of the road, with many of those on the left (western) side hosting glaciers.

We stopped at the Icefields Centre to take a tour on the Athabasca Glacier, which is fed by the massive Columbia Icefield that

On Athabasca Glacier

you can see coating peaks like icing. A transport bus takes you up the side of the glacier and you transfer to a large 4WD bus designed to take you out onto the glacier itself. So, you exit the bus and spend about 20 minutes walking around a large section of the glacier surface that has been graded flat and is considered safe. It isn't quite the natural glacier, but you are there, you see the melt-water flowing about and you and look further up the glacier area. It's one of those experiences that you have to do and, realistically, it is worthwhile.

Following a picnic lunch at a nice spot by the river, we continued on. More glaciers, more peaks and more lakes followed. This is not to dismiss the views lightly - the whole experience is superb. In some cases, such as Lake Peyto, you walk into a brilliant lake and distant views down the valley.

Lake Peyto

The whole experience was a great day, enhanced by simply magical weather with cloudless skies and temperatures in the low 20's.

We rolled into Lake Louise village, which is quite small, and found our hotel.

Jasper - 9th Sep

Jasper is set within Jasper National Park. Very popular now, it was only explored and started to become known as a destination from about 1908.

We collected pasties from the bakery, got park passes and collected our hire car. We also hired a smart little unit that senses where you are and offers commentary as you go.

At Maligne Canyon

We decided to head for Maligne Lake, 40 km from Jasper. On the way you come to Maligne Canyon, a deep (50m) and very narrow (a few metres) gorge cut by the Maligne River. It's all a bit strange, as more water flow out of the canyon than flows in - other water has seeped through underground caverns to add to the volume.

Further on, you come to Medicine Lake. This seems quite large, but it is full in summer and dries up as winter comes. In fact, water from the lake is seeping into the underground stream system and coming out at Maligne Canyon and elsewhere. Inflows in summer are more than the seepage through many small sinkholes, so the lake fills. As the inflows decrease towards winter, the lake empties.

Spirit Island on Maligne Lake

Further on, we came to Maligne Lake. This large lake (22km long) is fed by glacial streams, so is very cold. We took a cruise. The blue lake is surrounded by peaks, which crowd in t0wards the further end. There you disembark, so that everyone can furiously photograph a small pine-covered island (Spirit Island) with a view to the surrounding peaks and glaciers (called the Hall of the Gods). Certainly hyped, but also a great view.

Coming back, we called into Jasper Park lodge just before getting back to Jasper to see how the wealthy enjoy the area. This is a Fairmont hotel, set around a couple of small lakes, with an attached golf course. The whole style is of lots of small cabins around a "hunting lodge". It was actually quite attractive and we enjoyed an drink looking over the lake.

Bull Elk

On the way out, we saw a bull moose and a female and calf getting away from the bull. We also quickly glimpsed a deer in the trees, so we saw some wildlife for the day.

Our accommodation has a good deck, so we got the necessary provisions and had a meal on the patio.

The Canadien - 5 - 8 September

The Canadien is VIA Rail’s premier train, travelling between Toronto and Vancouver. Our train is of twenty carriages, all of which are shining silver cars dating from the 1950’s. There are sleeping cars, dining cars, four dome cars and a lovely bullet-shaped parlour car at the end of the train.

Our compartment - set for bed

There are compartments that are two berth and single compartments – these have a toilet and washbasin. There are also sleeping berths, which are bunk arrangements, with curtains. These are all as you might remember from movies before 1960. The steward converts the beds into seats at the start of the day and then back to beds at the end.

We found the train at Union Station and, after a wait, were allowed on board. We had a glass of bubbly in our compartment and then a couple more in the parlour car as our train slipped out of Toronto.

In the Park Car

Friday, we woke to green forests passing by. There is little sign of habitation, save for some pretty holiday houses by tranquil lakes. The train provides a fine cooked breakfast; here are even daily papers.

Today, we sat back and watched Ontario pass by. Thick forests, thin forests and waterlogged land with occasional stops on sidings to let freight trains speed by in the opposite direction. As the day proceeded, there was less sign of habitation. We stopped at small stations twice in the day, which gives some guide to the number of people out here, and these were tiny towns that basically exist to service the train.
 
Lunch and dinner are in settings (there are three). The food is good, as is the service. The restaurant meals are included in the cost and you can buy wines.

You fall into a rhythm. You read, you might have coffee and muffins in the parlour car or sit in the dome car for a while – it’s not too strenuous and it’s all quite peaceful.

Winnipeg's Museum of Human Rights

It’s “clocks back an hour” as we move out of Ontario overnight. We woke in Manitoba and shortly after breakfast, arrived in Winnipeg, a city of 770,000. We were pleased to find that the train stopped here for four hours, which meant that we could take a tour of the town. The bus tour was narrated by a local and gave us a brief overview of the city. The city is sited where rivers from north and west meet and started as a primary point in the fur trade. The city is attractive and grew wealthy over 100 years ago as the primary distribution point for goods trans-shipped to the railway head that ended at Winnipeg. Today the city seems to be doing well – it is a service hub for the region, with all services including universities, a symphony, a ballet and an opera.

Winnipeg - Assembly Building

The city has many attractive buildings from the early 1900’s, including the railway station. A large new museum – the National Museum of Human Rights – will open in 2014 in a striking new building. The provincial assembly building is a large domed building that reflects the wealth of the area 100 years ago, crafted in the local limestone. There is a large city park and many large, attractive homes set in tree-lined streets. In fact, the city has about 160,000 elm trees, with about 10% of these succumbing to Dutch elm disease annually and being replaced.

The city is culturally diverse. The original French trappers were joined by the English and later by migrants from Europe (particularly the Ukraine). A strong Francophone community remains, located across the river in the area called St Boniface (originally a separate city until a bridge joined them 50 years ago). It was an unexpected bonus to get a view of Winnipeg.

The train left Winnipeg and were rattled through the prairies. The country had changed from the forest wilderness of Ontario to flat plains of wheat and other crops, with some smaller cattle herds (cattle have to be housed indoors during the severe winters). We pass by many small towns and there are signs of life everywhere. It’s harvest time and we see large harvesters gathering in the wheat even as the light fades to darkness.

Prairie wheat fields in Sashsatchawan

There are occasional large mounds of potash. Underground mining of potash for fertiliser is a big industry in Manitoba. The potash is transported by train, as is the grain, so that rail transport is important here. Freight has priority on the line, so our passenger train often pulls into a siding to allow freight trains of 150 or more cars to pass. Of course, it’s not just local freight, but also double stacked containers moving across the country.

The next day, Sunday, is our last day on the train. It’s “clocks back an hour” again and we wake to find the train in Edmonton in Alberta. We move from prairie to rolling country with a mix of forest and field, with farms that seem to have corrals and horse facilities interspersed with the occasional oil pump, as Alberta is the primary Canadian oil field.

The country changes gradually as we climb and soon we are in the mountains. We arrive in Jasper, a town in the middle of a National Park. It's time to leave our train, which we have grown to enjoy and find our accommodation.

Pre-dinner drinks on our deck in Jasper

We wandered around the town, collected some food and settled down for a glass of wine on the deck looking at the ring of surrounding mountains. Off for a pizza meal, again in view of the mountains, before a rest without the sound of train wheels.
 

Toronto - 2 - 5 September

Monday September 2nd was Labour Day in Canada. This is the "end of the season". Over the next few days, all children return to school and the country takes on the attitude that "summer and the holidays are over", no matter what the weather.

It was a good day to travel, as everything seems to close. Our itinerary was to fly from Charlottetown to Montreal and then on to Toronto. Our flight out was around midday, so the traveling took up most of the day.

We went to the top of the hotel to look at the view over Charlottetown. Lonely Planet suggests that the city might be "too big to be quaint and too small to be interesting". This is a bit harsh - it has a charm all its own and operates at a relaxing pace.

Our taxi diver to the airport took us on a brief tour of part of the town, which turned out to be a great idea. We saw some of the older areas, down by the water of the bay. Houses are beautiful, large homes, often about 70 years old. We were surprised to hear that they were priced at about $350,000. We also saw significant condominium development - apparently people are retiring to PEI to try to recapture the slower pace of the towns of their youth.

We then got an appreciation of why tourists seem to dry up in September, after Labour Day. Apparently, the hurricane season starts in about the second week of September. In addition, storm surges can cause flooding down by the waterfront. This might explain the apparent low price of those beautiful older homes, as might the potential cost of heating them through the winter, describes by our local cabbie as "brutal".

Our flights were on small turbo-prop aircraft, which are surprisingly comfortable.

Toronto is a large city. Which the official city has about 2.9 million people, the Greater Toronto Area has about  million. The economy here must be strong - cranes abound and their is construction everywhere.

Nonetheless, Toronto is still dead on Labour Day. The supermarket in our building was open, so we could get food. However, the liquor shop was closed (as were most restaurants). Our apartment is excellent, in a great local on the 35th floor, with views over Toronto. This was an enforced alcohol-free day.

The next day was time to have a look around Toronto. We found a bus and headed out to the waterfront in search of some statues commemorating Irish immigrants (which match complementary statues that Toronto presented to Dublin). With some searching, we found the statues, though access to them was blocked by fenced associated with construction works.

Time for coffee, but there was nothing much in sight except a local community center that advertised a café inside. So in we went. Coffee and cake were good, though we were a little out of place amongst the clientele. Seems that they don't get many tourists passing by. The security guard had a conversation with us - this means that he was either extremely friendly, or he was checking out these strange people (or perhaps a bit of both).

Buoyed by the coffee and cake, we wander along the waterfront. Everything was pretty quiet - it was after Labour Day, after all. We found an Irish pub for lunch - the pub seated about 180 people and there were about 10 customers.

From the waterfront we took a return ferry across to Toronto Island, as short distance into Lake Ontario. This proved a good way to get a view of the city.

Next stop was the CN Tower, claimed as the highest free-standing structure on earth. It's a pricey ride up (about $35 each), but it seems to be a mandatory stop for tourists. It was a clear day and there is certainly a good view. We believed that we could see the mist cloud from Niagara Falls across the lake.

We felt that we had made a start at seeing Toronto, so we headed home to have drinks and dinner - fortunately the liquor store in our building was open.

The next day (Wednesday) was our Niagara excursion. Our guide picked us up at 8.00 am, in a mini-van. Total on the tour was 7, plus driver/guide. Our guide had been doing this since 1978. The past weekend was apparently very busy (Labour Day weekend), with full-size busses full, so our mini-van meant a more personal tour and presaged much smaller crowds at Niagara.

Niagara is about 130 km away, mostly on excellent freeways. The tour deviates off the highway to see parts of the Niagara Peninsula. This is a fruit and grape growing area, with many wineries. We stopped at a small family winery and tasted the wine, including the local ice-wine.

From there, on to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a small and pretty town which was the site of the first Canadian parliament for a few years. This area is very close to the US (the Niagara River is the boundary) and it has a history of battles from the 1812 war.

A beautiful parkway leads from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Niagara Falls. This is beautiful country - very green with well ordered vineyards, superb homes, gardens and fields. We made a few stops at scenic points, including great views across the Niagara River into New York state, before arriving at Niagara Falls.

The area is full of hotels, souvenir shops, casinos and like attractions, but the real deal is the falls. We took the Maid of the Mist boat ride. this is simply great (and great value) - don't miss it. You are outfitted with a poncho and the boat then heads for the falls. Forget mist - this is a full scale rainstorm; the boat gets right up to the Canadian Falls and you are in the churning water immediately below the falls.

We had three hours at Niagara Falls. This was time for the boat rise, to have lunch and to take a walk to have a good look at the Falls and to take the requisite hundreds of photos. The weather was clear and mild and the Falls areas wasn't overcrowded. We were on the Canadian side and this is clearly the best side to see the Falls.

The bus ride back to Toronto is just under two hours, rounding out a magic day.

The Thursday was our last day in Toronto. We decided that this was the day to look a little more closely at the city. We took the metro uptown to Queens Park to have a look at the Provincial Assembly building - this is bigger and grander than that of PEI, but unfortunately is largely covered with scaffolding. It's also part of the Toronto building boom.

Off to the Ontario Art Gallery, mainly to see Canadian painters, who are well represented in this collection. Our waiter at lunch suggested a tram ride as a way to see part of the city, so we hopped on the tram. This ride took us outside the immediate central city through a number of suburbs, There is lots of green around and the suburbs see to vary from the less attractive to ones that are much more so.

The ride left us in the Greektown area, which has an excellent metro connection back. We headed back, with Michael and Bernadette detouring to the Australian Consulate to vote.

Following a light supper, we packed and headed for Union Station. This is a short walk from our apartment. We dropped our big bags and checked in for our train. Tonight we start our journey across Canada to Jasper on the Canadien - a journey of three nights and nearly three days.



 

Prince Edward Island - 31 Aug - 1 Sep

We had a leisurely start before catching 10am cab to Quebec airport. A short flight (45 mins) in a small prop-jet took us to Montreal. After a 90 minute wait, we boarded the same plane for the 90 minute flight to Prince Edward Island (universally written as PEI). Even though the Quebec to Montreal flight is so short, by the time you add the time for a cab to the airport and the inevitable waiting that comes with airports, the three hour train ride between the centres of the two cities is about equivalent. Of course, given the weirdness of airline prices, it’s actually cheaper to fly Quebec to PEI, via Montreal, than simply paying for the second leg (Montreal to PEI) alone.

We arrived In Charlottetown at 5:30pm. Our hotel is the Rodd Charlestown. This is a lovely old hotel, opened in 1931. It was opened by The Canadian National Railway, who developed luxury hotels across the country.

PEI is the smallest province, with the lowest population, but the two combined mean that it has the highest population density of any province. Nonetheless, it is by no means crowded.

We wandered downtown and found the Old Dublin Pub. There we had cold lobster with salad. This involved a 1 lb lobster - all for $19.95 - which seemed a bargain.

The next day (Sunday) was our tour day. We had booked an "Everything Anne" tour for the four of us from 10 am to 2 pm. As it was just us, Kevin, our guide, made it into an island tour with about an hour of Anne, which worked well.

Green Gables farm

For the uninitiated, Anne is Anne of Green Gables, the novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. This popular series of novels was written in the early 1900's and set on PEI, the home of Lucy Maud. Most tourists come here because of Anne of Green Gables, which is a work of fiction, though the green-gabled house and the wood and walks that Lucy Maud included are real and still exist.

We drove to various parts of the island, on the south and north coasts. Key industries include agriculture (it's the biggest source of potatoes in Canada), fishing (lobster, mussels, oysters mainly, with some other catch, including tuna) and tourism. The land is very green, but by November, the days are short and the weather very cold. December brings snow and by January all the sea around is frozen. So, the only time that much of the island's industry can work is the summer!

Lobster Pots outside fisherman's shack

We saw mussel farms and lobster pots, along with fishermen's shacks. Much of the countryside is idyllic; so that numbers of people have summer shacks on the island. "Shack" is a term, not a description - these are very substantial houses, often with great views of inlets or other water. The owners seem to come from Canada, the US and even from overseas. As it happens, houses on the island are not expensive - for example beautiful two-story heritage timber homes in Charlottetown might cost less than $300,000.

We came to the Green Gables farm at Cavendish. which is now a National Cultural Place. It's what draws the tourists, including

Lovers' Lane

cruise boats (and particularly Japanese). In fact, it is the farm that Lucy Maud knew and imagined into her story, though some of the furnishings have now been altered to better match the book!

It's a pretty farm in an very beautiful environment. It does give some sense of how PEI farmer of 1900 lived. There are attractive short walks in the surrounding forests.

Back to town for a stroll around the town. We had lunch at the Brits Fish and Chip place. The seafood is excellent here (avoid anything deep-fried in batter though), though the chips aren't great.

We the strolled around the town. In particular, we saw the PEI Assembly Building. PEI is small, but is a province and has all the political aspects, inkling and elected assembly and a premier. PEI has about the same population as Glen Eira or Cairns.

PEI Assembly Building

The PEI Assembly building has an important place in Canadian history. In 1864, representatives of the provinces and territories met here and put in train the processes that led to the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. The room where they met is still there - with the same furniture.

There is a strong sense here of the end of the season. The summer season seems to end on Labor Day (tomorrow) and most tourist attractions begin to wind back or even close. You get the sense for the islanders that you talk to that "winter is coming". This is probably reinforced here as visitors close up there summer homes and leave. Islanders clearly see themselves as different - anyone not born here s seen as CFA - coming from away.

We had dinner at the Water Prince, a local restaurant specialising in fish. We all had the scallops, which were delicious. 

Quebec - 28-30th August

We had a four block walk to Gare Central in Montreal to board our train to Quebec. The train was fast, punctual and comfortable for the 3 hour trip to Quebec. The trip provides views of very green countryside, both farms and forests, and of the mighty St Lawrence River.

On the promenade beside Hotel Frontenac

Our Quebec accommodation is delightful old apartments within the walls of the old city of Quebec. The old town is a walled city on two levels - upper and lower - and thankfully has retained much of its history and charm; even if this means lots of tourists. It is World Heritage designated.

We had a walk to get our bearings and had a long lunch at Aux Anciens Canadiens, a restaurant set in one of the oldest houses in the city which serves traditional Québécois food. The meal was excellent (chicken stuffed with duck or a wild meat pie), though the maple syrup pie for dessert was a little too sweet for our tastes. (Memo: watch out for anything that seems to be based o maple syrup). The restaurants here seem to do a fixed price lunch that is great value compared with their evening fare, much as happens in France.

Hotel Frontenac has a prime position in Quebec's old town

More strolling in the old city before returning to our apartments. An expedition was sent for food and Michael headed to the train station to collect the Kindle that he left on the train and that Via Rail very efficiently found and notified us of.

Cheeses, followed by baked salmon and salad made a delightful evening meal.

Quebec is the city that was the start of French Canada. It was the cradle of French development in North America, was the pivotal point of much French history here and it remains the capital of Quebec Province. It remains delightfully (but not, I think, inhospitably) Francophone; the people are welcoming and most have enough English to be very helpful indeed.

On our second day we focussed on the old town, upper and lower. The upper area is larger and probably more gentrified (historically). We spent some time looking at the walls of the city (most are preserved and restored, making it the largest walled town in North America) and then took the Maurice Phipps tour of the town. We wandered down looking at various memorial plaques and found the Ursulines Museum. The Ursiline nuns arrived very early and set up a convent and a school for Amerindians and locals girls - making them the oldest institution of learning for women in North America. Today, the convent operates an historical museum and  remains a teaching centre. We had a look through the museum - these were tough and courageous women, and the museum is excellent.

We wandered through the old town. It is very well preserved. We took in the Catholic (Notre-Dame) and Anglican (Holy Trinity) cathedrals, before finding coffee and a brioche. Lots more wandering with our guide took us to the lower old town, where we found E'Chaude, our lunch stop. We elected the "three small courses" meal - two appetisers and one dessert - all small, but all quite delightful. We had an excellent, and relaxing, lunch.

Course 1: Scallops

 Course 2: Poached Eggs on Mushrooms

Course 3: Quebec tart

Further wanderings brought us to the ferry wharf, where we embarked  a mile across the St Lawrence to Levis. The lookout here provides a great view of old Quebec - the old town and the Plains of Abraham. A relaxed taxi driver took us to the lookout over the river and back to the ferry, which delivered us back to the old town.

After a further brief look around the old town, we took the funicular to the upper town near Hotel Frontenac, so we headed inside for a drink. The bar has a great view over the river, so we shared the view and a bottle of Alsace Riesling.

It had been a great day exploring, so we headed home via a small shop that provided some cheeses, wines and shashliks for our evening meal.

Our friendly fire-truck outside our window

For us, the excitement never ends! Cooking the shashliks the smoke alarm in the apartment went off. No problem - use the broom handle to reset the smoke alarm. All fixed! Now open the door to let some of the smoke out - big error - the building alarm now goes off!

Bottom line - Quebec fire services are very efficient (they arrived within 10 minutes), very courteous and understanding and (according to Bernadette) gorgeous hunks. Problem solved!

The next day, Friday, was our last full day in Quebec. We head off the see the Citadelle, the inner bastion fort of the city. Construction was started by the French, so the design is French, but the English did most of the building. It was designed to protect against the French (initially) and the Americans. It is still a military area, being the base for the famous Royal 22^e Régiment (the name is in French - this is the only Canadian regiment that is Francophone).

Changing of the Guard

By chance, we arrived just in time for the daily "change of the guard" ceremony. This is an elaborate 35 minute performance of marching, and saluting, including the regimental band and the regimental goat. It was actually quite good - these soldiers have been trained to execute this drill very well. Even the goat performed to perfection.

We were then taken on a 90 minute tour of the Citadelle - you can't just wander aroud on your own. There are great views of the St Lawrence and of the Plains of Abraham from the ramparts.

St Lawrence River from La Citedelle

For Canadians, the successful all-Canadian assault on Vimy ridge in 1917 was an event that bound the nation and remains an important memory. Soldiers here salute the memorial cross in the Citadelle when the pass and Je me souviens ("I remember") is the regimental motto (and is roughly equivalent to "lest we forget" in Australia).

Leaving the Citadelle, we passed outside the walls through St Louis Gate. We strolled past the impressive provincial parliament building (called the National Assembly!) and found a small restaurant called L'Hobbit in the St Jean Baptiste area. This was more locals than tourists - a good meal of soup and steak and chips.

Quebec's National Assembly building

Bernadette and Christine decided on a rest for the afternoon, while Michael & Maurice headed off for Battlefields Park. This park includes the Plains of Abraham, where the French and English decided the destiny of Canada in 30 furious minutes in 1759. The Park has a discovery centre, with three good multi-media segments. Our timing was excellent - we did the three multi-media elements and then hopped in the last tour bus of the day.

The bus is a bit kitsch, with a drive/guide dressed as Abraham, the original French farmer of the area. However, it does improve and does give you a sense of how

Martello Tower on the Plains of Abraham

the battle between Woolf and Montcalm proceeded. The park is now a National Monument area, with lush green grass and mature trees, unlike the fields that it was in 1759.

We hopped off the bus near the end to visit a Martello Tower. Developed around 1810, these round defence gun towers are the same as the towers erected along the English south coast to defend against Napoleon. Here, America was the presumed enemy, though the towers never saw action. The tour ticket gives access to the tower, which has displays explaining how they worked.

Back home for a light supper, with limited cooking - we had been spooked by the excitement of the previous evening and we didn't think that the Quebec firemen would be a charming on a repeat visit.