Category: Trip

Claudine & The King Of Goats

August 11, 2013

Last night I went down to lower city for some more exploration, this time by night.

As it turns out, we visited Quebec (purely by chance) during ‘The Festival Of New France’ and the city (especially lower town) was full of people in period costume, such as this:

And this:

There was a particularly large density of them in lower city last night, including some actors playing roles. This next shot shows a fishmonger pulling has cart into the darkness:

And here’s a bear!

The fireworks were lengthy and spectacular. Everyone in Quebec turned out to watch them 🙂

The next day, our last in Quebec, started with a visit to The Citadel.

This fort atop the highest peak in the city was built by the British to defend Quebec from the Americans. It was never actually attacked, and although an active base is now open for tours.

Although a bit rushed (due to tourist volume I suspect) our guide Claudine did a good job and we learned a lot. But were I to distill the experience to one image it would be this:

Holy Moses a goat in armor! This is (a statue of) Batisse the mascot of the regiment posted at The Citadel. The first Batisse was a gift from The Queen and the bloodline continues to today’s goat, who takes part in the changing of the guard every day! Batisse is a high level goat!

Here’s Jim eating poutine for lunch:

Can you guess from the photo what I had?

We did some other stuff, such as visiting churches and a nunnery and even the birds again…

…and then I saw the worst bear souvenir ever made…

…before we hopped on the train back to Montreal! Tomorrow back to Albany and a much needed vacation to recover 🙂

Apotheosis of The Machine Brain

August 10, 2013

It’s 8 pm and I’m sitting on the promenade outside the ~~castle~~ hotel overlooking the Saint Lawrence river. There will be fireworks later; people are everywhere! It will be a fun end to a busy day!

Here’s the very start:

We’d return to this bakery later for bread and pastries for our dinner!

In the morning we caught a bus upriver to the famous Montmorency Falls.

Beautiful! See the bridge over the top? We walked that. The photo above is taken from a steep staircase that leads from the top to the bottom:

Here’s a shot from the lookout to the south side of the falls, visible on the left in the first photo:

We started at the top, took the stairs down, then got to the top again via a rope way!

Here’s me hamming it up in the car:

Growing up in Australia waterfalls are not exactly common and it’s always a treat to visit one. It was a sight definitely worth seeing 🙂

Afterwards, we returned to the city and headed down to old town, at the base of the cliffs on which stands the hotel. Here I met a lovely bird:

Whose hand is that? ONLY MINE!

I petted him and he leaned into my hand. So cute!

We wandered on, and ignorantly walked right past the Canadian Museum of Civilization! Booooooring, we all might think. But stop the presses since a certain poster caught my eye…

What’s this? A froggy museum exhibit on the history of video games in Quebec, Canada? Could it be good? Was it worth $15?!?!?

Yes, my friends, it absolutely was!

The exhibit, which was divided into various eras (Origin, Arcades, 3D etc.) contained over 500 items including a staggering 88 playable consoles and arcade games!

And believe me, whoever curated this exhibit was no slouch to game history and the landmark games from each era.

The above snap shows Barbarian playable on an Amstrad!?! I was in hog heaven as I effortlessly demoed the 1-hit kill move to Jim almost 30 years since I had last played.

I would go on to play PC-Engine, MSX (!!), C-64 and countless other gems, including…

Tempest 2000 on a Jaguar! Jim got in on the action as well:

That’s him playing an Amiga for the first time. The game? Turrican!

Here’s a cute display:

That’s Bubble Bobble demonstrated on 4 different machines. A fifth was playable adjacent to this display.

I also went a bit menerk when I found Thunderforce III playable for Mega Drive. It was as if this exhibit was custom designed for me!

Oh and the relics! They ranged from breathtaking original working Space Invaders Deluxe cocktail cabinets:

To displays of rare game merchandise:

To awesomely nostalgic game packaging:

And to stuff bizarre beyond words:

There was so much to see and play, from Odyssey to iOS and Wii U. Superb beyond my mere words, this exhibit was one memory after another. As I got to this screen on my first man:

In this game:

I knew my visit to the ~~boooooring~~ Museum of Civilization was one I’d probably remember forever 🙂

Oh yes, and later in the day we saw this:

Gotta run! Fireworks 🙂

Castle On The Hill

August 9, 2013

We had booked the first train to Quebec City from Montreal, and had to wake before dawn to make it. The train was very comfortable, with spacious airline-style seating, and the trip was smooth and relaxing.

I’m taking Bernard’s comment from the other day to heart and today’s blog will feature only ‘street photography’ in accordance, I’m sure, with his exacting standards 🙂

We arrived at Montreal just after 9, and since nothing had been open when we left Montreal the first order if the day was breakfast. I’ll illustrate the event in a ‘visual tone poem’:

Quebec City has an old section inside a wall and up on a hill and our hotel – the Chateau Frontenac – is right at the top. Even so, it was a relatively easy walk up to the hotel from the station through the picturesque streets of old city.

And the hotel itself! Here’s the first you see of it:

And a couple of other views:

It’s 120 years old, absolutely massive and (obviously) built to resemble a classic European castle. Our room is large and comfortable, and the hotel sits atop a cliff with incredible views of the St Lawrence river. According to a plaque, it is the most photographed hotel in the world!

It’s also one of the most expensive I reckon! Ignoring for a moment the (ugly) $12075 sculpture of a violin in the gift shop, take a gander at this ‘fridge’:

It’s pre-stocked with all manner of beverage and if you drink any a charge is added to your bill. A can of soda? $4.25! A can of beer? $9! The total price if you drink everything (and eat the snacks as well)? $328.25 🙂

After dumping our stuff we went out and explored the near bye area, including a fort and a field upon which a historic revolutionary war battle occurred. Eventually we ended up in lower city at the base of the cliff on which stands Frontenac.

The rest if the day was – if you can believe it – spent relaxing! Here’s Jim snoozing the afternoon away:

I went exploring and found some old cosplayers in the hotel foyer…

A handsome horse just outside…

And a ‘Caramilk’ bar that I speedily shoved down my gulliver…

Later on I did some shopping (more postcards mostly), some eating, some watching of TV and then – after dark – a walk on the promenade. Here I saw a great acrobat show:

And a very large and very impressive castle-hotel looking beautiful with the lights on:

Tomorrow we’re going to visit the great outdoors…

Robot Claw