Chapter Five - The Great Train Journey - Part II

Hi All

Welcome to the second part of chapter five of our train journey across eastern Canada. It takes up as we depart from Ottawa and start our train trip to Montreal, the city with the king's mountain for its name.

Arriving only 3 hours after our departure, we soon pull into Montreal Gare Centrale and grab a taxi to Le Cantlie Suites - our home for the next 2 nights. The suites were huge with a separate bedroom, lounge room and a fully equipped kitchen - all smack bang in the middle of Montreal.

We discover that we have arrived in the middle of the jazz festival week so we head out to check out the scene. Many of the gigs are outdoors and free so we enjoy a vin blanc and fromages whilst listening to the music.

The girls at one of the open air stages at the Jazz festival, Montreal

Today is Denise's birthday so we head out for a brilliant meal at an up-market music restaurant in the old town and had a fantastic evening.

Special dinner for Denise's birthday at Moudave Restaurant

Next day, we head off under inclement skies on the hop-on hop-off bus (part of our package) around the whole city. Montreal is understandably very much more French than the more western cities in Canada and the Gallic charm is pervasive.

The street with the rainbow coloured lights celebrating the LGBTI community

Street art during the festival

Outdoor art and a piano for anyone to play

Denise meets some tall lady in Montreal

Our street in Montreal with the Aussie flag flying (along with the other 190+ of the UN Nations)

Storm clouds gather over the Olympic Stadium

The monument to some famous person 

More street art

Notre Dame Cathedral, Montreal

Inside the Cathedral

Inside a chapel in the Cathedral

The visit to the Archaeological Museum put the historic aspect of the waterfront of the city into perspective as the city evolved through time.

Back on the train and we head off to Québec City - same province as Montreal but even more French in nature, manner and ambiance. Our accommodation is in the old town at the Clarendon Hotel and although fairly rustic, the rooms are charming and oh so European.

Looking back at our hotel (yellow building centre) - old town Quebec City

The Fairmont - Quebec City dominating the skyline

Our hotel - the Clarendon

City Hall

Typical building from the French period

View from the hotel - a rain delay!

Same view 20 minutes later

A typical street near our hotel

Québec City, like Ottawa, was a city that we had heard little about and had no real idea of what to expect. In both cases we were rapt in what we found. These two cities on their own are worth a trip to eastern Canada!

Our walking tour of Québec was led by Mike - a Québec local about our age and a guide with a vast wealth of knowledge about this fascinating city. We spent all our time in the old city and down around the dock area and Mike provided a rich and entertaining exposé of the history of the city.

Charming cottages on our walking tour

Three of us looking down on the old port below the walls

Down at port level in the old town

A fantastic wall mural

Plaza in the port level of the old town

Looking up a cobble-stone street to the furnicular

A gate through the wall into the old town

Looking back to the Chateau Fairmont and the old city of Quebec

The battlements from the British era

This week was also in the middle of the Festival d'été de Québec - the city's 10-day long summer festival and there were concerts and performances going on all over the old city.

The massive open-air stage on the
Plains of Abraham - the site of a huge British vs French battle of yesteryear

Of course Denise and Anne had to sneak out to see Los Lonely Boys one night but there were tons of other interesting things to do while we were there.

More sculptures in the town

Looking down towards the port

Part of the old Jesuit monastery - now part of the university

A breather on the climb to the citadel

Climbing the steps (all 440 of them) up to the citadel

Anne with the Saint Lawrence River in the background

However, the charm of the city lies in its French then English then Canadian history, its buildings and its people.

A city founder and government building in the background

The Chateau Fairmont from the boardwalk over the old city foundations with storm clouds brewing 

A very French Rue up to the old city gates

All too soon, our time in Québec City came to an end and with it our Great Train Journey across eastern Canada.

Our train journey had been absolutely brilliant - a fantastic way to travel and to visit four totally different and unique cities for the first time. We liked and enjoyed some cities more than others but all were worth visiting. My favourites were Ottawa and Québec City but that is just my personal preference - in fact all were fantastic in their own ways.

A train journey as a means of travel....yes to that! In business class, the only word to describe travelling this way in Canada is...brilliant.

Most of our hotels were only a few minutes from the central train station - it usually took us 10 minutes or less to check all our luggage in and to retire to the business class lounge for coffee, juice and a comfy chair to recline in to wait for our train which, when it arrives, takes us no time at all to board and to sink into our pretty luxurious recliner seats.

Waiting for a train in the business class lounge of Ottawa Central train station

Once the train pulls out our train attendant is soon delivering hot towels and snack packs, breakfast, tea, coffee and juice. On our sector from Toronto to Ottawa, we were even served a lunch which was like premium economy airline food and free drinks (bubbly, spirits, beer and wine etc). Definitely not too tardy!!

The trains seem to always run on time, service is first rate and with a travel speed of around 150 kph, the journeys are surprisingly quick, hassle-free and enjoyable.

As we say goodbye to Québec City, it is time to take to the skies and wing our way to the Big Apple - New York City and to experience life in a very much faster lane than the previous few weeks.

Chapter Five - The Great Train Journey - Part I

Hi and welcome to the fifth chapter of the Andersen Diaries for 2017.

This chapter illuminates readers about the rail journey that we made from Toronto in Ontario Province to Quebec City in the province of Quebec in eastern Canada. Because of the sheer number of photos and the huge array of sights, this chapter, like the previous one, is in two parts. This part covers our exploits in Toronto and Ottawa.

Our journey begins as our plane touches down in Toronto after leaving the western city of Calgary in Ontario. Our taxi dropped us at our hotel - the Chelsea - in the middle of downtown Toronto. The hotel itself is massive - multiple buildings taking up an entire city block. The lobby is huge and it was packed - there were business people, airplane flight crews and a gazillion tourists. Our rooms were quite comfortable although a tad tired looking.

After checking in and dumping our gear, we headed off for a leisurely stroll down Yonge Street - the main drag. This street is long, extremely busy and full of great shops, beggars and homeless people. All in all, a pretty mixed bag really!

Moving away from Yonge St, we found some much more charming areas of the city with street art and free performances celebrating Canada Day on many corners and in many squares.

The Atrium Building, Toronto

Water feature inside the Atrium

A rarity - a Melinda Street named for our daughter

Main public building - Toronto

The public square - open air entertainment

The next day, we joined our scheduled tour early in the morning meeting our bus driver and guide Shane who was to take us out Niagara Falls. Despite an early traffic snarl, we were soon motoring along on our way to this famous natural wonder and tourist attraction. It’s fair to say that we were not disappointed, as the vista when we arrived was of multiple waterfalls and an incredible amount of airborne mist and spray.

The quartet at the Falls

Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side

The water spray from the cascade

The Hornblower tour boat approaching the falls

View from the side of the Horseshoe Falls

The Maid if the Mist from the US side of the falls nears the waterfall

Little pink riding hoods

Whilst not as high or anywhere near as extensive as Iguazu Falls in Argentina/Brazil which Anne and I had visited ten years ago, the sheer volume of water rushing over the falls marking the boundary between Canada and the USA was amazing. The falls are on the Niagara River where it drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario and was well worth the hour and a half bus trip.

The lovely Anne and Denise toasting the falls from the dining room at the Hilton

The cable car that travels over the whirlpool in the Niagara River

Another view of the whirlpool

After the falls, we visited the town of Niagara on the Lake – a charming little boutique village (a bit like Berry or Berrima at home) where we indulged in some brilliant salted caramel ice cream and Anne came away with a new, very chic straw hat courtesy of one of the local stores.

Too soon, we had to leave this quaint little township and head back to the big smoke of Toronto and another pub-grub dinner at the Queen and Beaver which was just an infinitesimally small improvement in quality above the food at the Elephant and Castle pub of the previous night.

Monday saw us boarding our first train of this eastern Canada rail extravaganza as we scrambled up the steps and into the business class carriage to begin our journey to our next whistle-stop city – Ottawa, the capital of Canada.

Anne and me being silly to a 'T' in Sparks Mall, Ottawa

The city of Ottawa sits on the southern side of the Ottawa and Gatineau Rivers in the province of Ontario whereas the region on the northern side of the rivers is called Gatineau and is in the province of Quebec.

Ottawa was a bit of a revelation after the hustle and bustle of Toronto and Vancouver. Whereas Vancouver had been large but laid-back and a bit quirky, Toronto was brash and in–your-face and now Ottawa was…well…nice (in a nice way). It was a city that was a lot smaller than both Vancouver and Toronto but had a bit of a homely feel to it.

On arriving and checking into the Lord Elgin hotel, we ventured out to stroll down the main pedestrian street, Sparks Street Mall. This proved to be a charming and much more French experience than Toronto. We also checked out the Parliament buildings and the Rideau area - a large market complex not far from our hotel.

The girls in a rather large chair

Sparks Street Mall

The War memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Ottawa

Next day, we had a scheduled hop-on hop-off bus as part of or package so we jumped on board and toured the many sights of the city. The most unforgetable part of the tour was the sculptured gardens where plants of all colours and descriptions have been trained to cover mesh to form the most unbelievable array of giant sculptures - animals, people, trains and other amazing objects -all from Canada's past history.

Called MosaiCanada 150/Gatinear 2017, the sculptures are in Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau and have been created to celebrate the 150 years of Canadian history, culture and arts since Canadian federation.

A Mountie on horseback - all made of plants

A horse and bear in the background

A fisherman hauling on a hawser

The native Indian archway

Dragons and people celebrate the Chinese New Year

A wolf and a bear

The dragon gateway and circle of life

A giant grand piano - even the keys are made of plants and ground covers

A man in a kayak with the best sculptures in the park in the background

My favouriites - the waterfall hand and Mother Earth

The Waterfall Hand

Gaia or Mother Earth - simply stunning

This park and its 40 giant sculptures took a team of over 100 gardeners from across the globe nearly a year to create and has over 3,000,000 individual plants of 80 different varieties. It will become a permanent monument after the sesquicentennial and is not to be missed.  

In the afternoon, Anne and Denise did a tour of the Governor Generals residence (which they thought was fantastic) while Laurie and I went out to the National Aviation Museum which was also excellent.

The entrance to the Governor Generals Residence

Anne at the fountain outside the residence

Central entertaining area

Formal entertaining anyone?

Photos below - historic planes from the Aviation Museum

Other photos from beautiful Ottawa and its rich history are shown below:

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Ottawa

Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside Notre Dame Cathedral

The Spider Sculpture - outside the art museum

The Houses of Parliament from our river cruise on the Ottawa River

The Museum of Contemporary Art from the river

The river view of the Fairmont Château Laurier - imposing!

The next morning, it was time to board our train, say goodbye to Ottawa and head off to our next destination - Montreal. Ottawa city had been much, much more than we had expected. It goes to show that when you know very little about a place, that visiting it with an open mind and a spirit of adventure can deliver some of the most rewarding experiences.