Trip Report!! ABD Canadian Maritimes: Nova Scotia/Prince Edward Island/New Brunswick 8/25 - 9/1/24

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So here we go! This is my trip report for my Canadian Maritimes ABD. This ABD goes to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

I'd been to Nova Scotia in 1996 with Backroads. My first "Adventure" trip. (Oi! That's a long time ago!). But that trip did the Western half of Nova Scotia, so except for the capitol of Halifax, there was no overlap with this trip. I'd wanted to go back & see more of the area for a long time, plus I am a HUGE Anne of Green Gables geek, and this trip included a day exploring areas of PEI that inspired the book. So I was really looking forward to this trip!

I decided to do some pre-days before the ABD. I started with 2 days in Quebec City, and then spent 5 days with my sister who lives in Montreal. With these detours, really the only airline that worked getting there was Air Canada. I really, really hate Air Canada. I have had tons of issues with them from canceled flights to lost luggage, so I wasn't too thrilled about it, but decided to bite the bullet.

Travel and Pre-Day 1 - Quebec City

So things did not start out well. I got an email late Thursday night that the first leg of my early Friday morning flight from Ohio to Toronto had been cancelled due to mechanical issues with, apparently, the one plane flying back & forth between Ohio and Toronto. They had rebooked both flights (Ohio to Toronto to Quebec City) and the email said I could follow the link and explore my options. But the only option listed was a HORRID flight that went from Ohio to Dulles to Ottawa to Quebec City, with only 35 minutes between flights! And there was no way to change it on the website. I could either accept this horrid new flight or not. NO WAY!! I finally got ahold of a customer service rep on the phone, and after informing him that their new flights were NOT acceptable (can you imagine trying to make a connection in DC in 35 minutes???) we went back and forth for what seems like a couple of hours before we came up with an acceptable alternative. The hardest part was that my ride to the airport was at the movies with her phone turned off, and I couldn't verify if the new times were good for her. I was also now leaving 4 hours later, with a 5+ hour layover at LaGuardia! And I was arriving in Quebec City around midnight. Not preferable, but at least I would be getting there (hopefully!) But they'd had to book me on United to accomplish this.

So anyways, once that all got worked out, I did manage to get to Quebec City on Friday without a lot of issues. I'm not a fan of United, either, but they're better than Air Canada!

I'd found a nice boutique hotel called the Hôtel du Vieux-Québec in the Upper Old Town area of Quebec City, within walking distance of pretty much everything I planned to check out over the next 2 days. It was a relatively tiny room, but it was well laid out, and extremely well located, so I was fine with that.







I settled in, and went to sleep. Fortunately, I hadn't booked anything until 1pm the next day.

One of the perks of this hotel was that if your reservation included breakfast, it was a continental breakfast every morning that was delivered to your room in a little basket. They actually had a hook on the wall outside the room door that they would leave the basket hanging on each morning. The breakfast consisted of a couple of pastries, a cup of yogurt, some cheese and juice. It was really quite a nice breakfast. There was a coffee maker in the room, and they also had a machine in the lounge on the main floor that made fancy coffee drinks. I was all set. I had a bit of a sleep-in and a very leisurely morning of breakfast, reading and a long, hot shower.



Then I headed out to walk across the Old Town to my first destination: A guided tour of the fabulous historic hotel, the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.

The hotel does not run these tours, but the tour company has a desk in the lobby of the hotel, and when I arrived, one of the doormen was easily able to tell me where on the boardwalk outside I was to meet the tour. We had a costumed tourguide, whose "name" was Sir Sandford Fleming, a well-known Canadian engineer and inventor of the late 1800's.



He described to us in fascinating detail the evolution of the Chateau Frontenac, which was built over many years, in many phases.

After a time discussing the building of the Hotel, we then went inside to check out various areas of Chateau, many of which are closed to the general public unless you are attending an event in the area.

The Lobby. I do love the deep blue ceiling.



The gold sculpture hanging over the wine room is an actual depiction of the St. Lawrence river as it flows through Canada.



A view from the very expensive dinner restaurant out to the riverfront.





This area was originally the women's lounge where the women would congregate while the men hung out in their smoking room. It's now an event room for wedding receptions and things like that.



Continued in next post.

 

[sayhello]

Looking down to the Dufferin Terrace (the boardwalk), the Lower Old Town and the St. Lawrence River.



We then went to check out the ballroom. Quite nice.





After the tour was over, I decided to return to the more casual "Le Sam" Bistro that our guide had pointed out, for a late lunch. I checked the menu, and they had French Onion soup, which I really love. (I asked, and they really *do* call it "French Onion Soup" not just "Onion Soup"). The hostess said they had the best French Onion soup in the city. So I decided to give that a try.

It was a very pretty space. I had the soup, a small Caesar chicken salad and a fruit and angelfood dessert. The soup was OK, but honestly, a bit on the bland side. But the salad was very yummy, and the dessert was *spectacular*! (In fact the table next to me heard me exclaiming over it and decided to order it themselves!)









After lunch, I checked out the shops in the Chateau and then did some wandering around the Dufferin Terrace and the area around the Chateau.

Looking down from the Terrace to the Lower Old Town. It's quite a hike down there (and then back up) so I didn't head there since I would be checking this area out on a walking tour the next day. But it looked really cool.





I then decided to start heading back towards my hotel.

Continued in next post.

 

[sayhello]

I walked to the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec. As I was walking up to it, I noticed a sign pointing towards a door on the side, with a separate walkway up (and several people headed that way) so I decided to check this door out, and go inside the Basilica. The door was a large bronze door, with a figure of Jesus embossed on the outside, and what I assumed to be Mary on the inside. It was very cool. It was not until the next day that I found out that this is a very special door. It is one of only 7 Holy Doors in the world, gifted to the Basilica by the Holy See. It is the only one of the Holy Doors outside of Europe. Apparently people will make pilgrimages to go through the Holy Door. It is only occasionally open, and I happened to hit it when it was open. The inside of the Basilica is really quite beautiful, too.













There were some interesting art pieces around the town.



It turned out my hotel was on a main pedestrian street. It was quite lively during the day, but I didn't find it at all noisy at night. It probably helped that my room was not in the front of the hotel. But it was very nice, as an array of restaurants and shops were easily accessible from my hotel.





Up Next: Day 2 of my pre-days in Quebec City.