Quebec City

Papa and I spent several hours today, walking about Old Quebec City on a cloudy, windy day.  We walked about the Hotel Frontenac, constructed between 1893 and 1983 by the Canadian Pacific Railroad.  We walked around the Citadel and along the original city ramparts, with cannons along the way.  We saw the Basilique Notre-Dame de Quebec, with much of it's interior covered in gold leaf.  There are several monasteries and convents, mostly built of stone.  The Hotel de Ville, built in 1833, was another impressive building.  All the massive public buildings sit amongst cafes, stores, and townhouses, mostly built in the 1800's and charming.  We had croissants at Paillards, voted the best in Quebec City.  Quebec City is primarily French speaking.  We had a good day!

Montreal

Yesterday we flew from Calgary to Montreal.  We were welcomed by Denis at the Heritage Victorien B and B last evening.  Denis renovated an historic townhouse with most of the original fixtures and structure intact.  It is a beautiful home.  We woke up to a generous, delicious breakfast, with homemade quiche, fresh pastries, fresh squeezed orange juice, and the best coffee of our trip.

After breakfast, Papa and I walked to Old Montreal, about 6 blocks away.  We visited the Chapel Notre Dame de Bon Secours, historically known as the Sailor's Church.  Some of the light fixtures were carved boats.  A cobblestone street separates the Chapel from the St. Lawrence River.

We walked inside and outside the Marche' Bonsecours, formally Canada's Parliament and now used as retail and art gallery space.   The Hotel de Ville is up a block, built in 1872, an impressive building.  On we walked down Rue Saint-Paul, lined with original buildings now housing shops and cafes, to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal.  There were lots of tour groups lined up to go inside, so we just admired it from the outside.  With twin towers of 226', it is considered Montreal's grandest Catholic church.  Across the Place d'Armes from Notre-Dame is the Banque de Montreal, built in 1845.  It sits on Rue Saint-Jacques, historically the "Wall Street" of Canada.  Rue Saint-Jacques has block after block of over the top 19th century bank buildings.  

We bought $8 metro tickets at the airport yesterday, to get from the airport to our B and B.  The metro tickets were good for 24 hours, so we used those tickets again today!  We rode the metro from Old Montreal up to Marche' Jean Talon, in Little Italy.  The Marche' Jean Talon was started in 1933.  It is primarily an outdoor market with food shops and restaurants on three sides.  The market is open 365 days/year, with over 300 vendors, mostly farmers from Montreal's surrounding countryside. We wandered up and down each aisle, tasting fresh plums and strawberries, tried fresh cerises (little yellow berries, similar to small cherries), and listened to a woman playing the accordian.  We had a pecan and maple pastry at LaFourne bakery.  We bought fresh berries for later and wished we had space in our suitcases for maple syrup. 

We took the metro a bit south and walked to Parc Mont-Royal.  The peak is 767'.  Jacques Cartier gave the "mountain" it's name when he visited in 1535 and it, in turn, gave its name to the city.  The hill became a park in 1876 when the city bought the land and hired Frederik Law Olmsted, the man responsible for designing New York's Central Park, to landscape it.  There are sweeping views from the Parc Mont-Royal over all of Montreal.  

On our way back to our B and B, we found a boulangerie that I had read about, as the city's best. 

We got canneles, which Papa deemed just as good as our favorite canneles from the little patisserie in Prayssac, France.  Papa also got a cinnamon roll with raisins and cream that he said was the best he's ever had.  We highly recommend a visit to Mamie Clafoutis Boulangerie, 3660 Rue Saint Denis!

Banff

We spent time in Banff over the past two days.  We saw a fisherman fly fishing on the Bow River, just downhill from the Banff Springs Hotel.  The water looked cold!  The Bow River, 

upstream and downstream is beautiful, with mountains all around and that milky blue color

 that so many Canadian Rocky Mountain rivers seem to have.

Downtown Banff is beautifully maintained, with old and new buildings mixed.  We enjoyed the Banff History Museum, started in 1903.  We shopped at the Hudson Bay Company, and then wandered around the Banff Springs Hotel, opened in 1888.  It is an imposing hotel, styled after a 

Scottish Baronial Castle, with 770 rooms.  

After a terrific Greek lunch in downtown Banff, we drove out to Lake Minnewanka, about five 

miles north.  Lake Minnewanka is surrounded by mountains, some still snow covered.  

Mostly clear skies with clouds and warm temperatures made it a perfect afternoon to stroll. 

Happy Canadians

Over the past week, Papa and I have commented several times about how happy the Canadians we've chatted with seem.  Yesterday afternoon, we picked up a newspaper and found this article, from the Canadian Press.

"If you're happy and you know it, a new report suggests you might be from Canada.

The Centre for the Study of Living Standards says more than 90 per cent of Canadians surveyed report they are either satisfied or very satisfied with their lives.  The centre tracked numbers collected by Statistics Canada in its community health survey between 2003 and 2011.  Canadians have stayed happy through that entire period, with 91 per cent reporting life satisfaction in 2003 and 92 per cent saying so last year.

The scores were enough to officially rank Canada as among the happiest countries in the world.
 
Centre executive director Andrew Sharpe said the numbers tell a compelling story about the standard of living most Canadians enjoy.  "We do have high levels of income. We have weathered the financial crisis better than other countries of the world," Sharpe said in a telephone interview.  "We do have a good health system. We complain about it, but at least there's full coverage of all Canadians ... We do have a lot of advantages as a country."

The centre says a recent Gallup world poll rated Canada as the second most satisfied nation, ranked only behind Denmark."

They certainly have something going on in Canada!  Everyone is smiling all the time!  

Wildlife in the Canadian Rockies

We have been looking out the car window for days, hoping to see area fauna.  This afternoon we saw a bull elk within a couple of miles of Lake Louise, eating grass by the side of the road.  We saw a mother mountain goat and her baby twice yesterday, while on the Icefield Parkway.  We have also seen a couple of interesting birds (an American magpie and a Stellar's jay), squirrels, and chipmunks.  While driving back into Banff from Lake Minnewanka, we saw a nice deer buck too. 

Johnston Canyon

The weather forecast for today predicted rain showers in the afternoon, so we went to Johnston Canyon in the morning.  We drove from Lake Louise south toward Banff on the Bow Valley Parkway, a scenic two lane road that runs parallel to the Trans Canada Highway, with the Bow River running between the roads.  A light rain began to fall just after we arrived at Johnston Canyon, but not heavy enough to stop us.  Johnston Canyon is known for its waterfalls and they are beautiful, with the Upper Falls having the greatest drop.  The water is the clearest imaginable.  The other impressive thing about the canyon is the path.  Much of it is cantilevered over the canyon. 

Icefield Parkway

Papa and I made a round trip, from Lake Louise to Jasper, and back today via the Icefield Parkway, about 460 km.  It was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky.  We hiked up a hill to an overlook, with Peyto Lake below, the clearest turquoise blue I've ever seen!

We stopped at every waterfall we saw, Bridal Veil Falls, several No Name Falls, then Sunwapta Falls crashing through a narrow gorge, and Althabasca Falls, also crashing though a narrow gorge 

with two footbridges above it and several lookouts.  All were beautiful!

We stopped at the Columbia Icefield Center for a short break and to visit their exhibits.  

The Columbia Icefield is about 325 km² in area, 328 to 1,197 feet in depth and receives 

up to 275 inches of snowfall per year. The Icefield feeds eight major glaciers. 

We had lunch in Jasper, then turned back toward Lake Louise.  The Icefield Parkway follows along rivers the whole distance, so we could mostly look out the window of the car to see milky blue rivers flowing by.  We arrived back at our hotel by 6 p.m. and walked a bit by the Lake.  So beautiful!