So, a short call to Avis and Hilton Diamond Desk later and the technicalities of the trip have been ironed out.
The trip from Montreal to QC takes about 3 hours along a portion of the TransCanada highway. We made it in almost 5 (with a few stops along the way to "smell the flowers" and have lunch, accompanied by wild bees). Quebec is amazing: rural areas, green from one side of the horizon to the other, leafs changing their color, and water - so much water. I read somewhere Quebec has more than a million lakes, rivers, and bodies of water. I can now say I believe it.
This, in my opinion, is the closest you can get to Europe without crossing the Atlantic.
The QC Hilton is amazing. Nice and VERY well located. I got a room at the 17th floor with a panoramic window overlooking the parliament building the old city.
We then took a walking tour of the old city ("Vieux Quebec"), the fortifications and the Chateau Frontenac (a huge castle, also serving as a Fairmont hotel), which, sadly, is undergoing some re-construction.
The old city is full of galleries, restaurants, arts and antics shops and some shops that defy description (a shop specializing in middle-age customs and gear, for example). It's all surrounded by the St. Laurent river.
After that, it was back to the maps and Internet, to plan the next day.
Tips:
- The one car upgrade you should care for (because I could care less what car am I driving and I pack my own GPS) is a satellite radio (XM, Sirius). Nothing is more fun then listening to what you like when you'd like to - without the need to fuss with station buttons.
- The GPS software in my Blackberry (Telenav) has no idea hou to pronounce French names - so it says nothing! For example, a highway is Autoroute in French. You'd here "go 0.1 miles turn left and enter..." (add Autoroute 20" in your head).
- In Quebec, as in the rest of Canada, speed is measured in kilometers/hour and not miles. So wipe that smile of your face when you see a sign saying "100 Maximum", unless you'd like to explain yourself to a nice highway officer.
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