We arrived in to Montreal in the mid afternoon and checked in to our hostel in the middle of the downtown restaurant area. For our first night in the city we tried the Irish pub across the street while we finalised our plans for the next couple of days. As our first day in the city was forecast to be overcast with a strong chance of rain we decided to do some indoor activities.
First stop was the Montreal Biodome. The Biodome is an indoor zoo divided in to four separate ecological zones. Highlights included the Amazon zone, with monkeys scuttling overhead in the trees and a family of lynx (a mother and two cubs), who put on a show while we watched from the prime central position in front of their enclosure.
Next it was to the insectarium, a short walk away. The insectarium had thousands of pinned exhibits of bugs from around the world as well as a couple of dozen living specimens. The shapes and colours on show were amazing (though I think Holly was a little creeped out by the scorpion feasting on an unlucky cockroach). There was almost as much to see there as the biodome. It was huge.
The next morning we were greeted with a bright sunny day so we decided to make the most of it! We made the short walk uptown from our hostel and arrived at the city’s outdoor centrepiece Mont Royal. Mont Royal is a mountain overlooking the city that has been converted into a giant national park and recreational area. After climbing about twenty sets of stairs we reached the top and were greeted with a view of the city skyline backed by the winding St Lawrence River. We explored the summit for a while checking out the sculptures and winding trails.
After lunch we walked down towards the riverside area of the city. Along the way we stopped in the historic district to see the famous Notre-Dame Basilica. The queue was long but we were entertained by an excellent busker. The inside of the Basilica was definitely worth the wait though – the pure extravagance and rich detail is hard to put in to words!
The Basilica was completed in 1829 at the approximate cost of 47,500 pounds (about 3.8 million Australian dollars today!). The primary hall features a full gold plated pulpit with beautiful wooden pews and staircases up the middle. The stained glass windows up each side are amazing and all up it is a spectacular sight. Out the back is a smaller hall with an amazing carved pulpit most famous for being the location of Celine Dion’s wedding.
We then moved in to the old town of the city, but sadly much of it was under construction and repair. This was a little disappointing as Holly had memories of the area being amazing on her last visit. I guess this gives a reason for a return visit in the future once the area has been restored!
The next morning we rose early, checked out of our hostel and continued northeast along the highway towards our next destination – Quebec city. Again the road was fairly flat and unremarkable following roughly along the south bank of the St Lawrence river. We arrived at our destination in the mid afternoon and checked in to our hostel. We were in a great location only a short walk up the hill to Old Quebec.
For dinner we decided to visit the cobbled streets of the city and walked up a windy old road to an Irish pub that Holly had looked up online.
Even though it was dusk, as we made our way from the hostel, we caught our first glimpses of the sights of the old town – the cobbled streets, the old style facades on the shops and restaurants and a couple of huge European looking stone buildings towering up in to the sky. This got us excited for the next day of exploring the city.
The next morning we set out retracing our path back in to the heart of the old town. Our first stop was the town basilica, built in 1647. The inside of the basilica was once again amazing, not quite as spectacular as the Notre-Dame in Montreal, but still amazing in its own right. Next, we crossed through the old university, glistening white in the sun, and reached the inside of the city wall. Here the wall snaked along overlooking both the river and the strip of land containing, what we found out to be, the oldest city area in all of mainland Canada.
We then wound our way back up to the walled city and walked the length of the riverside to the Battlefields park. This was a historic area where the famous conquest of the British over the French was fought in 1759, shaping the future of North America. These days it had been converted in to a giant park area with lots of locals around walking their dogs and out for their daily exercise.
We passed around the La Citadelle de Quebec (a historic fort) and made our way along the interior of the city wall. It was very cool along this section as you could walk along the top of the wall itself, it was quite wide in places and some sections had been covered in grass. Along the way we passed three giant gates, the old entrances to the city. They reminded me of something from medieval times and looked strange with the electric lights, traffic lights and other modern signs of the times all around them. All three were still used as entry points to the city, but now they had modern style roads and cars running through them.
Overall, the old town of Quebec city was very beautiful and very much made you feel like you had stumbled into Europe. We completed our loop of the city and made our way back to the hostel for a home cooked meal (and some unanticipated French karaoke from the local bar across the street from our room!)
The sights got better as we got closer to the top and we had three viewpoints along the way to admire the falls. Once making it to the top we looped around a short track to cross the bridge that spanned over the top of the falls. The bridge gave a great view right over the spot where the water dropped over the edge and gave you an idea of the volume of water required to power the falls.
There were also several messages built out of the driftwood the had piled up at the base of the falls – mostly peoples names but also SOS and Help! Like you would expect to see built by a castaway or on a deserted island. The walk ended at a fancy looking function centre and restaurant and it was here we caught the cable car back down to the car park. We finished the day with lunch back in the Old Town and dinner (plus bonus karaoke) at the hostel.
The next morning we left QC and continued our way in a Northeast direction still following along the banks of the river. Here the river was starting to get wider and the terrain was getting rougher with a couple of mountains and some large forested areas. We both thought that we spotted a moose at different points, but it was only glimpses and the sightings remain unconfirmed!
After about three hours of driving we reached the Saguenay River and just across on the opposite bank was our destination, the small town of Tadoussac. We caught the ferry across the river and checked in to our accommodation at the Auberge de Jeunesse. It felt like the Byron Bay of Canada with a mix of hippy travellers and eccentric looking locals hanging around the main room and courtyard. There was also the strong aroma of weed, an old man out the back carving stilts out of wood and there were people playing horseshoe in a patch of dirt. An entire old ship had been retired into the back garden and semi-converted into a picnic table and there were little squirrels darting back and forth. Overall we loved the look of it and were very happy with our choice of hostel! We made the short walk in to the main town area, picked up some groceries and had some beverages in the small bar area as we enjoyed another home cooked meal.
Our primary reason for travelling up this far north was that this area is regarded as being one of the best places in the world for whale watching. We reviewed the weather and determined that our second full day in Tadoussac had the best conditions so we booked our tour through the hostel and set out to spend the day around the town. After a delicious breakfast at Café Boheme (so good that we made it our local for each morning of our time there) we decided to make our way to the shore of the river as we had heard that it was sometimes possible to see whales from the bank.
The walk down to the river was very pretty with the colourful old houses looking out over the beach alongside the massive red Tadoussac inn. And sure enough, as we rounded the southern head, we almost immediately saw a minke whale fin only a few metres off the rocks at the point! We rushed over only for the weather to suddenly close in and the rain to come pouring from the sky. The other dozen or so people who were clambering over the rocks darted away for shelter but we stood there in the rain as three minke whales fed lazily around the mouth of the Saguenay only metres away from where we stood watching. Despite the rain it was a highlight of the trip to date with just us and the whales!
Luckily after about 15 minutes the rain cleared, but we continued to sit and watch the minkes for the next couple of hours. A few boats and jet skis came to watch as well but the whales didn’t seem to mind. They even crossed up occasionally near the giant traffic ferries without seeming too bothered. As we made our way back to the main area of the town we spotted some white dots out in the harbour – beluga whales! Only the small back hump and blowholes of the whales were visible and they were a long way out, but it was clear that a pod of rare belugas were playing out amongst the small waves.
After a break for lunch we tried our luck from the north head. Sadly the wind had blown up very strong making any kind of wildlife viewing very difficult. However the walk itself was nice and there were some cool rock formations around the headland.
That night we ate dinner in the pub area of the hostel where an interesting French Canadian band played on the tiny stage. For their big finale the entire band donned wrestling masks and the frontman strutted amongst the crowd in a full lycra ensemble. All in all a fun night with a great atmosphere!
The next day was moment we had been waiting for – we had our whale watching trip out on the river! We headed down to the waterfront area and were herded on to our boat. We had gone with a zodiac style tour again like we had done in the bay of fundy but this time we were on a larger vessel that held around 20 people. We were barely out of the harbour before we came across another pod of beluga whales. Due to national park restrictions we weren’t able to get too close so but we felt the tour had got off to a great start!
The captain of the boat got a call on his radio and we were whisked over to the opposite bank of the river. We saw a couple of minkes and seals in the area but that is not what we had been brought over for. Suddenly a massive whale broke the surface of the water as he swam his way past our zodiac. The distance between the blowhole and tail was huge, it certainly dwarfed our boat! We were told that he was a fin whale, the second largest whale in the world.
We watched the huge whale take several breaths before diving down to the depths to feed. Then we were off again , this time for many kilometres up the river. After roughly an hour of powering north we finally reached the centrepiece of the tour – a massive blue whale slowly making her way through the fjord waters. We learned that approximately six blue whales make these waters their home every summer and this whale was a regular. Her name was Jawbreaker and we were in for a treat as she was one of the minority of blue whales who raise their tails from the water when they dive. The size was incredible – especially compared to a couple of the little boats who were out there watching her!
After around 20 minutes of viewing it was time for us to make our long way back to the harbour. This seemed to fly by as we were still on a high from what we had just seen. We spent our last night in the hostel pub again (complete with encore performance from the wrestling band). Then the next morning we started the long trip back to Toronto.
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