Day 6 Newport to Quebec, Canada

Sunday night in Newport, VT, just 5 miles below the Canadian Border, an area called the Northeast Kingdom is the northeast corner of the state of Vermont, having a population at the 2010 census of 64,764. In Vermont, the written term "NEK" is often used. The term "Northeast Kingdom" is attributed to George D. Aiken, former Governor of Vermont and a U.S. senator, who first used the term in a 1949 speech. The area is often referred to by Vermonters simply as "The Kingdom".

The Northeast Kingdom has been listed in the North American and international editions of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die", the New York Times best-selling book by Patricia Schultz. In 2006, the National Geographic Society named the Northeast Kingdom as the most desirable place to visit in the country and the ninth most desirable place to visit in the world.

It was really interesting countryside driving in, but tonight is Pizza Night on the Crawl, thanks to Curmudgeon Al Marsh. 

 

Then came time for fun and games.... Jenga and Left/Right/Center

Sharon, Charlie and Sandy watch the action,

and Missy looks on as well.

 

 

Curmudgeon Al, digests his pizza checking the weather report.

Howies Pizza, across the street was the source of some really good pies.

 

The morning dawned with wet cars, but the rain has moved on and we expect a dry day.

Al's car would not start.... dead battery.  Reg preps the jumper cables to borrow some juice from a friendly neighbor at the hotel.

It started!!!

The Topinka's ready to roll toward Quebec.

 

And the first batch of cars leave at 8am, on the dot.

Meanwhile, Bruce had to find a welding shop to fix his broken muffler connection, so most of us held back with the promise we could get underway by 9:30.

Bruce got welded, and is running smoothly, so off we went toward the border

The border entry had this very nice granite tribute to the friendship between countries and was sponsored by Rotary International. 

Through the gauntlet and into Canada.

After having been accepted by the Canadian boarder authorities, we cued up waiting for each car in our cluster to get through the entry process.

 Then off to the northland.

The culture change was alarming.... this is French Canada, so all the signs were in French, and we would find that many people might speak English, but it was their second language and French speaking was predominant. 

I thought this four way stop sign was interesting.

 



 Entering Quebec.

 

Quebec has lots of public art in parks and along roadways, helping make it a lovely city.

 

 

While parking is scarce, the hotel arranged for parking space in a church parking lot across the street, and next to an art show and bazaar.  The cars immediately drew attention and we answered questions and felt like rock stars for awhile.

 

The streets of Old Quebec were crowded with visitors and natives alike. 

 

 

Then Vern and Sandi Campbell regaled us with their story of crossing the border and what a little miscommunication can do. 

 

 

High in the city is the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac Hotel.

 

Horse drawn carriages for the romantic.

Narrow streets and cobblestone sidewalks.

We found what appeared to be a small French restaurant on Rue St. Luis, among many other restaurants.  They were able to seat the 9 of us immediately.  While waiting for our food to arrive a tour of 80... yes 80 students walked in and was accommodated for group dinner on a lower floor section of the restaurant, which apparently is much larger than we imagined.

 

 

 

 

Many thanks again to Pat Buckley for his assistance in taking photos for this blog.  He generously lets me review his entire collection to select the highlights for this publication. 

 

Tomorrow we walk and tour Quebec city, leaving our little cars in the church parking lot.