May 26th - Montreal to Quebec City

We had a chance at breakfast to say our final farewells to Kenny and DeeAnne. It was a very sad parting of the ways. They were driving back to the States while we made the comparatively short journey from Montreal to Quebec City.

Before we left, we went and looked at the Montreal underground city, La Ville Souterraine. This is a vast network of passageways and shopping areas beneath the streets and buildings of Montreal. Apparently it connects over 60 buildings and has a total length of over 20 miles. During the winter using La Ville Souterraine is a way of life for many who live in the city.

One  of the many passageways linking buildings, the subway, shops and the railway station.

We left the underground city and went back to our hotel to check out. We had decided to avoid the main highway to Quebec and go on Route 138 which runs close to the western shore of the St.Lawrence River. One of our last views of downtown Montreal as we left the city.

 Due to my lack of orientation we actually crossed the St. Lawrence using the Champlain Bridge which took us to the southern side of the river! The bridge, which is 6 kms long, carries 160,000 vehicles a day and is, according to Wikipedia, the busiest bridge in Canada.

Once we had crossed the bridge we looked at the map and saw that we could cross back to the northern side of the river at Sorel-Tracy about 60 kms along route 30.

When we arrived at Sorel-Tracy we discovered that the crossing was by a ferry and luckily for us the next ferry left in 5 minutes. We paid the $9 fare and boarded the ferry for the fifteen minute crossing to St Ignace de Loyola.

Looking back towards Sorel-Tracy.

Two magnificent gleaming Harley Davidson motorbikes on the ferry.

Approaching the dock at St.Ignace de Loyola.

Our drive then took us through wonderful farming country so reminiscent of Europe.

After 60 kms of wonderful driving up Highway 138 we came to Trois Rivieres a fairly large town that had huge industrial sites. It was such a contrast to the beautiful country we had just been driving through. Here is a photo of the town centre.

Once through the town we came back into lovely country with small towns and villages along the highway. We saw numerous churches all built in a similar style, with silver spires and gleaming roofs.

We were driving close to the river and turned off Hwy 138 down a short road to a quay where we parked and took a few minutes to take in the beautiful scenery, including another gleaming church close by.

The small towns we drove through were very pretty with small white wooden buildings and always the gleaming church!

The lilac trees were in full bloom and some. like this were ablaze with colour.

The road ran close to the banks of the river for many miles and always added a great view to the journey.

We came across a small bar and restaurant close to the river and stopped for a drink and a snack lunch. The terrace of the restaurant had open sides and a cool breeze blew in from the river. It was an idyllic way to have a break.

Shortly after we left the restaurant we came across these two immaculate classic Fords parked in a drive by the side of the road. It was so unexpected!

Bob and me admiring one of the cars.

We were now about 50 kms from Quebec and the road continued to follow close to the river. At one point we stopped and saw this container ship heading upstream. It appeared to struggle against the current as its progress was painfully slow.

We reached the outskirts of Quebec at about 5pm and immediately hit very heavy traffic. In an attempt to avoid a major traffic jam near the old town I turned off and had to drive up this very steep side road.

The detour didn't help as we immediately were confronted by another jam! We eventually drove into the old town through this gate.

We arrived at our hotel a few minutes later.

We will have a whole day to see the major sights tomorrow and hopefully the weather will hold, although the forecast is for it to be much cooler.