Friday, April 3, 2009

14D Canada Part II - East Canada: Sept 2006

Toronto - Ottawa - Montreal - Old Quebec

I took the Westjet budget airline to fly from Vancouver to Toronto. It was an overnight flight and I arrived Toronto in the morning. My cousin was already waiting at the airport to pick me up. I have a few cousins there who are staying at different places so I had a chance to experience staying at different areas in Toronto. I went back to my cousins' home, freshen up and catch some sleep :-)

The next day, we visited Chudleigh's Apple Farm. We plucked some raspberries and apples. It was my first time at an apple farm, plucking apples from the trees. We went home after that and my cousin made some apple pies.




My cousin also booked me on a 3D2N trip to East Canada - Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec. Most of the tour group members are Chinese and they speak Cantonese. The guide spoke in Mandarin though. This is the tour company that I followed - Safeway Tours.



Our first stop is at Kingston to take the cruise and enjoy the views of the 1000 islands. This is the first sight that greeted us as we enter Kingston town. It gives me a very homely feeling.



This is the port that we took the cruise and that's our cruise that you see in the right picture.



These are some of the mini castles that you will see along the way. There are many of them, very cute looking. These of course, belong to the rich and famous.







Next we visited Ottawa. Hmm, I like Ottawa but we were given such a short time, about half an hour to enjoy this place which is the Parliament Buildings. And it only covers this area of the whole Ottawa. By the time I finished posing and taking a few snap shots here and there, I had to run back to the bus already. There really isn't enough time for us to enjoy this place.



That's Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa. It was already evening when we arrived. We were given a tour and a briefing on how the coins were made.



This is outside the Museum of Civilisation in Ottawa. I finished walking through the museum in a breeze and in just a short moment I was already outside the museum. I guess I am not a museum person and prefers to be outside the building. There were a lot of nice totems in the museum though.



The next day we visited Montreal and Quebec. The first stop was at St. Paul Church in Montreal. Well, it's just a church and nothing much that I enjoyed here. We went in to see the scuptures on the walls, the buildings, the art on the windows etc. I prefer the scenery outside, haha...again...It was very windy outside and as the church is at a higher ground, you can actually enjoy a nice view of the surrounding areas.

Next we visited Notre Dame Church in the city of Montreal. We had to pay a small fee to enter the church and since I am not so keen to visit another building, I opted to hang around outside while waiting for the rest of the tour members. There is nothing much to see outside, it's just another city surrounded with buildings.


This is the Biodome at Montreal. It is actually a museum (again!) but previously was built for the olympic. I enjoyed the ride up the tower where you can have a nice view of the entire area. I don't quite enjoy the rest of the museum visits which are exhibits related to the eco systems.



This is what I enjoyed. The highlight of my trip - a visit to the old Quebec. The moment we entered Old Quebec city, I felt like I was taken back to the past. It was beautiful to see the old buildings, the narrow cobbled streets, the horse carriage and the french feelings.


Our bus, in fact all the tour buses stopped outside the famous landmark of Old Quebec - Hotel Fairmont Le Chateau. This was a castle and it has been refurbished and turned into a hotel. It is huge and very beautiful. Many people took pictures with this building. There are also many narrow streets in Old Quebec.


I enjoyed walking on the cobbled streets and looking at the varieties of shops surrounding it. There are many gift shops here, needless to say, and many artists selling their paintings in this area. Well, this was the last day of the tour and the most enjoyable trip I had in the the 3 days. On the 3rd day we have to make our way back to Toronto.



My cousin also took me to sightsee Toronto city. It is just like any other cities buthere you would find many Asians. The picture on the left is at the Harbourfront Center in Toronto while the photo to the right is at Chinatown. We had lunch at the Spaghetti Shop and also visited CN Tower.


The day before I left, we went to Niagara Falls. I had a little fun at Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum before I went to the falls. They are all at the same area.


While walking towards the Niagara Falls, I could already see the Falls from afar and I was getting excited as that is one of the sights that I had wanted to see for so long.

I have finally stepped foot at Nigara Falls. It is indeed very beautiful and awesome. We stayed there for a while before we went shopping at the nearby Factory Outlets. The next day, I had to fly back to Vancouver for my flight back home.





No comments:

Post a Comment