First thing in the morning, as soon as the pool was open, I went for a swim. When I was looking up the Delta Quebec online before we left, I saw that it had an outdoor heated pool. I thought this meant in the summer and said to Alan…no swimming this weekend. I was wrong-they heat the outdoor pool to swimming temperature all winter. It is pretty bizarre and decadent. It reminded me of the hotel in Guilin, China that becomes a waterfall..I couldn’t find one of our own pictures, so I got this one from the web. I have to admit I am not a good enough person not to be impressed and enjoy these things…

We walked into the old city for breakfast and I had the best eggs Benedict ever. And I order them whenever a restaurant has them. They were served on what amounted to pulled ham, and good quality ham at that. I am not sure I can go back to ordinary ones now. So often they overcook the eggs and they usually put them on a nasty deli slice of ham.
We left the restaurant and took the funicular car down to the lower town.
After wandering around a bit, we took the ferry across the river to Levis and back. I am a sucker for ferries, Hong Kong ,Bangkok Italy to Athens and on to Crete, between the islands of New Zealand, etc. I once had a memorable crossing of the English channel as a teenager. The ferry passed the breakwater into heaving seas and soon the entire population was heaving along with the boat. When the kids were little we sometimes took the long way home from Toronto via Picton and took the little ferry that connects Prince Edward County with Kingston. It is a perfect ferry ride for small children. If it is not right there, you can watch it coming. You can see the far shore as soon as you embark…kids attention span stuff. All the bang and no fizzling out.

The ferry to Levis was great because if you stood at the bow, you could look down and watch it crash into the ice floes and bust them in pieces. We only discovered this on the return trip and I wanted to go do it again, but we refrained. Unfortunately, the ice floes only cover half the width of the river now. Two days ago they went pretty much all the way across. I guess we really hit a good day to get here so we could see that.
After the ferry we went and looked at the lobby of the Chateau Frontenac and had a coffee in the ubiquitous Starbucks, then returned to the hotel and out for supper. We are now back home. It was a great mini vacation. I don’t even mind that I have to postpone my trip to Peru till the fall…