Quebec City!

Well, Quebec City... This was one REALLY nice city. Looking at these pictures, you would never guess that these were in North America. Everything from the cobblestone roads to the Wall around the city gives it a very old European taste. We arrives here after finishing our time in the Chalet near Mont Tremblant. The Hostel we stayed in was quite nice besides the push button showers that lasted 5 secs between pushes, and the pushes needed to be quite firm such that they left marks in the palms of your hands. But they did their job and encouraged you to have a short shower, that and the inability to control the temperature.

The main attraction which could be seen from almost any vantage point was Le Chateau Frontenac. Basically a large castle like building situated high above the city. Now to take away the history, it's a Hotel...

The streets of Quebec City were very clean and picturesque.

On the night of our arrival, we ventured forth from our Hostel to find the city alive everywhere, despite the bitter cold! They had ice rinks in the city, and best of all - a giant ice slide! (Above Right).

Above: Allison and Le Chateau. Right: Allison and Daniela with a previous Premier of Quebec.

Above: Le attempted pyramid of humans. Right: One of the MANY cannons guarding this ancient city from attack.

During Quebec's history, it was attacked by the English, the French and even the Americans. Hence being the only walled city in all of North America.

Above: Allison and more Cannons. Right: One of the Universities in the area.



Above: The ice slide by day, It's really quite scary. Particularly the way they expect you to hold your legs... Right: Our Hostel, 'The peace Hostel' (or something, it was in French...).

The St Lawrence river which runs through the center of Quebec was mighty cold at this time of year, and despite me bringing my Togs with me, wasn't up to the kind of swim that the river entailed. Lets just say there was heaps of ice and leave it at that. The pictures explain it better.
We took a boat to the other side of the River to see what there was to see. Ultimately the side had nothing to offer except further views of Le Chateau. (and another cold Wind!)

Above: From the other side. Right: LE Chateau by day up close and personal.



Above: Veax Quebec (Old Quebec) had a very small town look to it there. Like a busy marketplace. Right: Looking over Old Quebec.



When in Quebec, the word on the street was to do the Crepe thing (prounounced Crep in french). So we found a joint that did it and had Crepes. Very nice, and the variety was astounding! Basically like choosing the toppings on your pizza, except their not pizzas... And then, there are the dessert Crepes! Heaven!

Well that Ends our time at Quebec... Onto Montreal!

Ski Mont Blanc/ Tremblant!

Just down the road from the afore mentioned Chalet, was Mont Blanc. I reasonable sized ski hill (not Mountain, the Swiss would surely not like the use of such a word when they are used to the Alps) with about 35 runs ranging from beginner to Double Black Diamond. On the first day all 22 of us, (Christoph and Vanessa joined later) travelled to Mont Blanc where we hired a set of skiies each, (or snowboards) and went up the mountain. For the half of us that had never skiied before, Paul was kind enough to show us the ropes. Although he later admitted that even though he was a ski instructor last Winter, he had only taught 5 and 6 year olds...

After spending the morning on the baby beginner hill, I decided to brave it and head up on the ski lift. Well, after one of the slowest decents in history, looking down each hill and wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, I reached the bottom with only 2-3 falls. Contrary to popular belief, if you fall over on a hill, you generally don't hurt yourself to much as it takes you a fair while to stop. (as I discovered later and to whom William will attest.)

Anyway, after two days, I was still feeling less than 100% confident on my skies, they really seemed to be a little too big for me, I found on a couple of occaisions, that they went where they wanted to rather then where I wanted them, and went back to the ski hire, to get shorter ones... (less than the 190cm skies that I had) The end result, they only had some that would suit people with smaller feet than mine, but they suggested the Snow Blades (shown above) and I went for them. They are good fun, terrible on the flat due to no poles but I felt much more confident and was able to take on some black diamonds by the end of it with Williams encouragement.

Above: Nice action shot of me. Left:William and I coming up on a chair lift.



Above: Through a ski Rack, overlooking Mont Blanc. Right: Amy, Allison and Me, in our Ski attire.



Above: Jessica and Craig. Right: Allison on the Ski lift.

After spending many days getting used to skiing on the more budget Hill of Mont Blanc. We decided to brave it and head to the major tourist destination of the area, Mont Tremblant. Well, first of all, it was MUCH more busy than that which we were used to at Blanc. Secondly, it was about 2-3 times as high. The first gondola up the hill is even enclosed it's that far!

Some of the Mob at the base of Mont Tremblant.
(The carpark to be more precise)



The bottom of one side of the mountain.



Above: Some of the Mont Tremblant Runs, and the Magnificent views from the top!



Like I mentioned earlier, before the rain, the snow covered all of the trees, it was beautiful. Reminded me of white coral.

One Week in a Canadian Ski Chalet

Well arriving on the 22nd of December, Allison myself and 22 other people began 1 week in our ski Chalet near Mont Tremblant. What a week. On the evening we arrived, we traveled to the nearby access road which was quite steep, and proceeded to toboggan down the hill! Sometimes the sheets of plastic we were using were more slippery than the road/snow so we slip of them into the side snow banks! It was pretty cold though!

Day One, settling in, and setting up the All important Christmas Tree! (O' Tannenbaum)

From night to night, there wasn't alot happening in the local area, so we took it upon ourselves to make our own fun. Stuck with 2 incomplete packs of cards, we resorted to card games such as Ar**hole, and Cheat, naturally the essence of Cheat was taught by the Aussies! When Christoph turned up, we even had a Guitar, this gave us the chance to hear Sven's singing of 'Land down under' (not to be balked at!) and the group of us attempting some Christmas Carols on Christmas Eve.

On the day we arrived, there was massive amounts of snow (about 70cm in some places), this was at the end of the mild week, during which much of it had melted, yet there was still this much left! In some of the earlier shots, (shown in the skiing photos) you will see the really white trees, this only lasted till the second day when it rained and washed away much of the snow in favour of ice!

When we decided on this Chalet, it bragged of Ski Storage, a sort of side mud room. It did however, have a little trouble dealing with 24 sets of skis, boots, poles, jackets, and shoes. But we managed.

As we left, I suddenly needed lots of photos of the chalet, these are some of that which I made:

Above: Bea and Chalet Sign.

Above: William and Matthias. Right: Al and I

Above: Chalet from a distance. Right: Christoph and Vanessa in front of Pyramid Chalet.

Toronto Family

On Sunday, I made a speedy visit to Toronto to see my Canadian Family for the Christmas Break. To do this, I caught the Canadian Via Train from the Kitchener station.

That day I went to the Mountain Equipment Co-op and purchased a selection of ski gear suitable for the expected -20oC that the mountains had to offer. That afternoon I stayed with Sarie, and travelled to Aunty Helen's for an early Christmas feast! Everybody was in high spirits, and Aunty Helen showed off her new skate shoes... (Rob's)

For the first time since I have been in Canada, I caught up with Lee (Not sure how he spells his name), seen here feasting on the great dessert we had. There dog Meg is also quite a smart one...

That evening I stayed with Jackie, John, Rob and Lee where I was given many skiing odds and ends. The following morning, we went out to check out there small lake and see if it had frozen over. It had, and the task of clearing the snow off it was undertaken. Whilst Rob finished it up, Lee and I took to tobogganing down there back hill. For my first time doing such things, it was Excellent!