mybigadventures.com

It was another early start this morning for our train to Quebec. We set alarms and were packed up and checking out just after 8 ready for 9.06 train. The train station was only a short walk from the hotel so we arrived in good time, aiming to get some breakfast at Starbucks. Alas, when we arrived Starbucks was closed, so we carried on into the station to see what else was inside. There was a McDonalds but the queue was massive so we decided we would get something on the train again and before long we were queued up and climbing aboard. The journey went pretty quickly, it wasn't so far this time taking just over 3 hours and we arrived in Quebec City just after midday. 

It took about 15 minutes to walk from the station to the hotel and we found it fairly easily. We were too early to check-in so we left our luggage at the hotel and went for a wander. The hotel is set outside the walls of the citadelle and so we spent some time walking up hill further into the old town. We stopped in McDonalds for some lunch and wandered a bit further, calling in at a phamacy to buy some more drugs (we're both still a bit ill). We decided to head back to the hotel for check-in just after 3 and to take a break before tea.

We headed out to Matto for tea, which is an Italian restaurant in a nearby hotel. It was pretty busy so we ended up sitting at the bar. I had spaghetti carbonara whilst Dani had meatballs, all very tasty. Feeling pretty tired we had a fairly early night, ready to spend a bit more time exploring tomorrow.

Whilst Dani has been finishing her marking, I thought I'd add a bit more content to the site. During our American adventure in 2013, the site was down and so there was no blog content. When I redeveloped the site a couple of years ago, I uploaded the photo albums but was a bit disappointed there was no description of our trip that I could link. However, on each of our big adventures -  Europe, America and Japan, we have kept a journal, which we've later turned into a photo book. So today I added the journal entries to the site and linked them into the relevant albums. It's still a work in progress, but should be complete over the next day or so, then I might look to do the same with Europe and Japan. You can find all the new entries under July and August 2013, or by following the tag #America2013

I still had to go to school today - until 2:30 PM, at least. So, I left Ben at home with a tiny little list of jobs to complete…

Arriving home, I discovered Ben lolopping on the sofa with the laptop - ‘surfing the net’. Prompted into action, he leapt (slowly) up and we got on. We did some last minute printing, some last minute shoving-things-into-bags, and created some contact details for our neighbours. After a brief chat with Pete and ‘her in doors’ (next door), we made ready for the taxi. Having arranged a pick-up for 5:30 PM, we assembled ourselves and all of our baggage on the drive, ready for the off. Because we are slightly OCD, we took pictures of ourselves setting the alarm and locking up, for peace of mind and, obviously, for posterity.

Bundled into the taxi, we made it to the train station a full hour before our train, so we had a bit of time to people-watch. Dani bought some chocolatines from Sainsbury’s local for tomorrow’s breakfast, along with some Maltesers, so we sat and scoffed while we waited. The train was marginally late and it took us a little while to get settled (what with all our baggage), but otherwise the journey was fine.

Upon arriving at the airport, we skipped the queue for the shuttle (to transfer) and got a taxi for the same price of £7 to the airport TraveLodge. After check-in, we did have a few issues with the key card for our room, so we ended up moving rooms. The hotel is undergoing a refurb, so the decor was a little bit rubbish. Nevertheless, the room was fine and we settled in our room to eat some  sandwiches and crisps. After watching a bit of TV, we headed down to the bar for a pint. Headed back up to the room and settled into bed - the room had been pretty warm, but had cooled a bit by now. We had pre-booked the shuttle bus booked for 9:00 AM tomorrow (for the big adventure to begin, so probably time to get to bed. Cheerio, ta ta!