Tuesday March 13, 2007
The plot: Tuesday, we woke up, indulged in a huge breakfast buffet, and then spontaneously added another city to our already busy schedule. Since it was "only" an hour off the planned path, we headed north to Ottawa, Ontario, which is the capital of Canada. Once there, we wandered around Canada's Parliament Hill, and were delighted to discover that they give free tours of parliament... if we would stick around for an hour and a half for a tour with a free spot. So, we wandered around downtown Ottawa, and then got a tour of Canada's parliament building... and we learned quite a bit too! Like that the Queen of England is also the Queen of Canada, and that the length of Canada's parliaments varies depending on how the majority/minority votes go somehow. (there can be a vote of no confidence and then parliament is all up for reelection again instead of having "set" terms.) It was an educational experience. :P

After that, we headed east to Quebec. While Ontario was very similar to the American Midwest in landscape and personality, Quebec was a totally different world. Instantly everything was French, and more European-looking. (Good thing we had practice with bilingual signs in eastern Ontario first ;-P). We arrived in Montreal after dark. First adventure was to find a hotel. Scott voted for finding one downtown which meant that they were all twice the price of what we'd spent the other nights of the trip... but when he managed to find one that included free downtown parking, free breakfast, free internet, and a jacuzzi in our room, there were NO complaints. We had a fantastic dinner at a pub downtown, and then I enjoyed the jacuzzi while Scott checked email, basketball news, etc. in the hotel's computer room.



The pictures: (click a picture for a bigger view in a new window)