Cold and Windy Quebec City

Did I mention windy Quebec!

We arrived here in Quebec city around 7AM and were greeted by overcast skies, cold temperatures and gusty winds. I think this is the coldest day we have had this whole cruise. Since we are going to be here another five days we decided to just wander around the city.  We wanted to find the hotel that we will be staying in for the next five days.

The above hotel on top of the hill is the Chateau Frontenac (not our hotel).

The above hotel is where we will be staying.

We did take one tour today.  We wandered into the Citadelle for a tour, the home of the Royal 22nd Regiment -- the only all French-speaking regiment in Canada.

The building of the Citadelle was started in the 1700’s by the French and finished by the British after the war of 1812 with the US.  They were anticipating more attacks on the city by the US which never happened.

The above 12 ton cannon (never needed for a war) was used to fire 356 pound shells into the Saint Lawrence River to break the ice in the wintertime. The last time this was done was in 1890. The shell bounced off the ice and ended up in the back yard of a house in Quebec! Whoops!

  

After our tour we headed back to our ship through lower Quebec City where many of the people were just hanging around.  Stay tuned for more on Quebec tomorrow.