Caught the train from Montreal to Quebec. Three hour trip but Liz and I occupied ourselves by studying the back of our eyelids and left Mark to read in peace.
After arriving in Quebec, we got a cab and went to the address given by our Air BnB host. I could tell by the driver’s surprise that he was not used to taking people from the railway station to an address in that area and he asked if we were going to stay with family. We got to the address and it was a suburban area - little bit tacky looking. There was also a set of stairs to the front door. Okay, we could manhandle our luggage up one set of stairs, or rather muscle man Mark could. Liz went up the first flight to get the key from the letter box, opened the door and yelled back to us “There’s another flight of stairs in here and they are quite narrow”.
Mark, strong man that he is, manhandled all our luggage (and we have a lot) up the two flights of stairs and in we went. It was quite nice, without being fancy, and the old wooden floor was very, very noisy. I have to admit that Liz and I did not get a very good “feel” about the house and were actually making noises about going somewhere else. Mark was staying out of it and leaving the decision to us, but I think was happy to stay put. Anyway, we decided to check the instructions left for getting about and go and see the town. We went to the first bus stop and thought that a bus coming in that direction would be going the wrong way, so we asked a couple of extremely helpful young men to direct us to the right bus stop, which they did, explaining we had to go up to 1 Rue (street) to catch it. We retraced our steps and had just gone past the accommodation when I realised we were in 4 Rue and it looked like a long walk to 1 Rue, it was very hot and humid, and so I decided to go to the apartment and let Mark and Liz go off to town.
As I walked up the internal stairs to the apartment, I put my hand on the railing to help me up the last step, which was quite awkward. The railing was very loose and I actually fell up that last step and into the apartment. Liz had realised the banister was loose and had been very concerned about me falling, so I did not mention to them that I had done exactly that. This is the first she will know of it. Surprise!!!! However, I did not want to be the reason for changing accommodation just because I am not too good on stairs.
Soon after my very inelegant entry to the apartment, Mark and Liz returned, with Liz having persuaded Mark to change accommodation. After contacting the Best Western, who had vacancies, we dragged (I use the term “we” loosely) the luggage back down the stairs, called a cab and headed off to the Best Western. Needed to share a room, but hey - we have done that plenty of times this trip.
So, by 4.00pm on this travelling day, we had gotten up early to catch the train, travelled to Quebec, stayed in two different accommodations, given Mark a great workout and were now having a beer and cocktails at the Best Western.
Tomorrow can only be fantastic.
I should mention here that I had a wonderful dinner at the 360 Bistro at the Best Western. Veal liver with port wine gravy. It was so yummy. We can’t get calf liver in Australia any more as it is mostly exported. Had a lovely crisp salad to start and a decadent chocolate cake to finish. Only downside was that I ate alone. The waiter even said, “How sad you are alone”. When you spend most of your time at home alone and eating alone, it is always much nicer to have company, but poor Liz and Mark do need their time together.