A chilly start to the day in Quebec City. A beautiful view from our ship’s window this early morning start along with deliveries and refueling trucks!

The bus is waiting and we head on the morning tour to the Island d’Orleans and Montmorency Falls. The tour guide gives us the history of Quebec City while the bus driver takes us across the bridge that connects the island and Quebec City. This island is where Jacques Cartier landed in 1535. The tide is out displaying the grass flats.

The island is primarily agriculture and now many vacation homes have been created from renovating the homes from the 1600, 1700, and 1800’s. Very bucolic scenes out the bus window.

The stop on the island is a “sugar shack.” This one is more commercial than the one we went to yesterday. This maple syrup operation is now being run by the 4th generation. There is a piece of sugar pie, a movie describing the process of gathering the maple water and creating it into syrup, and the delicious maple toffee made the traditional way – over snow. We take a stick and roll the toffee from the snow around the stick and immediately put it in our mouths to taste the sweet, smooth flavor of maple syrup. Fun experience!

The tour takes us back across the St. Lawrence River to the Montmorency Falls Park. The falls tumble down 272 feet into the St. Lawrence River. There is a walkway to the falls as well as stairs that climb up a rock to see the falls better. In addition, there is a train ride, a cable car, and if you travel to the top a suspension bridge across the falls. The weather is perfect for viewing the beauty and power.

The power of the falls is a good example of how Canada’s main source of power is hydroelectric. This river had a dam on it at one time as well but by 1963 it became obsolete as technology changed.

Back to the ship for some lunch and the afternoon exploring the old city of Quebec City.