So lets recap, shall we? [Part 2]

More on Quebec

I really recommend the hotel we stayed at: le Chateau de Pierre. It was just above the Terrasses Dufferin, with a great view on the old city and the river. We got settled in and then had a good wander around the old town. Our goal was to do as much walking as possible on the first day because they were forecasting rain for the following day. We took in the Petit Champlain (where both great restaurants were located), then went to the farmer's market and then got lost trying to find the old port museum, but feh, we scared tourists with the pie-ton! stick. The colours were in full bloom around town, which was really nice.

The next day saw us back in the old city, doing a bit of window shopping and general exploring. We saw a roman-catholic squiggle that day and a canon ball lodged in a tree. All good stuff :) It was Katy's mom's birthday, so she spent a looooong time on the phone while I entertained myself by bugging her with my camera, hehe. We were too late that day to go see the citadel, but we did sneak in a visit to the Governor General's house, which undoubtedly has the best view in all of Quebec. By that point, I think Katy was getting fed up with me being as avid a shutterbug as I am, so we packed it in and went for dinner. The place we wanted to go for dinner was booked solid (note to potential tourists: reservations are usually a Very Good Thing), so we ended up in this little bar & grill which, while ok, was definitely sub par compared to all the other meals we had in Quebec.

Our last full day saw us to and from the museums. Blergh. Kiddy school trip nightmares! When I went with my high school class, we were never that bad. Those were not kids, those were large feral weasels that trashed everything that wasn't tied down or behind glass. We managed to eat at both places that were packed the day before (yay, reservations) and ate really delicious rabbit at one place and I had caribou/wapiti/beef/pork meat pie. Hmmmm, pie! I've never had tourtiere du Lac St-Jean before, but that thing was wonderful.

The following day was our last in Quebec, so we indulged ourselves with one last sinful brunch at the Cochon Dingue, by far our fav restaurant for this trip, then we were off to the bus station. We missed the bus to Montreal by 5 minutes so we had to wait an hour for the next one. Then more waiting in Montreal, followed by wrist-slitting traffic out of the city to finally make it to Ottawa around 8:30. It took us almost as long to cross the Atlantic as it did to get from Quebec to Ottawa. Nice work, boys.

More on Ottawa

We got to the Hilton before our room was ready, so we went for a stroll around Lemay lake while housekeeping did up our room. When we came back, it still wasn't ready, so we just left for Ottawa on the promise that when we got back, everything would be settled. We investigated the little shops in the Byward Market and I introduced Katy to the concept of the beaver tail. We found a little tea shop that had absolutely no pretences but peace & quiet and good, cheap tea. We found a shop that sold smoked meats and tons of sausages, a cheese shop, went to Piccolo Grande (after years of not going because of fear for my allergies – at this point, I just said fuck it and had me some gelato. If anything, this trip was a good thing for me because I was really laid back with my allergies. I didn't even freak out when I accidentally ate a bit of garlic crouton). That night, we had some of the best sushi I've eaten outside of Bishoku. To be perfectly honest, it was even on par with Bishoku, if not a bit better on some aspects. The place is called Kinki, in the market, and is a really hip place with funky lighting and jazz and Santana playing while you eat.

The next day, after a gorgeous breakfast buffet, was museum day: the Civilization museum and the National Gallery. The former is one of my favourite places in Ottawa. The latter was disappointing and not as I remembered it. After too many attempts to record here, I finally managed to lose my clip-on sunglasses. Next time, I'll just get 5 extra clip-ons and leave them everywhere. Anyway. We had high tea in the afternoon at Zoe's lounge at the Chateau Laurier. Posh? yes. Tasty? you bed. Pretentious, hell yeah! Cucumber sandwiches without the crust and scones with cream and jam. It was really good though, but some people take themselves waaay too seriously :)

We had a nice meal at the hotel restaurant (where we'd first come two years previously on Katy's first trip to Ottawa), had drinks in the Lounge, then retired to bed.

More on the trip back to Cambridge

The flight back was uneventful, really, except to say that it was long. It left Ottawa at 7:30pm on Saturday and was scheduled to land in London at 7:00am on Sunday morning (or put it another way, at 2am Sunday, Canada time). We took the train from Gatwick to Victoria station in London, and then switched to the tube to get to a station where we could get the train to Cambridge. We got home at 11am and went to pick up the pussycat shortly after.

The beast has finally grown into his tail and his pelt has fluffed out, being in an outdoor cattery. He didn't stop purring for the whole day Sunday.

We, on the other hand, were dead on our feet. We weren't in the mood to cook so we went to the pub for dinner. By that time, we were running on a 30+ hour day. The worst thing we could have done was go to sleep, because that would have made it even more difficult to get back on UK time. The people at the pub took pity on us and told us we looked like death warmed over. We went to bed shortly after coming home after a good meal. I made it to work at 3pm the following day. Katy didn't go in at all. Like I said, it's going to be a rough week. I'm feel like I'm pretty much over it now, but it means it'll just hurt that much more when I go to California.