Old Quebec City

I have been in old Quebec City for three full days, and it has been a lovely visit. Old Quebec is compact and walkable with the exception of the fact that old Quebec is really just a series of stairs and slopes. Thus something may be just four blocks away, but it is also the equivalent of eight stories higher, so plan accordingly. The old town is surrounded by its original fortification walls, with a citadel at the highest point. Many of the streets are cobblestone, and most of the buildings are clearly original.

Montmorency Falls

Just outside of Old Quebec City, (as in 15 minutes by car or 40 minutes by public bus), is Montmorency Falls, or Chute Montmorency, which I prefer. The falls are beautiful, and there is a park around it. There is a pedestrian bridge across the top of the falls, and a cable car from the top to the bottom. There are boardwalks at the bottom, and they appear to be building more or possibly renovating the old ones, as currently you can only access one side plus a boardwalk across the river at the base of the falls.

View of the falls from the boardwalk across the river flowing from the falls

View of the falls from the boardwalk across the river flowing from the falls

View of falls from boardwalk near base of falls

Rainbow formed in mist at base of falls, photo taken from observation walk near top of the falls

Closeup of east side of falls showing geological layers and folding

 

Crossing pedestrian bridge above falls

Crossing pedestrian bridge above falls; downstream and outflow into St. Lawrence River

Québec City Sightseeing Cruise

Québec City (Ville de Québec) sits on the St. Lawrence River, which is (surprisingly to me) a huge river. A company offers short sightseeing cruises along the river that go as far as the bridge to Orleans Island (l’Ile d’Orleans). Right where the boat turns around, you can get pretty good views of Montmorency Falls (la chute Montmorency). [My knowledge of French is pretty much limited to words from ballet and Louisiana and words that are similar to my rudimentary Spanish and Latin knowledge. I am starting to enjoy specific French words like “chute.”] The cruise also provided lovely views of the port of Québec City (Port de Québec), l’Ile d’Orleans, and Lévis, which is across the river from Québec.

Royal Battery and old Quebec

Canada Coast Guard ice breakers

old Quebec City

Montmorency Falls

Orleans Island bridge

Orleans Island

Large ships headed west on the St. Lawrence River

Port of Quebec

National Assembly of Quebec

I have noted before that I want to see all the U.S. state capitols. I am in Quebec, so I decided to see its provincial capitol and add that to my list. They call their capitol the National Assembly of Quebec. It consists of one chamber. They used to also have the Legislature Council, which was akin to the British House of Lords. I am sure it was explained on the tour why and when they got rid of it, but I missed it. In any event, the current capitol is the fourth one. I have noticed a theme with U.S. state capitols that they are not in the original buildings. In many cases, they need a bigger building, but in many cases, the capitol burned down. Quebec has a combination of those reasons. The first one was too small, and the second and third buildings burned down. The current building also was a bit too small evidently as they added onto it. We only saw a small portion of the building, and the new entrance for visitors is underground and then connects to a new building, which connects to the old building.

The building is very French in style. Inside, there is symbolism one would expect, including French and British. The chambers are modeled after the British House of Commons and House of Lords. My favorite bit of trivia I learned was that the National Assembly room was originally green like the House of Commons, but when proceedings started being televised, the politicians didn’t like the way they looked with all the green in the room, so the room was repainted blue with all other accents changed from green to blue. The blue works well with the Quebec flag, but it wasn’t changed because of the flag. It was changed because politicians didn’t think they looked good with a green background. The two chambers are mirror images, except the color, artwork, and furniture. They wouldn’t let us take photos in the National Assembly room, which really disappointed me. They had photos of each room outside, so I am including a photo of their photo.

National Assembly of Quebec, circular stairs was original entrance to building

Original entrance to the building with English coat of arms on the wall with maple leaves

French coat of arms with maple leaves, along the ceiling are an English rose, Scottish thistle, and Irish shamrock

Entrance to restaurant in new part of building

Stained glass in stairwell

Legislature Council room which is now used as a hearing room, conference room, or for presentations

Photo of National Assembly room; they wouldn’t let us take photos inside

Stairwell to tower

Tunnel connecting new entrance to original building with light art

Clapham South: Subterranean Shelter Tour

Last time I visited London, I found out that London Transport Museum offers Hidden London tours, so I signed up for one. It was fantastic, and luckily they were offering another tour while I was here again. This time, they offered a tour of Clapham South subterranean shelter that was built during World War II. When the Germans bombed London during 1940-1941, some people took shelter in London Underground stations, which the transport authorities didn’t really want them to do. The government then asked them to build proper shelters for people. The transport authorities had previously had plans for an express train to run underneath the Northern Underground line, so they used parts of those plans to plan ten shelters to each shelter 10,000 people underneath Northern line stations. Only eight stations were built though, and London Transport Museum now owns one of them, the one that that was built under Clapham South station.

The shelter is 11 stories underground and has over a mile of subterranean passageways. It is accessed via a spiral staircase with many, many steps. [We had to walk down them and then back up when the tour was over.] The shelters were built just like London Underground tunnels with the idea that after they were no longer needed as shelters, they could be used to start construction of the previously mentioned express lines. That never happened though. The tunnels were all divided in half horizontally, so that they formed double-decker shelters. Each level was then divided into eight sections all given names of historical people, with rows and rows of beds. People would be assigned a bed and told which section and which bed number was theirs. The shelter were not finished before the end of the Blitz, but they were used later when V-1 and V-2 bombs hit London. Government propaganda advertised them as “luxury tunnels” with “comfortable canteens.” Those terms are kind of relative. The beds were small and really close together. They did have lavatories, but the toilets consisted of buckets with a possible seat. The buckets were emptied into a tank. This is my favorite part (especially as an engineer), when the tank needed to be emptied, a valve was turned to add compressed air, and another valve was turned to allow the compressed air to (hopefully) shoot the waste up into the sewer tunnels above. However, the shelters certainly kept people safe from bombs. Some people who stayed there had no other place to go as their home was destroyed.

After World War II, they continued to be used at different times. In 1951, there was a huge festival in London, and the shelter was opened as “Festival Hotel.” Also, Caribbean migrants arriving on the Empire Windrush stayed there temporarily. Finally U.S. troops stayed there in the 1950s. Some of the shelter were later used for archiving material.

Exterior of entrance with spiral staircase inside

Clapham South Tunnel/Shelter

Sign with directions to exit, other shelters, and lavatories

Shelter beds

Stairs to Underground station

Tunnel walls

Graffiti on tunnel walls (the yellow dot sticker is there because the museum is a museum and now preserves the historical graffiti)

Reykjavik

I previously visited Reykjavik while on a two week visit to Iceland. I’m back for a short visit in hopes of seeing the aurora borealis. Thus far the weather and solar activity has not cooperated for that. Today I walked around a bit and took a few more photos.

In the middle of Reykjavik is a large pond, but in winter it is completely frozen over, except for a small corner. All the waterfowl are congregated in that area waiting on people to bring them bread. (On my Reykjavik post from 2014, there are photos of Tjörnin and the area in front of City Hall in May to compare how they look in winter and summer.)

Tjörnin (a pond or lake), which is almost completely frozen over

Birds congregating when people with food arrive

Swans came to determine if the reason I came to the water’s edge was to feed them

Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat

The water in front of City Hall is completely frozen

Entrance to the Icelandic Punk Museum, which is located in a former public restroom

Vermont State Capitol

Today while on a New England trip, I continued on my quest to see all the state capitols and visited Vermont’s state capitol in Montpelier. The Vermont state capitol reminded me of the Alaska state capitol solely on its somewhat casualness and friendliness of people there. However, the Vermont state capitol is much prettier and ornate. Our tour guide was a now-retired state representative (because he didn’t run for reelection). I don’t know why I find it so funny that a state representative would be a tour guide when not representing, but I do. He was a wonderful tour guide though. The capitol is small really, but the rooms are lovely. The current capitol is the third state house. Probably by coincidence, the senate chamber is predominately green, and the house chamber is predominantly red. I noticed this because this is the exact opposite of a couple of state capitols such as California and Colorado, where the house is green based on the UK House of Commons, and the senate is red based on the UK House of Lords.

There are some neat details in the building. For example, the law dictates that the Vermont coat of arms must have five elements: a deer head, a cow, haystacks, pine tree, and mountains. However, the rest of the details are evidently up to interpretation, so our guide pointed out at least five different versions on the tour. A “bonus” detail we got to see because it not part of a the tour was a gorgeous fireplace in a lounge area that has all these different stones mined in Vermont. We got to see it simply because he was leading us to the elevator as a member of the group needed to use it. Something that I also found amusing is that the capitol does have a dome, but you can’t look into the interior as it is unfinished wood. Our guide pointed to the part of the ceiling that is below the dome at my request because I am weird.

Vermont State Capitol

Vermont House Chambers

Vermont Senate Chambers

Vermont Governor’s formal office

Ceiling in Vermont Governor’s formal office

Cedar Creek Reception Room

Vermont coat of arms on wall of House Chambers

Stairwell

Ceiling on first floor which blocks view of dome (also I think second floor also blocks view)

Hartford, Connecticut

I was in Hartford to see the Connecticut State Capitol, so while there I did a little wandering around. Hartford is like many older cities with a mix of old and new buildings. I rather like old cities that keep many of their older buildings. Not too long ago, Hartford reclaimed its connection to the Connecticut River, and now there is a nice riverwalk in some spots.

Old State House

Elevated walk near riverfront

Bulkeley Bridge over the Connecticut River

Hartford City Hall

Bushnell Park

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch

Goodwin Square Tower

Grandview at New River Gorge National Park

Yesterday I went quite the hike within New River Gorge National park, and it was more of a hike that I thought it would be. I went to the Grandview area, and I hiked along the Grandview Rim trail. The trail is one way, so for the leg of the hike walking towards Turkey Spur, the end of the trail, I took the Castle Rock trail, which parallels the Rim trail for the first half mile. Castle Rock trail is gorgeous, and it takes you just below a wall of rock. At one portion of the trail, the wall of rock has a visible coal seam, which is extra interesting. However the footing on the Castle Rock trail is not even, and there is lots of ascents and descents, so it is a good workout. The rest of the trail, once back on the Rim trail is fairly easy going, especially compared to the Castle Rock trail. The start of the trail is the main overlook, which overlooks a bend in the New River, so you are viewing it from the base of a U shape. The end of the trail is Turkey Spur, which also overlooks the river, but at a location where in the foreground you see the river headed to the west, where it curves, then behind a hill, you can see the river looping around again and headed east.

Main overlook of New River

Castle Rock trail

Castle Rock trail

Rhododendron growing in coal seam along Castle Rock trail

Coal seam along Castle Rock trail

Grandview Rim trail

Turkey Spur overlook with Thomas Burford Pugh Memorial Bridge over New River in foreground and New River also in mid-ground

Turkey Spur overlook of New River

Rhododendron

Sandstone Falls

I left West Virginia today, but before leaving, I stopped at Sandstone Falls in New River Gorge National Park to do a little hiking. I also drove to a couple of overlooks of New River and Sandstone Falls.

Sandstone Falls

Sandstone Falls

Sandstone Falls loop trail

Sandstone Falls loop trail

Sandstone Falls loop trail view of New River

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

New River overlook

Sandstone Falls overlook