Roadtrip to Quebec - Part 1

I'm back at work, just finished dropping off one rental car and getting another. The reason for the swap was our roadtrip to the province of Quebec. I've had to travel to Montreal a few times recently to support our clients as they have offices in both Ontario (where we live) and Quebec the two most populous provinces in Canada.The other times I've flown up, it's like a Melbourne-Sydney trip, not too long, but this time we thought that the whole family would drive up. This would also let us extend the stay over a long weekend and so we could take in Quebec City as well since we'd be within 3 hours drive from Montreal. Not wanting to cramp the kids too much I swapped the Impala for a Tarago-style Chevy Uplander, rigged up a DVD player for the kids and we hit the road Monday a week ago. The drive from Toronto to Montreal is a pretty dull 5.5 hrs, it's amazing just how flat Ontario is, puts Holland to shame. I spent the week working, but was able to get away around 5pm every day so we could get out and see the sights as a family too. Montreal is a nice city, a little smaller than Melbourne and we got a great view from Mont Royal which over looks the CBD.

The main square in the old part of Montreal is called Place de Jacques-Cartier, named for one of the founders of the town, and it's packed with resturants and cafes. It was a nice place to eat dinner as the street performers did their shows in the sloping square. One night I was pulled into a performance and had to do heaps of embarassing stuff in front of the crowd with 4 other guys. Sadly we didn't have the video or still camera that night, so you're spared any actual proof :-), safe to say that the kids laughed their butts off.

I had the best ribs I've ever eaten in my life at Baton Rouge in Montreal. I couldn't even pick them up, they just fell to bits in my hands, totally awesome. We had to go back for a second night as the girls had missed out on the ribs and wouldn't let us get away without taking them back for their own plate full. We need to try to cook them at home, apparently you boil the ribs for about an hour to soften them up and only use the BBQ to put some charcoal on them and turn the sauce a nice toffee-like colour. I'll let you know how we go... ribs rock.Anyway I left work early on Friday and we packed the car for the 3 hour trip up Highway 40 to Quebec City. I'll tell you about our weekend in my next post, we had a ball.