From 22nd to 29th of June, Family Novak has courageously braved (and bravely couraged?) the unknown teritories
to the East. Obstacles such as differing languages, threatening weather, hostile insects, crazy drivers and lazy
road construction workers, all did little to lessen our determination. Covering more then 3,500km in 7 days, we
not only got to know our neighbouring province, but also every detail, nook and cranny (whatever "nook"
and "cranny" may be...) of our car;-). In the end, we had an amazing time, visited our friends,
saw new places and enjoyed their beauty, recharged our batteries for another year, and made notes and plans for
the next time:-)
Here are some of the captured moments from that trip:
|
|
Quebec City Taken on the first day, after 10 or so hours of driving. As soon as we arrived to Levis (a small town accross the St. Laurent river from Old Quebec City) and dropped our bags, we took a ferry. Levis is in the background. |
|||
|
|
Old Quebec City Looking accross the river at Quebec City |
|||
|
|
Old Quebec City The Promenade. In the evening, various entertainers can be caught here - most of them pretty darn good:). |
|||
|
|
Old Quebec City ... few things she likes better then to pose for the camera ;-) (darn her and her photogenic genes:) |
|||
|
|
Old Quebec City I think I did a good job with the sun, reflections, halos, and stuff here, if I do say so myself... ...especially if I say so myself :P |
|||
|
|
Old Quebec City | |||
|
|
Old Quebec City | |||
|
|
Old Quebec City I think I'm looking properly respectful and in my place here... :-) |
|||
|
|
Old Quebec City We all enjoy and appreciate the architecture, energy and general beauty of the city... but mom goes nuts!  "this is beautiful... and look at this, this is beautiful! Oh, and that is just beautiful... and the other thing is just as beautiful too... and [...]" - I think you get the picture ;-) |
|||
|
|
Old Quebec City One of the prettier and bussier streets of the Old Quebec City. |
|||
|
|
Matane Our Breakfast/Brunch with Yves and Claire. The whole purpose of the trip was to surprise Claire on her Birthday - and let me tell you something, Mission was accomplished! We arrived 10 minutes early to await her in a gorgeous little old house that serves
as a Bed & Breakfast these days. Very intimate, pleasant, "homey" atmosphere contributed to a very
enjoyable meal with our old friends |
|||
|
|
Matane Family Novak in a rare groupshot in which nobody looks extraordinarily bad (i.e. Yawning, Blinking, Picking Nose, etc:) |
|||
|
|
Matane A scene from the Yves and Claire's porch |
|||
|
|
Matane Another picture from Yves and Claire's backyard |
|||
|
|
Matane from left to right, Mom, Yves, Claire, & Dad :-) |
|||
|
|
Matane Matane is privy to some amazing sunsets and weather phenomena :) |
|||
|
|
Matane - Windmill fields Matane and its neighbouring cities are about to become fully powered by wind when the existing 133 windmills are supplemented by another 200. These 30-story windmills with 48-meter diameter three-bladed propellers are computer-controlled and fully independent. Estimates claim that each windmill has the potential to eliminate more than 250,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Each windmill costs a little more then a million, and its output is sold at 5.8 cents per KW/h. |
|||
|
|
Matane - Windmill fields A picture of different part of windmill farms. Unlike most other fields where the windmills are laid out in precise rows and colums, because of the hilly nature of the terrain, windmills are placed independently in spots where surveys indicated the best overall wind throughput was expected. As mom says: "It looks as if a giant kid went strolling down the area, randomly sticking in the windmills wherever he liked..." (we blame mom's, ehm, over-active imagination, on her Journalism University Major ;-) |
|||
|
|
On the road to Perce An extremely random waterfall that happened to be right besides the highway. Oh well - who are we to complain? :-) |
|||
|
|
On the road to Perce This is our Car. Ah-yup, it is indeed. So pretty, we just had to take a picture...  |
|||
|
|
On the road to Perce Our Car, once more! |
|||
|
|
On the road to Perce Lighthouse #1. One of precious few woden lighthouses in the world (there basically aren't any in Europe, and only a few remain in North America). My dad and I (as part of my ongoing battle against height-Phobia:) have climbed to the top while the camera remained with my mom and sister on the bottom :). |
|||
|
|
On the road to Perce Lighthouse #2. A more traditional stone lighthouse. Both of these lighthouses are fully operational and serve as navigational aids to passing traffic. The hummidity inside is horrific (at the bottom, the wall is 9ft thick, at the top 3ft). As the inset shows, this time we took a camera to the top :). |
|||
|
|
On the road to Perce A beach in a little bay on the way from Matane to Perce, just after the Lighthouse and the little waterfall |
|||
|
|
On the road to Perce Same Beach, 10 minutes later |
|||
|
|
On the Road to Perce Almost there! Coming down from a small mountain to the perce coast, we took a brief stop and took a couple of pictures. This one is looking back to where we came from... |
|||
|
|
On the Road to Perce ... and this one is looking ahead to the coast :-) |
|||
|
|
Perce Beach near our motel in Perce, on the way to The Rock. Novak family is dutifully collecting stones and rocks, necessary building materials for the Inukshuk we're to build later |
|||
|
|
Perce Ivona on the Bench. Pretty cool picture, actually, if you ask me (not that I for a moment assume that you do ).Taken near The Rock, about 10 minutes walk from our motel in Perce. |
|||
|
|
Perce Same bench, more people :-) |
|||
|
|
Perce A little house around the same area. |
|||
|
|
Perce Looking at the "Mayor's house", The Rock is just around the corner and can be partially seen. |
|||
|
|
Perce - The Rock View Looking at The Rock from the "Mayor's house". |
|||
|
|
Perce - The Rock View Looking at The Rock from the docks near our motel |
|||
|
|
Perce - The Rock Approach Some of the other rock formations on the beach heading to The Rock |
|||
|
|
Perce - The Rock Approach A bit dark (late evening), but still decent pictures:) |
|||
|
|
Perce - The Rock Yes, It's the rock. Don't you worry, there are yet more pictures to come... |
|||
|
|
Perce - The Rock Variations of the Nick's Patented Lie-on-the-ground-looking-up shot, taken in the evening (Ivona & I) and morning (Dad) light |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Perce - The Rock This picture is actually my wallpaper at the moment - we just thought the giant indentation looked cool :-) |
|||
|
|
Perce - The Rock Similar picture with me... |
|||
|
|
Perce - The Rock (note: Panoramic format not seen on the scans) |
|||
|
|
Going Home - Center of Gaspe Peninsula Crossing over the middle of Gaspe Peninsula (as opposed to trailing the coast), we encountered fairly mountainous areas - to our great delight (hey - we did survive 4 years in Manitoba, after all ;-) |
|||
|
|
Going Home - Center of Gaspe Peninsula We also stopped at a little Park-type place to see yet another Waterfall. Unfortunatelly, Dad took the picture, so it utterly and completely fails to show the precipitous cliff on whose verge we are sitting. In fact, we look downright comfy! The waterfall isn't really in the picture at all (just the rapids) |
|||
|
|
Going Home - Center of Gaspe Peninsula Near the aforementioned but unseen waterfall. |
|||
|
|
Going Home The eternal Christmas place - a little gift-shop and entertaintment park where Christmas never ends |
|||
|
|
Going Home - Crossing St. Laurent Pictures from the ferry that carried us for the hour-long crossing of St. Laurent on the way home... It was pretty windy and cloudy, but the crew assured us it was just normal operating conditions :-) |
|||
|
|
Quebec City Area - Waterfalls There is another set of industrial-strength waterfalls about 20 minutes (45 with construction;) from Quebec City, very close to the place we stayed on our way back, so we had no good excuse not to see them :). Main picture was taken from the foot of the waterfalls; the insets show pictures taken from a "hanging" observatory-porch (on the left), accross the waterfall (top right), and looking down from the bridge (bottom right) |
|||
|
|
Quebec City Area - Waterfalls Main picture was taken with my hand out the window of a cable-car, randomly (yet succesfully;-) aiming in the general waterfall direction :-) Top-left is Ivona on the bridge, bottom-left is mom on the observatory porch, the top-right two pictures are from the various points going down the stairs, and the bottom right picture is from one of the approaches to the waterfall area:). They did a really good job of developing the waterfalls (apparently twice as high as the Niagara) area, allowing tourists to come along one side by cable car, walk through the forested scenery to the waterfalls, cross the bridge, and return along the other side's (mostly sandy) stairs. Takes about 50 minutes -> 1.5 hours for the round |
|||
|
|
Quebec City Area - Waterfalls Close to the bridge crossing the waterfalls is an old, southern-style mansion. I personally didn't spend much time inside (too dusty :-|), but we managed to get a picture of this young belle nevertheless :-) |
|||
|
|
Quebec City Area - Waterfalls ... so, of course, not to be outdone, parents had to have a picture taken here as well |
|||
|
|
Random Picture My dad, the philosopher... :-) |
|||
|
|
Random Picture My sister and I; we think this is in Matane, with certain somebody trying to capture the lighthouse in the background without heeding my advice that it's just not going to happen... ;-) |
|||
|
|
Random Pictures - Matane Spooky People There is a small sect, or a cult, with its HQ near Matane, that holds the belief that humankind came from the Sea (I mean, more literally then Mr. Darwin claims:). They have built these statues to symbolically depict the migration, but for some reason under that day's conditions, it seemed more like some very very spooky scene from a Macbeth-like scene of battle... I kept expecting the three witches to say something like "Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air." :-P |
|||
