Wecome to the USA!

This was our Welcome when we entered the USA in Detroit. The first thing that happened was: Two men running down the street very fast, almost being hit by cars as they crossed the street... a hundred feet behind two police officers chasing them, screaming into their walkie-talkies. One of them letting a piece of his equipment fall, grabbing it and running on, the other one further behind - barely keeping pace. Didn't look too good for the police, until they came with their police cars, but how the chase ended I couldn't tell - but Welcome to Detroit!

That's the Detroit Skyline from the Canadian side. Detroit is famous for its automobile industry and its Ice Hockey Team.

 

Not only because it's warmer that we went to the US, but also because it's cheaper. For example: the gas prices, here we were really lucky, only 3,19$/US-Gallon which is even better than the Canadian Dollar most of the time. If you now consider that 1 Gallon = 3,78 Litres, the 1 Litre-Price is only 0,84$ which is about 0,65€/Litre!!
 

And on we went to Chicago, the Windy City which is really beautiful:

East Trip

It is always good to wake to the anf have the view of Toronto Downtown directly in front of you.

Yes, I am back in the Condo, the East Tour is over and the West Tour will start tomorrow. A lot happened sonce my last post, so I best start with a map of the Tour:

all rights by Google Maps - 2012 © Google

The Tour started in Collingood (A), we drove through Ottawa (B), Montreal (C) and Quebec City (D). Next we made our way all the way to the East Coast of Quebec to "Forillon National Park" (E).

We drove on to CApe Breton, the northern part of Nova Scotia, where we saw some moose on a hike:

On the next morning we got into our car, but it wouldn't start anymore! So we called CAA (ADAC) and they towed us to the next garage

This was in Cheticamp (H), in the middle of nowhere, and we were stranded there for two nights to wait for a new fuel pump to be delivered.

Lucky us that Tim Hortons was there because besides going there and use WiFi, there was really nothing to do.

In the end our car could be repaired and we were back on the road. After visiting Sydney and Halifax, we decided to have a look at Harvard University and the MIT in Boston.

The MIT is one of the best Universities regarding engeneering and maths. But as good as it ios, so expensive is it. Without any scholarship you pay 54.000$ per year! And Harvard is even worse... there you can study everything else what you can't study at the MIT.

Boston itself is a very nice city with lots of green spots and a beautiful downtown. It is definitell a nice place to go to University.

Our route leaded us back to Toronto, on the way we visited the Niagara Falls another time, this time from the US side. The picture below is quite nice, but the Canadian side is much more exciting.

 

Québec City

If Montreal is beautiful, Québec-City is magnificent! Or should I better say magnifique...

We met two beautiful girls in Montreal that I knew from school who study in Québec-City in L'Université Laval. They showed us around the city and the Campus where we had the possibility to play table tennis, use WiFi and so on...

Here is a typical street in Old Québec:

Québec is divided in two parts: The Upper Town and the Lower Town. This is the view from the Upper Town over the St. Laurent River.

 
There are always docking at least 3 cruisers on the harbour, they are destroying my pictures! ;-(

When you turn 90° now, you will see the Chateau Frontenac, a very expensive hotel, but nice building:

North of Mexico City, Québec is the only city that has still existing walls all around the Old Town

Goodbye Québec, I will be back! We must drive on now...

Jaques-Cartier

It is a must to visit a National Park in Canada, especially in fall when the trees are red & yellow. By now, the main season is over, though, so there is no more Kayaking or Fishing, but you can still go on hikes and watch animals.

We visited the Jaques-Cartier National Park north of Québec City. Except for squirrels, this was the only bigger animal we saw, unfortunately no moose.

This was part of the way "La Lupes", up a mountain from where you had a magnificent view over the Park...

Montreal

Montreal was the most beautiful city I had seen in Canada by that time. It looks more like a European City and is very green with lots of Parks.

Of course the first thing in the morning was a 60-Minute-Walk from the car to Vieux-Montreal where nice little streets lead to some sort of central square with the Notre Dame Basilica or to the Old Harbour.

Also recommendable is the hike on top of Mont Royal from where you have a very good view over the city.

On our way up we came by a group of students that were fighting with plastic swords and some of them had real heavy chain armor. There were two parties and when you were hit you hat to sit down or leave the battle field until only one party was left. The whole thing looked really fun and I like the idea of people meeting like that every Sunday and having fun!

Of interest is the design of the Olympic stadium. Montreal hosted the Olympic Summer Games in 1976.