The Rockies

That's what it often looks like in the Midwestern USA: Endless countryroads, nothing to see for miles except for some cattle, dry grass and no clouds. It is the famous Route 66 we've been following through the US so far, but in Kansas City we decided to drive to Denver instead to Oklahoma City. And that for a good reason: We wanted to visit the Rocky Mountains, now that we are in America. And that's what we did:

 Though we are well in November now, on our hike to the top of one of the Mountains it was warm and beautiful

 Compared to the alps, the Rockies have more red soil and of course... rocks










On another hike there can suddenly be snow and ice, though we were not higher up than before:

And on the way back a herd of deer was next to the street:

Hurricane Sandy

  While Hurricane Sandy is devastating The East of the US and even reached Toronto where we've been still been just one week ago, we are walking through the European-style Architecture of Kansas City - in T-shirts at 25°C on the very first day of November.

Later I got the chance to continue my lecture of R.R. Martin's Game Of Thrones which is my dear companion on our Roadtrip...

A visit to the The Blue Room in the Jazz District of the City made the Day perfect!

Thank you Kansas City and Goodbye

St. Louis

This is St. Louis, a picture token in the City Park. In the background is the Gateway Arch, probably St. Louis' most popular mark. Built as monument of the US Western Movement, today it attracts thousands of tourists.

Next thing near the Park, I saw a truck from far, many people standing in front of it and we thought: Hey, there must be something for free!

And indeed it was an Italian Food Truck, celebrating the 1st anniversary of the Truck and giving meals for free. And I must say, the food was very good.
Thanks for  this awesome lunch!

Later we went to the House where famous Ragtime-Composer Scott Joplin used to live when he was in St. Louis. Now it as a museum which includes a room where this "Ghost-Piano" plays Ragtimes by itself as seen in Halloween movies. Well, at least it reminded me of those movies...
Of course it doesn't play itself, but works with a system of valves and pressure.
 

There's a lot going on in St. Louis, including free museums and zoo in the Forest Park or Tours of the Anheuser-Busch Comp. which produce the famous Budweiser.

A little bit outside of St. Louis there is the World Heritage Site of "Cahokia", an ancient city of Indians who built so called "Mounds" over centuries. From the biggest one, "Monks Mound", the chief ruled over the city.

The population of Cahokia declined around 1300AD and finally the city ceased to exist. The cause of the decline is not known for sure.

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...