Christmas Markets in Québec City

Back in December 2015 Frank had a business trip up in Québec City so instead of him coming home over the weekend I flew up to visit him. We both love visiting markets so we couldn't resist wandering around the Christmas Markets while we were there.

On Saturday we stopped at Marche de Noël Allemand de Québec (Québec's German Christmas Market), located in the heart of Old Québec. The market is a charming European style Christmas market with little wooden kiosks draped in greenery and twinkle lights. 

It was a freezing cold day so I particularly enjoyed the chance to warm up my hands at the outdoor fireplaces located in the market. 

The market was a perfect place to do some holiday shopping as well as to eat lunch. We first stopped to get a freshly made waffle with maple syrup. It was delicious but I may have made a mess of myself getting powdered sugar all over my coat.

Next we couldn't pass up getting a hot Suisse, a baguette with filled with gruyère fondue. It was just as awesome as it sounds.

A little while later we stumbled upon another kiosk also selling baguettes filled with fondue, but with the added bonus of a sausage tucked inside, so we thought it was best to do a comparison taste test. 

Of course it is not possible to visit a Christmas market without indulging in a mug of glühwein to warm up.

On Sunday we headed to Marché du Vieux-Port (Market at the Old Port) for the Marche de Noël (Christmas Market). A market exists there year round but they have special events and decorations for the holiday season.

The market is full of produce, meats and cheese and would be a great place to shop for ingredients for holiday meals.

We picked up a sugared crêpe for a snack as we walked through the market stalls.

Although we couldn't bring any fresh produce or cheese home with us, we did enjoy shopping for some food items we could bring home, like jams, pâtés and some maple syrup.

Both markets were a lot of fun to visit and offer very different experiences. Marche de Noël Allemand de Québec is great for gift shopping and eating and has all the charm of a European Christmas market, but it is outside so it is best to bundle up against the cold. The Marche de Noël at Marché du Vieux-Port is a great place to pick up ingredients for holiday meals or buy local foodstuffs for souvenirs or gifts. It lacks the charm of Marche de Noël Allemand but has the benefit of being indoors and warm.

Marche de Noël Allemand de Québec
Location: Place et Jardins de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, Québec 
Dates: Weekends (Th-Su) from the end of November until Christmas 

Marche de Noël (Marché du Vieux-Port)
Location: 160, quai Saint-André, Québec 
Dates: Daily from end of November until early January  

Happy Holidays!

Picture of the Day: Rainbow in the Mist of Montmorency Falls

Chute Montmorency
Quebec, Canada
9.06.2009

Picture of the Day: CN Tower Illuminated for Christmas

Toronto, Canada
12.19.2012

Picture of the Day: Montmorency Falls Reflection

Chute Montmorency
Quebec, Canada
9.06.2009

Historic Buildings of Downtown Woodstock, Ontario

I've been in Woodstock, Ontario for the past two days for work.  It was just my luck to get my comfy new couch on Sunday and then have to wake up on Monday at 4:30 in the morning to drive to Ontario and have no time to enjoy it. Ah, well, so goes life...

While in Canada I snuck in a few of my rituals there, particularly grabbing coffee and doughnuts at Tim Horton's and eating a Coffee Crisp. We have Tim Horton's in Michigan but somehow it is necessary for me to go at least once whenever I am in Canada. As for Coffee Crisp, it is a Canadian candy bar with crisp wafers and coffee cream covered in milk chocolate. If you are visiting Canada I recommend trying one if you have never had one before. Very tasty!

When I was in Woodstock for work back in July the only touristy thing I was able to see was the Springbank Snow Countess Monument. I was quite busy on this trip as well but I did manage to sneak in an hour after work one day to check out downtown Woodstock which is full of historic buildings dating back a hundred years or more. Some of downtown looks like it has seen better days, but there are many lovely buildings and I really enjoyed wandering around looking at the architecture.

Built in 1895, the building below was erected as Woodstock Market. In more recent times it was renovated into a theater and has been home to the Woodstock Little Theatre since 1997.

The lovely building is home to the Church of the Epiphany. It was originally constructed as New St. Paul's Church in 1879. The red brick is beautiful but in my opinion the star of the show is the slate roof with the intricate pattern. I also liked that they had decorated the doorways with corn stalks for fall.

The old post office was built in 1901. It is now the "new" City Hall since the city government moved there in 1968 after it outgrew its old home.

This building was empty but it appears to have once been a lovely church.

In addition to the government buildings and churches the many of the store fronts along Dundas Street were also beautiful to see.

I particularly liked this row of buildings with the vibrant, warm colors of the brick contrasting with the blue sky.

Unfortunately my time was short and I didn't have a chance to go in the Woodstock Museum, once the old Town Hall. I also wasn't able to visit Old St. Paul's Church or the Oxford County Courthouse which are other notable buildings in Woodstock. It leaves me a little something to look forward to if I am back in the area again...

Picture of the Day: Autumn Shoreline in Kingston

Kingston, Ontario, Canada
10.2004 

Picture of the Day: Pulpit in Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal

Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal
Montreal, Canada
3.16.2012

Week in Pictures: 7.15.2012

I've been having fun with my Instagram pictures and thought I would start collecting them at the end of each week to share what I've been up to, especially for the smaller things that happen but don't necessitate a full post.

This week has been crazy busy. I am heading to Japan next week for work so I've been slammed with things that needed to get done before I go. I barely slept and ended up working nearly seventy hours.

The first collage below consists of images I took while on my trip to Canada at the beginning of the week for work which I already wrote about. Although I didn't have much time outside of work during that time I managed to enjoy some tasty Canadian food and see the Springbank Snow Countess statue.

My favorite picture that I took this week was of the Blue Water Bridge on my way home. My co-worker was driving so I took the opportunity to snap this picture as we crossed over the bridge to go back to the US. The windshield was really dirty and we were driving into the sun so it make a cool white streaky effect on the photo that I love. 

This second collage is from the second half of the week.

First Row:
- As we were driving back from Canada I couldn't resist taking a picture of the Uniroyal Giant Tire as we drove by, which is a roadside icon along I-94 in Michigan
- After I got home late on Wednesday night, I was surprised to find that Frank had come over and made me dinner on the smoker in my backyard
- Thursday night I was at work late again, but when I saw this beautiful sunset out the window I took a little break to get a picture

Second Row:
- On Saturday morning, Frank and I headed west to go to a reunion of his tailgating buddies outside of Chicago
- I made a berry trifle to share at the get-together, but it tipped over in the car while we were driving. It looked like a hot mess but still tasted great
- Most of Saturday afternoon and early evening was spent in the pool

Third Row: 
- On Sunday as we were driving back we decided to stop for lunch at the legendary Redamak's on the west side of Michigan
- There was a bit of a wait in line at Redamak's so I slipped over to the antique store next door. They had a bunch of great stuff but a little out of my price range so I didn't buy anything. I especially loved how the displays were organized by color
- The loaded waffle fries and cheeseburger at Redamak's were well worth the wait. Yum! 

What have you been up to this week? Did you do anything fun or eat anything tasty?

Woodstock, Ontario: The Dairy Capitol of Canada

Yesterday evening I returned from a short business trip to Woodstock, Ontario. The city's website describes it thus, "We have much to offer in our city of 38,000 including tree lined streets, century old homes, abundant parkland and friendly citizens. Woodstock's history is preserved not only in our Museum and County Courthouse, but in our downtown buildings and beautiful Victorian heritage homes."  

It sounds like a quant small town and a nice place to wander around after finishing work for a day, right? Yeah, well that didn't happen. Over the first three days of this week I have managed to put in just over forty hours of work so in the limited time I wasn't working I was exhausted and trying to get a little sleep. Speaking of sleeping, the hotel I was staying at, The Woodstock Holiday Inn Express, apparently hosted Donny Osmond at some point. In the lobby next to the elevator was a photocopy of his portrait which he had signed expressing his thanks to the hotel staff. In my exhausted stupor this picture caused me no end of amusement every time I passed by it.

On the food front, I managed to squeeze in a few distinctly Canadian things to eat. Monday night we had finally arrived in town at eleven at night. We were starving since we had driven straight from work and hadn't eaten anything. Actually, that is not quite true. I ate a bag of Cheetos and drank a Coke that I bought from the work vending machine before we took off. Unfortunately I have Coke and Cheetos way too often for dinner. I digress. It was late, we were hungry and everything was closed but the lights at Tim Horton's were still on. We drove by and luckily enough the drive through was open. I got my go to Timmy's meal: egg salad sandwich, soda and a honey crueller. After I checked into my room I quickly devoured it and passed out asleep. We have Tim Horton's in Michigan but I tend to only go there when I am in Canada. I think that somehow being in Canada makes it taste better.

On Tuesday I was up at 5:30 and didn't finish work until nearly 9:30 that night. My colleagues and I opted to eat at Montana's Cookhouse solely because it was across the street from our hotel. It is a Canadian restaurant chain and the food was pretty good. I ordered a chipotle firecracker burger which was topped with bacon, colby cheese, fried jalapenos, crispy onions and chipotle honey BBQ sauce. Being in Canada, of course I had gravy with my fries. I don't normally drink on weeknights, but after the day I had I thought something was in order so I got a Caeser to drink. A Caesar is a classic Canadian mixed drink and is kind of like a Bloody Mary but with clamato juice instead of spicy tomato juice. It's pretty fantastic.

Wednesday after we finished for the day we decided to get a little something to eat before driving back to Michigan. A quick option was needed since we wanted to get on the road as soon as possible. We spotted a little roadside shop called Great Greek Souvlaki. It had a walk up window decorating with signs proclaiming the food's excellence and picnic table seating with umbrellas out front. I got an excellent lamb and beef gyro and couldn't resist a small order of poutine as well. Poutine is French-Canadian in origin and consists of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. The version I ate had shredded cheese instead of curds, but it was still pretty good and hit the spot before we hit the road.

On the way out of town I did manage to see one sight: the Springbank Snow Countess Monument. As we were driving toward the highway I spotted it on the side of the road and convinced my co-worker to stop for five minutes so I could check it out. The Countess was a famous cow in her day, earning the world record for producing more butterfat over her lifetime than any other cow in the world. She held the record from 1933 through 1954 and the life-size statue was erected in her honor in 1937. No wonder Woodstock is known as the Dairy Capitol of Canada!

Do you have any favorite (or favourite) Canadian foods or drinks? Have you ever stayed at a hotel that Donny Osmond stayed at? Would you make your co-worker stop the car to take a picture of a cow statue? 

Fun With Instagram

I'm in Ontario, Canada for work and despite being absolutely exhausted after two incredibly long work days I couldn't sleep last night. I've been meaning to try out Instagram for a little while and so I decided to sign up and play around with a few photos that I took on my phone this past month. Yes, I realize that it is mostly pictures of food. What can I say? I love to eat!

All of the fun Instagram filters are awesome and I think I may be addicted. If you are interested in following me on Instagram my user name is "homeandawaywithlisa". 

Are you on Instagram? What is your favorite filter? What is your user name?