At the moment the Parliament House buildings are being extended to incorporate a public concert hall and educational centre but the building was open for public viewing today. We were very impressed with the design and architecture of this national historic site. A large streetscape displayed a sketch of the site as an open paddock in 1876, rand a contrasting sketch of the huge building that was erected just three years later in 1879 - what an ambious project in an age where cranes and pre-fab materials had not been dreamed of. it's a credit to the craftsmen of the era.
The walls are painted in brilliantly rich colours, decorated with oddles of original paintings - many of them are life-size portraits of former Prime Ministers or deputy Prime Minister or prominent Cabinet Ministers. Other Devore includes gigantic shimmering chandeliers and tiny ones, flags, exquisite carved chairs, desks and othe furniture, a number of very large clocks strategically placed to keep sessions of meetings on time. The entrance to the dining room was stunning. A grand, stain-glass archway depicting scenes from the gardens alongside the Parliament House buildings ushers visitors into an elongated, delightful and peaceful dining room.
We did a self guided tour of the flors that were open to the public. There was a hole in the door to the Upper a House assembly room, maybe originally so that session-endings could be checked upon. We took a peak through of course! Just a but of fun in the house where serious matters ' happen'. We knew there was no meeting session and later we toured the room anyway. The Upper House rooms are decorated in rich red hues whilst the main colour in the Lower House is a rich blue so the rooms are often referred to as the Red and Blue rooms. Both meeting rooms had public galleries and excellent acoustics so that in the 1890's men's voices would have been easily undertcarried even up into the gallery. Today microphones, television cameras and other devises reord all conversations, discussions, arguments and decisions made in these rooms. 
We visited the museum in Parliament House and learnt much about the history and Canada. We viewed documents signed by Queen Victoria in 1867 of a directive to the Govenor of Qeuebec to carry out the first election of members of the Legislative Assembly of the Union of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The special storage case in the form of a book was a great way of filing important government papers. We spent at least an hour and a half in this important building and learnt and enjoyed so much. When we walked back outside puddles told us that we had been spared a downpour whilst inside. This was the second building that had sheltered us whilst here in Quebec, the other one was the delightful restaurant we'd visited earlier in day and where we'd enjoyed blueberry crepes.
We headed back towards the Sea Princess after a fabulously intriguing and eventful day around Quebec City but always the 'explorer' Ken pointed out another museum we'd missed. We spend some time looking at models of how Quebec City developed over the ages, memorabilia of utensils and personal belongings from the 1800's and earlier but being late in the afternoon we were both on 'over load' and could not take much in. However, we spent our last few minutes admiring and discussing a huge stylised fresco entitled "Life in Quebec City in 2018". We had fun recognising parts of the city we'd visited and we laughed at some of the antics depicted in the fresco.
As we left the museum we saw part of the wall fortifications that encircle the old part of the city. These ramparts stretch over 5 kilometres and though we saw one of the entrances to a staircase that led to the walk along th top of the wall we didn't have the time or the energy at the end off our l-o-n-g day to attempt to walk it.
Yes it had been another tiring but great day and yes there were just 2 more experiences to be had on our way back to the ship.
1. We happened upon some street entertainment in the park near the wooden promenade area where we'd ridden the funicular from the Lower Town to the Upper Town earlier in our morning jaunt of the city. Now as the sun was setting we were entertained by a clown - not a young man but the typical clown of the 1950's that we recall from our childhood. He was a ' Groucho Marx' type actor and fun to watch.
2. As if the clown show wasn't enough of a surprise, we were amazed by an outdoor water cafe which apparently opens most evenings in the summer and it was right bang-up against the whale where our ship was berthed and we had not seen it in the morning because it does not open until midday. Families sat barefoot on deck chairs, kids swam inthepoolsor near the seated patrons and tgere was a buzz of summer excitement in the air.
To cap off the evening a Circus Orlay show had set up a stage area, also next to the wharf and we had a free show from our cabin balcony. Many of our ship's passengers lined the decks and enjoyed the dazzling show for free too. Quebecans lined up 2 hours before th show to get seats in the open show area and the icing on the cake was a 50 minute fireworks display which was spectacular. Apparently, every Saturday night throughout July and August the city authorities provide the fireworks display to celebrate summer's arrival after a cold snowy winter. We like to think that the fireworks was for our ship's departure because we left the port at Quebec City at 11pm, right after the last explosion of colour had disintegrated into the night sky.