Back on board the coach, our guide - Paul - gave out maps which showed the route we would be taking along something called the Kancamagus Highway. Kancamagus, we were told, means "the fearless one" and was the name of a famous local leader of the Penacook tribe - the last, in fact. The Penacook were one of the first tribes to come into contact with European settlers, and were thus one of the first to vanish from the face of the Earth courtesy of imported disease....

Crossing back into the USA by coach didn't turn out to be as complicated as I had been expecting considering the hassles I had crossing into Canada a couple of weeks ago on the west coast. From my seat near the front of the coach, it seemed that the entire process of crossing the border back into the United States consisted of the following conversation between our coach driver and a US customs official: Driver: Good Evening, Officer. Customs: Good Evening, Sir...

Our tour began this morning at 9.30 outside the hotel, where we were met once again by the gloriously sarcastic guide from yesterday. She must have been hungry, however, because we had hardly had a chance to take our seats on the coach before we set off at some speed across the city, causing people to fall over each other in the aisles, heading for our first stop of the day which was an expensive hotel up in the Laurentian Mountains which had apparently offered t...

Before I move on from Quebec City, I really should take this opportunity to mention the annual Quebec Winter Carnival - an event which takes place in January or February and has now become the largest and most famous winter carnival in the world. If you're in the region at the time, this isn't something you're going to want to miss. Every year, people come from all around to take part in the festivities, which include an ice sculpture contest in which teams of s...

From the falls, we drove onto a strange little road out of town which was so narrow that some of the roofs of the roadside houses had huge chunks out of them where passing lorries and coaches had struck them - I had to wonder why they didn't simply ban large vehicles from that particular route and tell them to go another way. I don't suppose the residents of the homes along the road can feel particularly secure living in a house that may come crumbling down at an...