We made it to Montreal and following instructions from our Air BnB host, we got a taxi to the accommodation. It was in a huge complex of apartments - mostly stayed in by students. There was a pool on the roof top and the apartment was quite nice. A bedroom each and very comfy beds. Ken, the owner’s son, was very nice but could have maybe been a bit more helpful about getting around. Anyway, we knew about the Hop On, Hop Off bus, so Mark worked out the route to walk to there and the following morning, after a very late start, we set off. Having found our destination without much trouble, we bought our ticket for the red open-top double decker bus (pass good for 2 days). Our intent was to stay on the bus for its full loop (about 2 hours) and then go around again, stopping at the places we would like to see again.
Interesting facts about Montreal … it is the largest city in Quebec and is predominantly French speaking (56% speak both French and English). It has been named a UNESCO city of design. It was originally called Ville-Marie (City of Mary) and is now named after Mont Royal, which is a hill in the middle of the city. It is like a city filled with various smaller cities. They have a Latin Quarter, Chinatown, French Quarter, a student quarter, an area where artists and musicians largely reside etc. Unless one of your parents is English speaking, you must attend a French-speaking school.
The bus trip was interesting, but the commentary lacked something as the tour guide kept pointing out things that did not really matter (for example … “on the right where that big hole is, the government will do something with that in 2017”. I mean ??????
She also pointed out an awful lot of hotels, which were obvious as their names were on the outside. However, there were some very interesting sights and it is a great way to familiarise yourself with a city and decide what you would like to explore further.
On this first trip we decided we would like to come back and explore Notre Dame Basilica, the Old Fort and wharf, Old Montreal and attend an exhibition of Michaelangelo .. The Sistine Chapel .. at the cultural centre. We did pass an extremely interesting intersection where thousands of pink balls of varying sizes were hanging above the street. Unfortunately as the tour guide had a very marked French accent, we did not really get the reason for the balls, if there was one. Perhaps it was just to brighten the place up during summer.
My gosh … I have left this blog too long. This will be a good test for my memory.
After the lovely pink balls, we stayed on the bus for a few more stops, taking in the sights. A very interesting area was Old Montreal - beautiful buildings and facades, cobblestone roadways. We decided to explore this area more the next day.
One of these sights was St Joseph Oratory - an amazing, beautiful building. There was debate about visiting it in more detail the next day, but it had been pointed out that there were 350 steps up and the same amount back down, so I perhaps did not embrace the opportunity for further exploring very enthusiastically.
We decided to get off at Mont Royal and walk to the observation area where you could see the city spread out in front of you.
There was an old chateau up there, which was more or less a big barn-type room, but there were a couple doing a ballroom dance for whoever wanted to watch them … I think it was the tango.
This ended our first day in Montreal and we returned to the accommodation eager to start our second day of exploration.