Today we took the metro across to Old Montreal and it really did feel like we had popped across to somewhere in Europe for the day! It is full of beautiful old architecture, little cobbled back streets full of lovely shops, restaurants, cafes and galleries, and the streets lead out eventually onto a square (place Jacques-Cartier) like they do in Barcelona and Rome. It made a nice change from the city streets we have been seeing for the last few weeks.

Montreal is one of only a few large cities in North America to have conserved it's historic city centre.

We headed to Place d'Armes where there are lots of lovely buildings. They have Canada's first ever skyscraper- the New York Life building which was opened in 1888 and the lift that went up the 8 storeys was a great novelty at the time! They also have the oldest building in this area, and the Notre Dame Basilica which is one of the main things I wanted to see. It is a gothic revival church dating back to 1829. The interior is incredible (that's it in the picture accompanying this blog) It's difficult to capture it's beauty on camera unfortunately. It is extremely ornate with painted, gilded and carved wooden decorations, stained glass, paintings, and sculptures.

It was nice to take a stroll in and around this area- Old Montreal has a nice relaxed feel to it.

The sun was out and it wasn't too cold either! I've been so surprised with the weather so far; I thought as soon as we stepped off the plane in Vancouver in September that it would be freezing but I think even now we're actually having better weather than back home from what I've heard.

We had cream cheese bagels for lunch with one of the biggest cups of tea I've ever seen!

When we got back to the hostel we extended our stay again and also bought Ice-Hockey tickets for Thursday night!! :) The hostel is minutes away from the stadium and they have a really good deal going on.

Montreal Canadiens .V. Nashville Predators! Looking forward to that as the atmosphere is said to be amazing!