The morning of February 19th saw Donna, Rowena and myself heading to Montreal in Quebec. It was a long weekend in Ontario so we were going to take advantage of the extra day off work for Donna.

We again decided to catch a Greyhound bus for the trip as the service is efficient and direct. Also, the hotel we had booked in Montreal was only a block and a half from the Greyhound terminal in Montreal. The thing we didn't count on was everyone else seemed to be the thinking along the same lines. The queue to board the bus in Ottawa was quite long but it boarded on time and we had no trouble getting a seat after they decided to put on another bus. Many of the people in the queue were actually going to the airport which was the first stop for the bus so once these people were re-assigned this halved the queue and freed up seats on the Montreal bus.

On arriving in Montreal we walked the short distance to our hotel and checked in. By the time we had completed this it was well past lunch time and 3.30 pm saw us seated at a Chinese restaraunt having a late lunch. The lunch was great, we have not had a bad Chinese meal since landing on the North American continent. Every meal we have had has been sensational. After lunch we had a walk around the inner city occassionally ducking into a Starbucks or other buildings to get respite from the bitterly cold wind that was whipping up and down the streets.

Early next morning we were out and about heading for the old city of Montreal. We passed Chinatown on the way there and had a quick look along the narrow icy streets. If you do not watch your step it is very easy to end up slipping on the ice and ending up on your derreire. It was a beautiful clear day with the sun shining, but the temperature and wind chill were enough to remind you that it was still very much winter time and all bare skin must be covered especially ears, cheeks and finger tips. It was freezing!!

Montreal is an old city established on the confluence of the Ottawa and St Lawrence Rivers and a strategic point, in early settlement days, for river exploration of the interior of Canada and became an important port and fur trading centre. Some French dude fought and defeated the Iroquois Indians at a place now called Place d' Armes directly opposite the Notre Dame Basilica right in the centre of the old city of Montreal (or so the story goes). It was interesting walking around the old cobblestone lined streets and trying to stay on the sunny side of the streets in a vain hope of attracting some warmth from the sun. We now realise the significance of the lyrics to that old song. The promanade along the old Port of Montreal although very attractive would be something else in the summer time. Montreal is a very "French" city and although we do not speak much French people there are generally bilingual, so for us uneducated colonials from down under it was not a problem making ourselves understood.

Late morning saw us negotiating the Montreal subway trying to make our way to the 1976 Olympic stadium. The velodrome there has been converted into a Bio-dome housing many animals, birds, fish and plants from several different bio systems from around the world. There were two toe sloths, tropical birds and alligators in the humid rainforest section. Beaver and lynx in the Canadian section and puffins, fish and seals from the Artic section. It was very well done. The Olympic pool is still well utilised and the Olympic village is obviously now housing apartments. Unfortunately the Olympic stadium itself is struggling to find a useful purpose these days. It has been used for ice hockey, a concert venue, the Popes visit, exhibitions etc but with better and more purpose built venues now available it is struggling to find a regular use. The tower on the Olympic stadium, which was not completed until well after the Olympics, is now operating and offers great scenic views of the St Lawrence River and city sky line. The Olympic complex was built for $CAD1.5 billion paid for in 2 years with Quebec cigarette tax! Me thinks they smoke to much in Quebec!

The subway was fantastic. It was clean, fast, efficient, on time, reasonably cheap and trains about every 6 minutes. It also consists of a series of inter-connected walkways connecting department stores, Government buildings, theatres ect with the subway stations. It essentially provides a huge underground shopping complex. We walked for miles under the city just looking at the shopping and staying out of the cold temperatures. We discovered one of the exit points was a few doors down from our hotel.

The next morning we took the subway to Mont Royal an outer suburb of Montreal. Rowena wanted to try genuine French macarons and had found an outlet in Mont Royal. It was a very pretty suburb and we not only enjoyed the stroll around the less busy streets but also having macarons and coffee at a shop where the owners son was currently working in Australia.

Back on the subway and back to town it was time to check out of the hotel and head for the Greyhound bus Terminal.

The photo attached to this blog was trying to depict the very French attitude of Montreal. However, I could not get the flags to flap in unison. Flying above a cafe in the old Montreal part of the city is the Canadian flag, the Quebec flag and the French flag together.