Sunday 13th of May: after a good night of sleep, we woke up to a grey and rainy Montreal. Obviously that didn't bother us even a little bit and after a nice breakfast at Saint Cinnamon -see picture- we went to the Mount Royal, the highlight of Montreal. The highest point can be found at 233m and you get there by walking up some steep hills and many stairs. Did I mention you need to climb a lot of stairs to get there? I realized once again how 'out of shape' I am when I was taken over by many fitness-bunnies jumping up and down the stairs, running with 2 steps at a time. I really need to kick my own ass into the gym again after this holiday! The amazing panoramic view of the city from the viewpoint made all the effort worth it of course.

After a short break we decided to hike down to the lake on the other side of the hill. The walk down was through a gorgeous green scenery and once we really 'opened up' to the environment we could absorb the vast beauty of nature. At one point we stopped, and I think we stood there for about 20 minutes, to look at a squirrel nibbling on a nut. I have never seen anything like it! Completely undisturbed and in its element, it was letting us watch from a 2meter distance. I sat down on a branch in the meantime and felt watch by another fluffy friend. You could see it was exploring his limits as it came closer every time. We noticed a little later that squirrels are just everywhere and Montrealers don't pay attention to them anymore, but for us, that moment there in the woods, was very special.

Once out of the park, we walked in the direction of the best bagelshop, as recommended by the concierge of our hotel. Having a map with us, we walked one block, and another further, and one more, until we crossed about 10more blocks, only to find out that the guy had marked the shop incorrectly on the map and we had walked in the wrong direction. A little annoyed by that, we then walked back to the 2nd best bagelshop only to be disappointed again as the one we got was very dry and not tasty at all. So, the hunt for a nice bagel continues, so is our mission to try Poutine, a local 'must-try' 1000calorie dish, but more on that later.

We took a metro back to the hotel to freshen up and get a change of clothes before going to Cirque du Soleil. We arrived well on time and found out that we had perfect seats! We obviously knew which seats we reserved upon the time of booking, but seeing the stage and the layout for real, we were overjoyed with that choice.

People who have seen a live show of CdS can understand that there are no words to explain what such a show is like. For those of you who haven't had the chance yet I can only say "You must!". The tickets are not cheap, but they are SO worth it!! The acts that they perform are incredible and everything is live on stage, even the music and the singing. It's honestly mind blowing! Right there we decided that we will buy tickets for the Michael Jackson show by CdS that shows in Vienna at the end of this year.

The show ended at 19:30 which left us with some daylight to get a glimpse of the Old Town. If I would have to describe Montreal in one word I would say it's 'diverse'. Not one house or building is the same. Although everything is divided into blocks and you would expect some unity amongst them, not a single building is the same. Further, you find cute little churches in between a collection of high-rise apartment buildings. Old and new alternates each other like the black and white squares on a chess board. Also, one moment you feel like you're in France when passing the several Boulangeries with its french-style nameplates and the next moment you're brought right back to America when a screaming police car passes you by. The city is also very clean and green and the colors are as vibrant as Gordon Ramsey's dishes.

After criss-crossing the cosy streets we found an Italian restaurant where we decided to have dinner. It looked nice and romantic but the lack of people inside should have rang some bells with us..

Our waiter, and apparently the owner, explained the Specials for the night and even offered to click some family pictures of us. Sure, why not.
The food was really nothing special and even a little disappointing, but we finished our plates anyway and asked directly after that for the bill. At the bottom of the receipt there were two percentages mentioned, which we assumed were tax and service charge (tips), so we didn't want to leave any further tips. It was already expensive enough and the service and meals were nothing to write home about. Which I'm doing after all, how ironic actually..

Anyway, we gave him the money and waited to get the change back. Then the waiter/owner came back to our table mentioning that tips were not included in the bill. We didn't want to be rude of course, so told him it was ok and we didn't need the change back. We left and were even semi-friendly bid farewell by that same guy. Then, not even having walked 10feet away from the restaurant, he followed us outside and told us once again that tips were not included... Uh, what? With surprise, confusion and a bit of annoyance in his voice, my dad told him we left the tips with the payment we gave him. I don't know where he took the guts from, but he actually acted surprised as he could not remember we gave him that money. In the end, he was making a fool out of himself in front of his guests sitting outside on the terrace, so we just walked away. I'm quite confident though that our bells have been fixed by this incident.

After arriving back at the hotel we all went off to bed straight away as a 6am alarm was awaiting us for the next morning.

Monday's program: exploring Quebec City