Montreal and Apres Montreal

For my second day in Montreal - given that I had a train booked out at 3:40 pm, I took the safe route of going on a bus tour so I could fit in the maximum sites in a minimum time.

First I wanted to mention breakfast in my hotel. Turned out that breakfast was included. I normally expect an included breakfast to be along the lines of a continental breakfast - but this one had two things that I hadn't seen before. One was an "assemble yourself" breakfast taco. There were soft tacos, scrambled eggs, ham slices and potato cubes in the warmer, and a cheese sauce dispenser and salsa to put over the top. The other thing they had was a waffle iron and a waffle mix dispenser - so you could mak your own waffles.

Anyway - moving on to the day...

The tour started at Notre dame. Of course, notre dame means our lady in French, so I guess its not so surprising that there are Notre Dame's in both Ottawa and Montreal. The one in Montreal, though , I'm not sure whether Our lady referred to is Mary - or Celine Dione. The Celine was married in the Montreal Notre Dame - and the tour guide was very impressed.

another highlight was the 1976 Olympic site. The stadium was not finished in time for the games - in fact it was finished 11 years after the games. The design was for a retractable roof - but that has been replaced with a permanent roof. And they don't really have big enough games to fill the 60,000 seats - so they have had to build a new, smaller stadium. And they have converted the Olympic velodrome into a "biodome" with a rainforest environment.

Anyway - the other stops on the tour were Mt Royal, the (rather small) mountain from which Montreal got its name and from which you can see views of the city. The thing I liked, though that there was a sledding slope towards the bottom of the hill - not something I am familiar with - but apparently 12 feet of snow fell in Montreal last winter, so it makes a bit more sense there. That and the fact that the lakes are all described as skating rinks...

Pictures

From Montreal I caught the train back to Kingston and Kathy and Kendall met me to drive to THE COTTAGE.

Those of you who have been following along from the beginning will realise that I had a brief vist to THE COTTAGE previously. The capital letters are to designate the importance that this structure has to Kerry - who cannot bear to be away from it for a single moment of his leisure time.

The cottage is by a lake, which is alleged to have 13 islands. Kerry has only been able to find 11. Kerry took me out for a paddle to one end of the lake in the canoe on the first afternoon. This morning I went for a paddle to the other end in the kayak. I was hoping to see some of the wildlife living around the lake on the morning paddle - there are sometime deer and beavers available for view - but the wildlife refused to cooperate. It is a long weekend here - so maybe they felt that they were also entitled to a holiday. Kerry did see a deer and two fawns munching on the lawn - but they unfortunately disappeared just before I arrived downstairs, So I only got to see the loons - of which there are several family groups and the rather large frog who has taken possession of the very small pond in the cottage lawn. Also a garter snake living under the side porch - and a hummingbird made a couple of calls in for nectar in the petunias over the back deck.

Cottage photos

Kathy and I headed back to the main house this afternoon so that I could do a final wash and try to cram all my clothes back into my suitcase. Why oh why do I always pack so much?