August 13, Wednesday…Laval, Montreal..and a day in the city!
Set the alarm for the first time on the trip and we were waiting for the 8.07 bus at the park entrance. The whole day went really well, the bus arrived at the metro station at Montmomercy ( a 45 minute trip that took us on a round about trip through all the suburb) and we caught the metro into the centre of Montreal, a trip of less than 30 mins, and only $2.50 each. We arrived at the Bonaventure stop, only a short walk to the info centre, where we had read that city tours departed from and by 10 oclock we were on a double decker bus for a 2 hours trip seeing the sights of the city. We were able to get on and off at different sites and pick up the next bus, so at the Notre-Dame Basilica we headed off and walked to the old part of Montreal…cobbled streets and wonderful old buildings and horse and buggy’s taking tours. A delightful little interlude. Picked up the bus again, got some good seats on the top deck, with had an excellent guide who spoke good English, so stayed on for the rest of the tour. We really enjoyed getting a feeling of the city, and seeing some of the wonderful old architecture especially around the vicinity of Magill University. Many of the older buildings are being converted to apartments.
By the time the tour ended, it was getting close to 1, and were quite hungry, found a really nice café on a side street for a panini and coffee. The streets were really full of people and cars, and to our eyes, the pedestrians expected the cars to wait for them…..we just went with the flow!
Montreal has a huge underground City, made of up of 33 kilometres of interconnecting passageways and vast shopping areas…understand there is almost 2000 shops within the network, as well as offices! This has been built so that people can move around easily during the long harsh winters…the metros all link up as well. So we went wandering, didn’t have a clue where we were, but fascinating. Finally found a place to surface, got our bearing and headed back to the nearest metro, and back out to Montmomercy. As luck would have it, we only had 10 minutes to wait for the bus, and were back at the camp soon after 4, feeling quite proud of ourselves.
We had a shower and a freshen up, then off to see Denis Grenier’s brother, Paul and wife Monique for dinner, a 15 minute drive. What a wonderful evening we had, Paul and Monique are so friendly, relaxed, and speak good English! So communication was no problem. We had a superb meal, with soup, followed by fresh Atlantic salmon and asparagus, then grapes and cheese ( a very creamy unpasturised style), and a wild blueberry tart…Monique’s sister had collected the berries. All served with New Zealand wines, we felt very spoilt!
Set the alarm for the first time on the trip and we were waiting for the 8.07 bus at the park entrance. The whole day went really well, the bus arrived at the metro station at Montmomercy ( a 45 minute trip that took us on a round about trip through all the suburb) and we caught the metro into the centre of Montreal, a trip of less than 30 mins, and only $2.50 each. We arrived at the Bonaventure stop, only a short walk to the info centre, where we had read that city tours departed from and by 10 oclock we were on a double decker bus for a 2 hours trip seeing the sights of the city. We were able to get on and off at different sites and pick up the next bus, so at the Notre-Dame Basilica we headed off and walked to the old part of Montreal…cobbled streets and wonderful old buildings and horse and buggy’s taking tours. A delightful little interlude. Picked up the bus again, got some good seats on the top deck, with had an excellent guide who spoke good English, so stayed on for the rest of the tour. We really enjoyed getting a feeling of the city, and seeing some of the wonderful old architecture especially around the vicinity of Magill University. Many of the older buildings are being converted to apartments.
By the time the tour ended, it was getting close to 1, and were quite hungry, found a really nice café on a side street for a panini and coffee. The streets were really full of people and cars, and to our eyes, the pedestrians expected the cars to wait for them…..we just went with the flow!
Montreal has a huge underground City, made of up of 33 kilometres of interconnecting passageways and vast shopping areas…understand there is almost 2000 shops within the network, as well as offices! This has been built so that people can move around easily during the long harsh winters…the metros all link up as well. So we went wandering, didn’t have a clue where we were, but fascinating. Finally found a place to surface, got our bearing and headed back to the nearest metro, and back out to Montmomercy. As luck would have it, we only had 10 minutes to wait for the bus, and were back at the camp soon after 4, feeling quite proud of ourselves.
We had a shower and a freshen up, then off to see Denis Grenier’s brother, Paul and wife Monique for dinner, a 15 minute drive. What a wonderful evening we had, Paul and Monique are so friendly, relaxed, and speak good English! So communication was no problem. We had a superb meal, with soup, followed by fresh Atlantic salmon and asparagus, then grapes and cheese ( a very creamy unpasturised style), and a wild blueberry tart…Monique’s sister had collected the berries. All served with New Zealand wines, we felt very spoilt!
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