We had not had a good night's sleep, due to poor bedding in the room, so were all a bit lethargic and it was 10:45am when we finally left the hotel. By the time we got into the city, it was near midday. We started by getting our bearings using our smartphones on the bus using free WiFi, and once we were dropped off we headed straight into the underground and caught a train toward Old Montreal.
It was a beautiful day, sunny, and yet cold in the shade or in a breeze. Old Montreal is not contained within city walls like Quebec was. Rather, you are walking in Old Montreal surrounded by old buildings, and take one block too far and suddenly everything becomes modern. So without visual boundaries we had to rely on maps and general senses, looking one block ahead everywhere we walked.
High on the agenda was finding brunch. We found a restaurant, a little touristy, in an old stone building where we walked up rickety steps to get upstairs. Here Helen and Peter had poutine (the local specialty, french fries covered in cheese curds and gravy sauce) while I had a meat sandwhich which is another local favourite. All good and filled us nice and warm before we ventured out again.
We followed our nosed through various streets, taking in old churches and buildings, mingling with gift shops, before making our way down to the Old Port (or Vieux Port) which is actually fairly modern and designed to harmonise urban living during the summer time. Down here, we could see many sights from the river, mainly where we traveled yesterday.
Heading back uphill, we stopped in to admire a very old church, before popping in to lovely local bakery to taste some small treats, the likes of which we had never seen before, and yes they were delicious!
Although by now it was only mid afternoon, it was getting cold, and Helen's iWatch told us we had walked about 9km, so we decided to return to the hotel. I was fairly convinced I knew where to pick up the bus, which required a walk of a few blocks, which fortuitously took us through Chinatown. Helen was become increasingly concerned I was lost, but suddenly we turned the corner to familiar surroundings. As luck would have it, the bus was just leaving as we arrived, and hit a red traffic light, so we knocked on the door and the driver was kind enough to let us on.
The ride back to the hotel beat the peak hour traffic, so wasn't too bad. We were also lucky to coincide with our hotel shuttle at the airport to save us time.
We hadn't been in the hotel too long, when Helen researched some of the local bus routes, and found a mall not too far away contained some restaurants and a Walmart. So we ventured out and ended up eating dinner in a restaurant called "Scores" which oddly enough was a family restaurant mainly specialising in chicken meals, which hardly matches its name!
After a wait for our return bus, we made it back safe and sound, ready to face another day.
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