Showered, and ready to hit the streets, we recorded some more of Suite 410:
The entrance vestibule from the door:
To the left, looking at the 'living' part of the apartment:
The 'dining' part, complete with integrated kitchenette:
Bedroom:
Bedroom wall hanging:
Luggage:
Note: I was never much persuaded by the arguments in favour of packing cubes, but am now a convert. Keeping things separated within the suitcase is definitely to be recommended:
Bathroom:
This shot down the length of the apartment gives some idea of its size:
The view across the street:
Down to the street, and a view of the hotel's imposing corner location:
The origins of the site on which the hotel is built:
Tempting, but we know where we are headed:
To the Taverne Gaspar for breakfast:
Earl Grey tea for two, and two "Québecois" - scrambled eggs served with bacon, sauteed potatoes, baked beans, toast and fresh fruit:
Much fortified by an excellent breakfast in friendly surroundings, we moved on to Place Jacques-Cartier:
with its very own Nelson's Column:
I loved this old advert painted onto the side of the Édifice de La Sauvegarde:
Montreal City Hall, on Notre-Dame St. East:
Walking in the opposite direction along Notre-Dame St. East we then came upon our first 'must visit' location - the Notre-Dame Basilica:
Although we had approached it via a somewhat circuitous route, the cathedral was actually only 5 minutes walk from our hotel; it, and the Place d'Armes in front of it, would be resting places that we would return to again and again during our stay.
The decor inside was stunning:
A wooden carving by Pier Cloutier of Eulalie Durocher:
Outside, to admire the Maisonneuve Monument in the middle of the Place d'Armes:
and then, in a somewhat different style, The English Pug and the French Poodle on two corners of 500 Place D'Armes, which houses the Banque Canadienne Nationale:
More walking, and down to the Old Port of Montreal:
Although deserted when we visited, this basin would normally be full of moored boats during the summer:
As we walked around the Old Port we passed the Voiles en Voiles adventure park:
and the MTL Zip Line:
both of which seemed to be a lot of fun.
Turning away from the river and across the road to the Marché Bonsecours:
To escape a sudden shower we made our way inside for a wander around, followed by sustenance (that's Amanda's pecan pie):
The view from our lunch table - the red tower of the MTL Zip Line and, some way beyond that, the Grande roue de Montréal:
Out, and more walking along Rue Saint Paul, Montreal's oldest street, full of shops and restaurants and, seemingly, being dug up at virtually every intersection. As we continued to discover, it seemed that the whole of Montreal was being dug up, knocked down or rebuilt and after every daily outing we returned to the hotel to find our shoes (and sometimes ourselves) covered in dust.
We kept walking, calling in to a quaint old (and very expensive) bookshop, and eventually coming upon Les chuchoteuses:
Amanda trying to pick up the local goss:
Finally, exhaustion after too much walking caught up with us and for a few minutes we became completely disorientated and unable to find the hotel. With the help of our smartphones we soon recovered, and made our way homewards, calling in first at a local shop that we had identified earlier, from which we bought soft drinks before returning to the hotel and collapsing.
The earlier shower had been a portent of what was to come, and some time after 16.30 it started to rain; and continued to rain; and continued to rain.
We donned our long rain macs, programmed Google Maps to guide us to our destination through an earpiece on my phone and ventured out.
Around 10 minutes later we made it to the Vieux Port Steakhouse.
I enjoyed my burger:
and Amanda enjoyed her salmon and vegetables:
The view from our table (after, that is, the two ladies (mother and daughter?) sitting at the window table had somewhat unenthusiastically nibbled their way through a third of their meal and then asked to 'bag' the rest of it):
Dining companion:
We finished with extremely good chocolate mousse cake:
Out, into the now torrential rain. When we got back to the hotel we hung everything up to dry and settled down to watch TV:
The first time we went to America was to Boston in 1993. Although I had idly wondered about the possibility of seeing the Red Sox playing at Fenway Park we never made it during that trip.
Three years later we visited Toronto - the only Canadian city that fields a team in the American League. On that occasion, in one of history's quirky little symmetries, we went to see the Toronto Blue Jays play the Boston Red Sox at the SkyDome (later renamed the Rogers Centre).
How fitting then, that when we put the TV on in our Montreal hotel suite, the game being shown was... ... the Toronto Blue Jays vs the Boston Red Sox:
At some point Amanda went to bed, leaving me watching TV, and suddenly all the power and lights in the apartment cut out. The street lights were on, as were the emergency lights on the landing outside the room, but everything else was off. The telephone seemed to be out of action, so having located our trusty torches, I left Amanda in the room and walked down four flights of stairs to reception, to be told that all the power to the hotel was out (apart from the emergency generator supply to the elevator and the lights in the hall). Not wishing to get stuck in the elevator if the generator suddenly cut out I elected to walk back up the four flights of stairs and we went to bed by torchlight. About 30 mins later we noticed various appliance stand-by LEDs illuminating and the power was restored.
To sleep.
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