Yesterday, I left Orlando and headed to Miami to catch a flight to Montreal. Security took less than 5 minutes at OIA. The flight took about 40 minutes. In Miami, I jumped on the sky train and barely made my flight to Montreal, but I was able to go to the bathroom and buy a slice of pizza. Miami is always big. The airport had so many cargo planes. The airport was massive. Orlando is really a baby.
I landed in Montreal at 11:20 p.m. Customs was really nice, but asked me why I was alone. I said there were people coming Chicago to go on a road trip. Dad and Andrea arrived around 12:25 a.m. We took a taxi to a hotel and picked up our rental car this morning. We have a quite large Dodge Durango. I drove it into downtown Montreal and parked it at our hotel.
From our hotel, we took a metro (it was slightly hard to find as much of Montreal in under construction) and walked to a famous bagel shop. The bagel was interesting. It almost seemed burned, but it was really good and about 80 cents U.S. Andrea noticed how little sugar it had in it.
We took a taxi to Jean-Talon Market. It is a famous market. They had samples of the fruit and vegetables and I still managed to buy some unripe apricots. Andrea and I did buy the best Cafe au lait I have had in a while. Andrea also bought some really good tomatoes.
After the outdoor market, we went to the Olympic Park of the Summer Olympics in 1976. This is where Bruce Jenner won the decathlon and Nadia Comăneci won 3 gold medals in gymnastics. I absolutely LOVE Olympics sites and shopping in foreign grocery stores, so I had a good day. However, the Olympic site did not live up to others. There was not a museum. Directions were very hard to find – almost non-existent. The gift shop was the museum the cashier told me. I did buy a hat and a shirt. Some of the venues were being used for other purposes which is good. There was a movie theater and a planetarium. It was very fun to see though.
After the Olympic site, we went to Old Montreal. We saw the Basilique Notre-Dame, Jacques-Cartier Park, and Marche Bonsecours (once housed the Parliament of Canada). March Bonsecours is now a shopping area. I bought some maple cookies for $4 compared to $18 at Disney! We walked along the Old Port. We saw where the first Cirque du Soleil is housed. Then, we just continued to walk around rue St-Paul.
After walking the few short blocks that was Chinatown, we went into an IGA and looked for groceries. We came back to our hotel to check-in around 5:30 p.m.
Andrea and I went back out to visit the underground city, but it was pretty much closed. We were able to see it though and understand that during the Winter, it would be quite fun and nice to shop there. We went back down to Old Montreal and walked around at night.
Tomorrow, we head to Quebec. I don’t think Quebec City has as much to do as Montreal. The people I have interacted with in Montreal have been extremely nice. I have attempted to ask if they speak English in French. I haven’t found many that do not speak English. I think Quebec City will be different.
Montreal has some downfalls as a city. Their metro is behind many in terms of technology. They don’t have alerts as to when the next train is coming. The train pulls into the station way too fast and the train does not alert you in writing what the next stop is. I don’t think the city is very tourist friendly for non-French speakers. The people are nice, but it is hard to figure out where to go by yourself. There is also a major homeless problem.
All in all, it was a tremendous day – how could it not be when there is an Olympic site in the picture?!?!!?!