I had never gone on one of EMCC's Columbus Day weekend events. Every year I read about them in the gazette and thought it sounded like everyone had a lot of fun ... I should have gone. This year I decided enough procrastinating-time to sign up and go...and I did !!!
Frankly this trip didn’t meet my expectations...it far exceeded them and I felt that I wanted to tell the story from a first-timer's perspective. There were a number of first timer's on this trip, five cars of us, and from what I gathered EVERYONE had a great time. We were blessed with great weather for the entire trip and the foliage as we drove north was spectacular.
We stopped in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom to gas up before crossing the border and pretty much took over the gas station.
Canadian customs was a few minutes away and we lined up ...
Canadian customs was a few minutes away and we lined up ...and were quickly through and into Quebec ...
Arriving at our hotel our cars were parked and remained so until we left. Preferred transportation was the Metro with the station just a few steps from our door. In Montreal, many people, are fierce about retaining their French heritage so pretty much everything is in French-menus, street signs, direction, etc. . The Metro is very similar to our MBTA so once we figured out the map getting around was pretty easy.
The hotel room in Longueuil were nice and my 16th floor room had a spectacular view across the St. Lawrence Seaway towards Montreal.
After checking into the second hotel, all 27 of us jumped on the Metro and headed over to Old Montreal and the waterfront. The Metro is very clean, efficient, and the trains are so long that there was plenty of room for everyone to board together. We all bought a weekend pass that gave unlimited rides. The cost was around $13.00 Canadian ... well worth it. While in the Metro we got to see a fight across the way on the other platform...four police were on the scene within a minute. The trains were long clean with lots of doors so on and offs were easy.
Our first stop was to see the famous Notre-Dame Basilica...
Across the way there was much public art and a woman, in the plaza was singing opera ...
From there we walked up the street to Place Jacques Cartier. "In 1809, Montreal's oldest public monument was raised here, Nelson's Column. In 1847, the square was renamed in honor of Jacques Cartier, the explorer who claimed Canada for France in 1535.The broad, divided street slopes steeply downhill from Montreal City Hall and rue Notre-Dame to the waterfront and rue de la Commune. During the high tourist season, the street hosts many street artists and kiosks." We even got to see a protest rally while there.
After meandering around for a while, groups split up for a lunch break and then down to the Old Port of Montreal along the Saint Lawrence River. It is a popular tourist place with all kinds of attractions, tourist shops, and La Grand Roue de Montreal the Ferris wheel that is Canada's tallest observation wheel, as high a 20 story building.
View across the river towards La Biosphere de Montreal (Montreal Biosphere). This was the former U.S. pavilion at Expo 67 and it is now a museum dedicated to the environment. The design was by Buckminster Fuller. To the right "Man, Three Disksis a stabile created by the sculptor Alexander Calder (1898-1976), for World's Fair Expo 67 held in Montreal,Quebec, Canada, in 1967. Locatedon Saint-Helen island within Parc Jean-Drapeau, the sculpture is 21.3 meters high, 22 m.long and 16.25 m. wide."
The next morning, Sunday, it was off to the botanical garden. Walking there we passed the Olympic Stadium, built in 1976 for the Olympic Games in Montreal. There was a concrete structure in front that was a replica of the podium at the Olympic Games. Photo op for me.
Heading up the street, we arrived at the Jardin Botanique (Botanical Gardens). There were so many interesting things-plants, bonsai, banana trees, a contest where kids created interesting pumpkins, and there was a Halloween event "Esmeralda's lair." More pictures of beautiful flowers than can fit into one blog.
Moving on we headed over to RESO ... commonly known as The Underground City. There are over 20 miles of tunnels and it covers 4.6 square miles. It is the largest underground complex in the world. According to Wikipedia it has 1,200 offices, about 2,000 stores, approximately 1,600 housing units, 200 restaurants, 40 banks, and much more. They say nearly 500,000 people use it every day. Where we entered in it appeared to be under construction and not very photogenic. We were probably not in the most interesting part and it was almost lunchtime. After a very brief stop it was back to the surface to find a place to eat.
Montreal is famous for its Jewish delis and after a short search we found Ruben's just down the street. The lunch was excellent.
When we left a number of our group wanted to visit the Canada Goose store a few doors down. I had seen the Canada Goose logo many times on jackets but didn't really know about the brand. When we got to the store there was a security guard at the door,not for capturing shoplifters as you might think, but for crowd control. Two people out...two people in. I didn't realize that this was a very upscale place. Checking the price tag on a ski parka...$1,000.00. OK. The amazing thing was that there were two registers, with lines at each, six to eight people deep and the lines never got shorter while I was there.
The group then split up and some of us went to see Mount Royal...say it fast-"Montreal." Mount Royal is a small mountain in the city of Montreal. It is right next to McGill University. We took the Metro and after a short walk, arrived at the campus, walked up a street through the campus, and arrived at the base of the mountain.
I started up and was huffing and puffing so much...I thought they might have to Med Fligh me out. That's when I realized maybe the huge lunch wasn't such a great idea before attempting this. So I slowed down, did a segment, took a short break and then did the next part. Some of our group went up without a problem, others a little slower with a little more effort. I really didn't want to go home without reaching the top...and I did !!!
I started up and was huffing and puffing so much...I thought they might have to Med Flightme out. That's when I realized maybe the huge lunch wasn't such a great idea before attempting this. So I slowed down, did a segment, took a short break and then did the next part. Some of our group went up without a problem, others a little slower with a little more effort. I really didn't want to go home without reaching the top. I got there and am glad that I did ... the view across the city and beyond was well worth the effort. Later on I found out that there is a bus to the summit and also that you can drive to a parking lot near the summit...next time.
That wrapped up Sunday and we returned to the hotel. Some of the group went out for dinner together others did their own thing.The next morning we headed for the border. I had my seat in the seat of my car at the designated time and once again enjoyed spectacular foliage on the way.We crossed the boarder at Champlain, N.Y.We stopped at a breakfast place just across the border and it was filled with Corvette memorabilia
THAT'S IT ... FROM SOUP TO NUTS ...
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