Montreal

Montreal

From Ottawa we headed East to Montreal Quebec. This was the first time in Quebec.  That means a new sticker on our Canadian maps!

As soon as we changed Provinces, one thing was very obvious. All signs changed from bilingual to French only. That was an issue.  Ed and I don’t speak French.  We worked at figuring out what the road signs meant as much as possible…  It was a bit frightening, but we muddled through. 

Getting near the city we hit our first (expect them as you travel) road hazard.  We both heard a strange noise coming from outside the truck.  Ed stopped the truck to see if it quit (on a very busy off ramp). It did, so it was definitely us.  We continued driving and the noise continued.  We pulled over again and left the truck running.  The noise stopped.  Ed carefully got out of the truck and worked his way around.  We have (along with everyone that travels with an RV) had problems with tires, but all seemed OK in that area.  He went around the truck and rig again and determined that the problem was associated with out septic hose holder.  Seems something must have hit the cover on the pipe and the hose was dragging along on the road.  Ed tossed the hose into the truck bed and we were on our way. 

Next stop, an absolutely wonderful Camping RV Park.  We have been to many hundreds of parks. As said earlier, we usually stay in more rustic setting, but outside of Montreal, there was nothing available like that close by.

When deciding if we would go with a hosted group or do the trip on our own, one of my considerations was language issues.  The second was we had heard there were issues with the people in Quebec not being helpful or friendly.  We have found nothing but wonderful helpful people on our trip. This campground was NO exception.  The women at the counter were extremely helpful, friendly and gracious. We don’t know their language, yet they went out of their way to help us. Maps, brochures, phone numbers, directions to the rail to the city.  They were great.

The park has a lot of extended stay sites. It has a pool, spa, exercise room, pickle ball. Our site had a patio table with 4 chairs as well as a patio swing for 3. In addition, there was a fireplace.

The extended stay sites were amazing, and each was landscaped by the individuals staying at the site. Here is a picture of what a site looks like.

I was not able to get our tour of Montreal scheduled for the first day, so we decided to go into the city and explore on our own on the first full day.  We took the map and information supplied by the Hostess at the campground with us and headed for the Rail station. We got off at the correct exit, but getting around to the parking area was a bit of an issue.  There was construction going on, which did not help and again the language was an issue. Finally, we found the entrance to the underground parking.  We exited our truck and tried to find the way out.  After walking around, we located a door out…  I mentioned that there was something written on the door, but we decided to exit anyway. In hindsight, I am sure it said something like “Emergency Exit”.  When got outside it was obvious that we should not have exited there, so we tried to get back in… No such luck.

We started walking through the gated construction area. Each gate we came to was locked.  Finally, after walking a bit, we found one that opened. We continued walking all the way around the construction and over to the rail station area. (I believe I have had nightmares similar to this)

 After much help from people in the station we found how to purchase tickets and get onto the train.  We had to transfer to a second train to get to the stop we wanted. We had done this in other cities so that was not to bad, but I held onto the wonderful map the woman at the Campground had given me. It was our only bridge back to the home world.

After exiting the underground train station in Montreal, we tried to get our bearings. There was a map (in French only) but there were very few street signs.  We had our phones to give us some assistance once we started moving.  We were off “like a herd of turtles” heading for Old Montreal. About the time we got to the cobbled streets of Old Montreal, the rain began.  At first, it was not horrible.  Ed brought an umbrella.  I had my “Maid of the Mist” Rain Poncho from one of our previous adventures. We would be fine…. 

OK, the rain was getting worse.  The streets began to flood.  Cars tried to go slow enough to not splash all of us pedestrians, but it really did not help. The streets were narrow as were the walkways.  Everyone ducked into the doorways of the ancient buildings and steps.  Everyone was drenched.  Time to get out of the rain and into a souvenir shop.  About 40 of our “new friends” and us were trying to stay dry. We stood around talking about the adventure, where we were from and where we were headed.  The shopkeeper sold a lot of umbrellas and rain gear. The hail and thunder and lightning made it difficult to leave. But, because of the rain I was able to pick up a couple of pairs of great Canadian sox.

After about a half hour, the rain slowed just a bit, I put on my poncho, Ed opened his umbrella, and we went back up the street to locate a sandwich shop we had seen as we wattled our way down the street the first time. It was quite a few blocks down the road.  I was completely drenched.  We walked in to find another large number of drenched individuals eating and talking.  The waiter came over, handed us menus, and asked, in perfect English what we would like to drink.  He laughed at how wet we were and walked off to get our request. 

Ed and I worked on the menus, using the translator on the phone and a bit French each of us could decipher on our own.  By the time he returned, we had pretty much figured out what we wanted.  We spent the next hour or so, talking and laughing with the other patrons wait for the rain to let up.  Though not what we expected, we had a great time!

When we left the restaurant, we decided to start heading back but enroute we wanted to go the Notre Dame.  We were not able to go inside, but here are some pictures outside.

In the hope of converting our US money into Canadian, we went the Bank of Montreal across from the Basilica. Though we were not able to get cash, we got a great tour of the wonderful building. Well worth a trip inside, if you have a chance.

The following day, we returned to Montreal for our 3 ½ Hour tour of the area.  Honestly, Montreal is not my favorite. We enjoyed to tour.  The guide spoke in English, French and Spanish.  He almost never stopped speaking. We again walked to Notre Dame and the Bank building.  He also took us to several other areas in the city including the site of the Summer Olympics held there. Honestly, we were not impressed with the city itself. It was nowhere near as well kept as other cities we have seen in Canada.  Signs that did exist were in French.  As a place that is a tourist attraction, it really was not up to the task in my humble opinion.

See you in Quebec City!!