The Montreal Vacation. Part 1

Jeanne and I settled on Montreal as a vacation spot for September. We were sold because there was a direct flight from LAX, which takes about 5.5 hours. We left September 23^rd, 2015 with a return planned for September 29^th. 

Day-1: The flight was on time and we landed in Montreal about 3:30 PM.  We immediately caught the 747 bus from the airport to downtown.  The walk to our hotel, the Best Western Europa was just a couple of blocks. We went over to Crescent St. and grabbed a pretty good meal at a high end hamburger place. The food was pretty good, but so were the beers.  We then went to bed after walking around the block and checking out our new home for the next week. 

Day-2: We slept in until 10:00 AM, which I have not done for years. Then we walked over to Peel St. where we had a croissant for breakfast. We then walked about a block away and took the 715 bus which goes to old Montreal. 

We walked all around old Montreal. As I read in reviews, it is very pretty but touristy. There were not that many people there since it was Thursday.

We grabbed a lunch at a very small and interesting restaurant where the chef takes your order and delivers the food, while his wife sat by and feed their kids food. The food was excellent, but the ice tea was the oddest taste we had ever had: not bad just different.

We then walked over to the Notre-Dame Basilica and took the tour. The church is beautiful. It is made of all wood.  They told us when we paid that there was a free organ concert on Friday and Saturday night. We could not make Friday, but we decided that Saturday night would work.

We then walked back to our hotel and went to dinner back on Crescent St. We decided to try a different restaurant, where they once again had excellent food. 

Day-3: We got up and 4:45 AM and took the Via Rail to Ottawa. The train ride was 2 hours long and very nice. I keep my eyes closed most of the time, because I was just so tired from the different hours we had kept. one day we get up at 5:00 AM and the next day we get up at 10:00 AM.  Once in Ottawa we had a taxi take us to the Canadian War Museum where we spent 2 hours checking out WW1, WW2 along with the tank collection. The War Museum is pretty big, so you probably could spend the day there.

At 11:30, Krista from ArcherPoint came and picked us up at the War Museum. Krista is an ArcherPoint project manager that lives in Ottawa. Krista gave us a quick tour of the downtown and then we went off to lunch. We had a great lunch together where we talked all things Canadian. Krista then went back to work, but beforehand suggested we walk up through the park overlooking the locks and then go over to Parliament to take a tour. We did walk the park where there were great views of the city. Ottawa is just beautiful,with the river below and the government buildings on top of the overlooking cliffs.

We then went over to Parliament, but we were told that the tickets to get in were on a first come, first serve basis each day.  Of course they were all sold out.  We then settled to stand in front of Parliament and take pictures.  It was still very good and fun. 

We then sat in Starbucks and drank coffee until about 4:00 PM. We grabbed a taxi and went back to the train station, where we soon found out our train was delayed for another 45 minutes. Two hours later we were rolling down the tracks on our way back to Montreal. In the station, we grabbed two cheese sandwiches at Tim Hortons, and then grabbed a bottle of Canadian wine at the liquor store, and then went back to the hotel where we found out the wine was pretty good but Tim’s sandwiches needed something else to make them really good: probably a good dose of mustard, of which we had none.

Day-4: On Saturday we again slept in until 10:00 AM, which really feels good. We walked down Drummond and then we went over to the Bonaventure metro. We took the orange line metro to Jean-Talon station, where we intended to go to the Jean-Talon market, that Jeanne so desired to go to. Unfortunately, neither one of us looked up where the market was. Therefore we just kind of walked around for a bit thinking we might eventually run into it. We did not. 

At one point I stopped and asked a man standing on the corner if he knew where the outdoor market was. He did not, but pointed at several corner restaurants and told us we could get food there. I thought his response was a bit odd since the market is probably the biggest thing in town. We then walked a bit more and found a map on a sign, which clearly showed us that the market was back down the street 3 blocks past where we found the man. It became obvious that nobody let’s this guy out to often. In case you are wondering why we did not look at our iPhones, the reason is we have the data turned off as to not get international charges.We arrived at the market and were just amazed by all the produce, fish and meets. We were dying of hunger so we ate at the crape restaurant. It was mind-blowingly good.  We then walked around for about the next two hours, stopping once for coffee.

We then decided to head back to our hotel, where we rested up for about an hour before heading back to old Montreal and the 6:30 organ concert at the basilica. We first had a great pasta meal in old Montreal before walking over to the basilica. We stood in line for about 10 minutes before they let us all in. We got great seats.The organist was Pierre Grandmaison, who has been the organist at Notre Dame since 1973. The organ was installed in 1891, but we very recently overhauled. There are 7,000 pipes, 92 stops, four keyboards and 32 pedals. Pierre decided to play a full 45 minutes run from musical themes of the classics of cinema. He ended with Bach’s Toccata et fugue en re mineur. 

The concert was simply life changing. The clarity and volume of sound was just amazing. I could not imagine being a church goer in 1891 and sitting down for the first service after the organ was delivered. In 1891 there was no TV, stereo, records, or any recording sound system. I can only image that some of the goers must have run out of the basilica thinking that god was descending upon them as the organ played. Combine the sound with the beautiful wood interior of the church, with gold trim and breath taking blue background, and you are transported to another time and place. 

I have been to churches around the world: The Sistine chapel in Rome, St. Peters in Rome, churches in Florence, churches in the UK and Notre Dame in Paris but I have never seen a more beautiful church as the Basilica in Montreal. I was over powered by the French Canadian culture and history that created this magnificent church. At one point I was ready to throw myself upon the blue linoleum that leads to the alter, and pledge my faith to the church so that I might return to their regular services.After the concert, Jeanne and I went to a very nice restaurant/bar in old Montreal and had a very good glass of wine. We then caught the 715 bus at 8:30 PM back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we spend the entire day on a wine tour in the country. Sounds like fun.