Thursday 18th August 2022.

Todays adventure is a trip to Parc Monte Royale. We think that a single fifteen minute bus journey will get us within spitting distance. Then it’s a bit of a walk to the lookout point.  Leaving the house, we were turned around at the end of the street as there was a small of gas, and the next thing about five fire engines turned up with the fireman wearing gas masks.  

There had been a gas leak yesterday in the street where the shops were and they had evacuated people (including a lady with a parrot on her shoulder and six kittens). As we did not want to go out for the morning and then find we would not be allowed back in on our return, we played safe by taking some snacks and drinks plus spare nappies and Paddington for the little one. Safe to set out now, we walk to the bus stop.

There is a lot of traffic and the bus is rather slow making it’s way along the street.  We decide to alight two stops earlier than we originally thought.  This turned out to our advantage as we walked past the Museum of Contemporary Art, and there are some interesting sculptures outside, as well as a mural on the actual road road itself.

You might just be able to make out some of the sculptures on the LHS.

A few streets further uphill and we arrive at the foot of some wooden steps - looks like this is the way to the top… four hundred and fifty two steps later we finally arrive at the top, after a few breathers on the way. 

The view back down some of the steps.

And the view from the top…

Eric said he was bit low down and couldn’t see.

That’s better 

We have a drink and a cake - can’t think of a better deserved chocolate donout. 

Think it may be good idea to catch a bus and the the metro to get back. The bus from the top only runs every half hour and we have just missed one but it’s a pleasant enough place to wait. 

After an early afternoon rest (the fire engines had now gone and the street was no longer cordoned off) we set out to a local park so the little one can have a run around, and we follow this with an early dinner out locally.  The first restaurant seemed OK and we choose what we wanted from the menu. After four of us had ordered with no problems, the last one to select their meal was told that it was not available, nor was the freshly squeezed orange juice that was on the menu. Someone had supposedly given us the lunchtime menu and we needed to choose from the evening one. Start again, but this time there is nothing that one of us wants to eat, and for a change, this time it is not the usual awkward vegetarian. Decide to go elsewhere, and settled on a pizza restaurant, where an enjoyable meal was had sitting outside under a canopy.  Time for a quick game of Monopoly deal before it’s bedtime. 

 Wednesday 17 August 2022.

Awake early this morning, well with a small child in the house what can you expect!

Today’s itinerary involves a day out in the Olympic Park area. The Biodome, The Botanic Gardens and The Insectarium are the planned events.  It is an easy ride on the metro, with only one change. Montreal hosted The Olympics in 1976 and some parts of the site were undergoing regeneration, consequently the route to our first stop, the Biodome was a bit convoluted but we arrive in time for our pre-booked ticketed entry. This attraction includes four different habitat zones, a tropical rainforest area, a Laurentian maple forest, representation the Gulf of St Lawrence and sub-polar regions representing the Labrador Coast and sub-Antarctic islands.  We enter the tropical zone first, and boy is it hot and humid.

What’s that Eric?  An Alligator or a Crocodile?

A tamarind monkey? (There appeared to be no interpretation around so we were never quite sure exactly what we were looking at!)

And some Capybaras?

Too hot to stay in here for long so it’s off to the Gulf of St Lawrence

The diver cleaning the viewing glass caused as much entertainment as the fish we also had a not so usual view of the underside of some ducks.

The next stop was visiting the penguins and other fauna in the sub polar regions, followed by the maple forest but, shame on us, we didn’t take any photos of either biome.

Leaving the Biodome we admire the Olympic Park’s iconic building - the Tower - it’s the tallest inclined tower in the world - designed by French architect Roger Taillibert. 

Apparently you are supposed to be able to take a funicular railway car to the top.  Looks like it’s not open today. Wander along the ‘Esplanade’, an urban park of nine platforms with good views over the Olympic Park,  to the Botanic Gardens.  Time for some lunch - the location for lunch is very pleasant but lunch choices are limited. We have a pre-booked entry for the Insectarium later and time is running on. Consequently we do not have time to give the Botanic Gardens the attention they deserve. Some very scenic fountains and flowers though.

Once tickets are checked the entrance into the Insectarium was through a winding cave like tunnel, with lights at sufficient intervals for it to not be too scary, but still made it atmospheric. There were various interactive chambers along the route. These demonstrated some aspect of an insects life in novel ways.  Some little cubby holes to climb into, so you could experience what it would be like.  There was also a wall representing what you would look like through insect eyes - you could stand in front of it and wave your arms about to see what you would look like to an insect. The next section had lots of insects to look at, like hissing cockroaches, giant millipedes, stick insects and the like. The little one loved all of this.  There was also a room with a whole array of museum pinned insect cases and the colours, sizes and sheer variety of butterflies, stick insects and beetles was amazing. 

                                                       Jewel beetles

Couldn’t quite believe the butterfly on LHS in the case - the one with the tiny wings and incredibly long body.

We then wandered into the zone with the butterflies flying around you, some of them were ginormous,  plus other insects doing their thing, but not in glass boxes.  Like these ants following each other in line across the ‘branch’ all carrying pieces of leaves. 

Outside there was a miniature ‘art installation’ with various insects doing very human like things, like this beetle having a bath.

The garden are was very pretty too. Eric liked the representation of prairie with the sea of Rudbekia

We think that perhaps the ‘museum’ is the best so far today. 

It’s been a very long day today but very enjoyable.

  

16th August 2022

Our UK watch said three thirty when we went to bed, and we were awake again at six thirty feeling relatively refreshed.  This felt rather weird, but this was because the wake-up was local Montreal time and there is a five hour time difference, so really we went to bed at ten thirty.

As we are not meeting up with the family until four thirty-ish, and we do not have to check out of the hotel until noon, we had a leisurely morning.  Watched the local news and weather on TV, and then sauntered down to have breakfast - two ‘continentals’ comprising fruit, yogurt, orange juice, toast and tea.  We noticed that the hotel had a quite pleasant looking garden, but upon enquiring how we would get out there we were told that under normal circumstances that wouldn’t be a problem, but… at this point in time some company had hired out the first two floors of the hotel and exclusive use of the garden. As an alternative we wander outside the front of the hotel and across to the car park, which overlooks the airport runways.  Surprisingly, between blocks of car parking bays were patches of grassland, and we spotted these 

Branched Century, Centaurium pulchellum; 

Annual Ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia; 

Horseweed, Erigeron canadensis; and 

White Sweet Clover, Melilotus albus. 

There was also a blue butterfly using this resource, not sure of species though.  

Not many planes taking off so the novelty of wandering about the car park looking at the flowers soon wore off. 

Back in the hotel we pack up and prepare to ship out on the eleven o’ clock shuttle bus back to the airport, to catch a bus into Montreal.  Although we are about five minutes early for the shuttle, it is already there and we start chatting with the driver while he is waiting to see if anyone else wants the bus too.  The usual start off question - from the driver - where are you from? Of course, we had the often visited discussion on being Welsh as opposed to English. The driver cheerily says “so you were colonised and oppressed by the English too” - there is a lot of laughter at this point.  He was originally from Guyana, but came to Canada with his father when he was fourteen. His mother still lives in Guyana and he visits often. He did tell us a very good pub quiz trivia question, which was “ which is the only South American country that has English as it’s national language” - the answer was, of course, Guyana ( formerly known as British Guyana).  He also told us that although it is in South America, the South Americans do not consider it to be part of South America, but rather that it forms part of the Caribbean nations. 

Back at the airport we buy a day travel pass and set off towards Montreal, or more accurately, Lionel Groulx metro station, with intention of catching another metro line out to our accommodation. The journey is quicker than we expected and we are too early to go straight to the accommodation. 

Riding the 727

Might as well go and have a look around the city. Back on the metro we have not quite mastered using the travel card resulting in one of us being on different sides of the ticket barrier, but having used both tickets. Luckily a man takes pity on us and lets the one on the wrong side of the barrier through. He also advises us on which train to catch and where to get off, still trailing a single case behind us.  As luck would have it there was a shopping mall at the stop where we got off that just happened to have a facility for leaving luggage there, and at no cost either.  The mall is part of ‘underground Montreal’ - the are over twenty two kilometres of underground passages linking parts of Montreal - it’s a way of getting about in the city in the winter when the snow is deep. A friend had already mentioned this to us. 

Feeling a lot lighter without the cases we strolled along the main streets, admiring the cathedral 

and statues plus fountains in Phillips Square.  

Sit for a while watching the world go by and the flags fluttering on the Hudson Bay Company building.

 Now for something to eat. Lots of lovely fresh fruit and other healthy food for take out lunches, but we opted for Lebanese cuisine, and very good it was too, accompanied by fresh mango juice. 

Time to retrieve the suitcases and make our way to the orange line metro. Down lots of steps and escalators and jump on the train to Villa Maria. Just a short walk to the accommodation, which is a basement flat in a fairly quiet part of town.  The rest of the holidaying family arrive and we have an evening catching up with what they’ve been doing so far.

Monday 15 August 2022

Well, we are off at last. We are hoping it may be a little cooler in Canada as it has been super hot here the last two weeks - mid 30’s for us is tropical.  Some spots of rain this morning but we are gone before the thunderstorms arrive. Eric is keeping an eye on the sky and the traffic.

Next stop is local to the airport , gives us a chance for some relaxation before potential airport chaos.

We are in luck and have a lift to the airport.  We are there the allotted three hours before and although the there are queues at security they are not too bad at all, although the airport is very busy and virtually no-one wearing face masks.  

Going the security checks and one of us goes through no problem at all, even with a spectacle repair kit containing two small screwdrivers . Of course the usual suspect gets pulled to to go through the full body scanner, and even then is physically patted down, run over with a metal detector asked questions about whether they are carrying any sharp objects and then also clothing sampled by detector swab the usual rectangular swab testing  for any explosive substances. Eventually finish all that and wait for bags to come through x-ray machine - once again the usual suspects toiletries bag is siphoned off for further inspection. The same lady who had done all the bodily patting  down and testing now asks if she can test the toiletries! “Yes, no problem” was of course the repl. After deciding there were no harmful substances being smuggled through, the lady then asks if all of the toiletries in the bag belong to one person (which they don’t, they are enough for the two us). Have already checked before we come that the amount in the bag meets the requirements but she seems to think there is too much in there. After checking with the other partner that indeed some of them were theirs, and that they didn’t bring any liquids through themselves, the operative finally releases us into the wider airport environs.

Stop for the obligatory coffee and a bun.  In tidying up the cups one person somehow manage to spatter cappuccino froth over the top and trousers of the other.  A trip to the ladies room and a singing down is required to repair the damage. 

Called to gate, which requires a transit train.  We travel under the runways.

There’s our plane.

Later that same day - due to five hour time difference and a seven hour flight, we land at Montréal airport at 8:20 local time. Customs is all self done initially, and then quickly checked by a custom’s officer meant that we cleared the airport in about forty five minutes.  Now to find the hotel shuttle bus.  Do we need to ring the hotel or just assume that they turn up regularly outside the airport?  The latter was the case - at half hourly intervals.  While we were waiting we chatted to a lady and her family who had left northernmost part of Canada at (Nunavut) nine thirty that morning, and was waiting for the shuttle bus with us at nine in the night

The discussions entered not only on the length of time it took them to get there but also about whales. Mostly that they form a main part of their diet, which they hunt and kill to eat along with such things as Arctic Char. , which apparently is just the best fish. We were even shown a video of one of the children eating some Beluga whale pieces (raw, like sushi).  It looked very pink, a bit like salmon but the dad of the family said it was very fatty.  All very pleasant conversation whilst waiting for a bus. 

Journey to hotel was short and sweet, check in easy - although despite having pre-paid for our room, still had to scan a card, which would take fifty dollars for ‘just in case’ sundries. Apparently we will have this returned on check-out.

According to our body clocks it is now two thirty in the early hours of the morning, but only nine- thirty local time.  Time for a cup of tea before bedtime The receptionist did say the restaurant was open until one am but we avoided that. 

A chair to sit in and a bed to lay on. 

And now to sleep (we hope)

 Sunday August 14th 2022

Time to check in online.  Think this will just be a matter downloading our boarding passes online - but no. Turns out that, at first it directs you to another website to verify your COVID Pass.  Log in to that and go through the process; needs another selfie and a QR code.  What! One COVID pass not recognised! What do we do now? Try again, but no luck. Turns out that you have to put the exact name  Have to delete the app that had to be downloaded to register and register again.  In order to do this we had to press a button that said “Cancel Flight” - really? The one who thinks logically about this reasons that the COVID pass app has nothing to do with the airline, so wouldn’t really be actually cancelling the flight (fingers crossed).   

Luckily that assumption was the correct one, as we were nearly ready to cancel the whole trip, and after re-registering it allowed everything to be entered and the boarding passes were printed. 

Thinking of plans for our Canadian event

 May be able to show Master B these falls when we are in Quebec City.

This is from our last visit seen from across the St. Lawrence river.

Chute de la Montmorency.

This is a better view

Back from the Isles - where next?

 Just thinking