Touring Montreal

There is a saying most everywhere in Canada that we only have two seasons.......Winter and Construction season. Well that is true for Montreal no doubt but they also have lots of festivals and the current one running with no end in sight is called the 'Orange Cone Festival'! Yep, everywhere you turn, or try to turn, there is construction. Bridges are closed, new ones are being built, roads are so rough you can lose a filling, and detours around the mess take you miles from where you want to go. Now don't get me wrong.......construction is a good thing. Good infrastructure is important and I like to see new projects happening. As a tourist in a strange city with totally insane drivers to contend with......I can do without the construction. But as they say.....deal with it!

That said, my carefully laid plan on how to get to the Grayline Tour Bus at Dorchester Square quickly went off the rails when we came upon road closures and detours. Thank God it was 8 AM on a Saturday morning and not the peak of a weekday rush! Regardless we found our destination and a great parking spot. We decided to take the 3.5 hour tour of the city. It was a regular bus and not the cool double decker that are so great for picture taking, but this bus went to places the hop on - hop off bus did not.

Our tour started near here.

There are lots of these. I think you pay your money to unlock a bike, ride it, and return it.

Chinatown area. Not very big in Montreal, but every city has one.

There are incredible flowers everywhere. Montreal is a VERY clean and pretty city.

Another mode of transport!

I like the starburst my camera leans gave me. This is the famous Notre Dame Cathedral.

Jacques Cartier

The statues on the front of the cathedral

Interesting buildings.....

........and architecture!

Very old building with a modern mail box. Did they really have to place it here??

Interesting stone work.

Cobblestone streets. Very cool.

Opposite the cathedral in the square

The carvings show natives in various tasks.

Canals

This is called Habitat 67. They were built to house folks visiting Expo 67, the Worlds Fair in 1967.

Now they are high priced condos.

Downtown Montreal. A vibrant city.

A portion of the grand prix course. We made a short run with the bus! Cars aren't allowed.

The old United States pavilion for Expo 67. It is now a biosphere of sorts. 

The 'gay' area of Montreal. See the Pride balloons all ready to go for the big parade that was toking place on Sunday.

Cavalia horse show is in Montreal for a long run.

The stairways to the second floor apartments. The mail delivery folks must deliver to the second floor suites. Imagine the ice issues in winter!

The olympic village for the '86 Olympics held in Montreal. Now? You guessed it......condos!

The Big O, or the Olympic Stadium. An impressive structure. The highest inclined support in the world at about 300 feet.

The Notre Dame Cemetery. Lorne Green is buried here, along with about one million others. The largest cemetery in Canada.

St Joseph's Oratory. The largest church in Canada. Seats 2400.

Ninety nine steps. Say a Hail Mary prayer at each step and your prayer will be answered.

Beautiful grounds.

Olympic Stadium from the overlook on Mont Royale.

City view

Artwork

Back near Dorchester Square where we started.

We had a great tour guide. He was full of facts about the city, most of which I have now forgotten of course. We had a very skilled driver as well. How we didn't wipe out several pedestrians and cars I have no idea! The buses are huge and the roads are NOT.

By 1 PM we were back and starving so we headed across the street to Dunn's Restaurant. Montreal smoked meat sandwich and a deli pickle hit the spot. Cheryl tried Poutine and it was not such a hit.

With a full belly we wandered around the area.

Mary Queen of the World Cathedral. See story below.

They were preparing for a wedding and I snuck inside

Look at the dome!

So impressive!

Very small bride!....or maybe flower girl!

Shamelessly stolen from Steve and Dianne (Living the Dream)!
Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde) is a minor basilica in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the seat of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Montreal. It is the third largest church in Quebec after Saint Joseph's Oratory (also in Montreal) and the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré east of Quebec City. The building is 101 m (333 ft) in length, 46 m (150 ft) in width, and a maximum height of 77 m (252 ft) at the cupola, the diameter of which is 23 m (75 ft).

The statue of Sir John A MacDonald was spray painted by vandals. His statues are the target across the country these days for something he did over 150 years ago. Some say he was the architect of the Indian residential schools. You can read about it here. The vandalism took place on Friday and we visited on Saturday. Most of the red paint had been removed.

Sir John A MacDonald. First Prime Minister of Canada.

Sprayed with red paint by vandals the night before. They pretty much had it cleaned up.

Wilfred Laurier. First French Prime Minister of Canada. He was Prime Minister from 1896 - 1911.

War memorial in Dorchester Square.

By 3 PM we had enough and dreaded the drive home. We got some instructions from the Tourism lady, then we missed a turn after crossing the St. Lawrence River. With a few curse words we managed to get back on track and a short hour and a half (yikes) drive we were home unscathed. I can't believe how busy the roads are around here! Construction and detours make them a bit much for this prairie boy.

We drove half way across the city to take the Jacques Cartier Bridge to the south shore.

We arrived safely at our campground and enjoyed some quiet time. Tomorrow is another busy day!

.....and that was Our View From Here!

Headin' to .....Quebec

Friday, August 17. It was only a couple of hour drive from Ottawa to Montreal but with my navigational luck lately we wanted to leave in good time. Also, it was Friday and I sure didn't want to get in the way of a Montreal rush hour!

Our campground at Ottawa was Camp Hither Hills. It's a Good Sam park and in September will become a Coast to Coast park as well. The location of the campground is it's best advantage. Close enough to the sites of Ottawa but far enough from the noise to be quite relaxing. The owners work hard to keep things neat and are making improvements to the washrooms this year. The laundry is nice and clean albeit pretty expensive. A load of laundry is $3. We would stay here again.

Our site at Hither Hills

It was raining by the time we had the trailer all buttoned up and on the road. It rained off and on but only lightly.

Welcome to Quebec!

As we crossed into Quebec we thought it was prudent to stop at the tourist info booth in Rigaud, a few kilometers inside Quebec. this is a very nice facility. Lots of rig parking, clean restrooms, fast food choices, and lots of helpful tourist info. You do have to be careful you pick up the English version of their publications as they have both languages. The kind lady showed me the best routes to get to our next campground. Her efforts were to no avail as even though the map clearly said to take exit 32, I insisted she had said 37. So, here we are head long into Montreal on Hwy 40. Whoa, this isn't right. So a quick u-turn at the first overpass and we were back on track.

Hey wait a minute, this is Lake Des Deux Montagnes. We shouldn't be seeing this!

Across the lake is Oka, where they make good cheese.

We paid our $8.40 for the truck and trailer and headed across the toll bridge on Hwy 30. We took the Hwy 10 turn and headed south and east of Montreal to the small town of Saint-Jean-Baptiste. From there it was just a few miles to Camping Auclair. This is a Passport America and Good Sam park.

Paying the toll. We used the credit card line cause it was shortest!

Power plant on the St Lawrence River

Control structure. It is amazing how they can make such multiple uses out of a river. Power generation, water control, shipping using canals. Wow!

The St Lawrence River

South along Hwy 10. We didn't know it but Friday afternoon traffic was very heavy. Apparently most folks only work until noon Friday.

Our site at Camping Auclair

What a place this is! Nestled between corn fields and apple orchards it is immaculate. So peaceful and quiet.......and I mean quiet. There is hardly anyone here. Usually that isn't a good sign, but in this case we found absolutely nothing wrong with the place. The owner tells me they realize they are a bit off the beaten track and they don't have all the amenities other nearby (and busy) campgrounds have. They do cater to caravans but when we arrived of the 175 sites I doubt that a dozen were occupied. No issues from us in that regard. We like peaceful.

Not many people here.

Corn ripening in the field adjacent to the campground.

Good looking crop. I assume it will the used as silage and fed to cattle over the winter.

Huge Hydrangea bush

Loaded with flowers

Apple trees are loaded down with fruit.

They are a bit bitter, but I'm sure they are delicious when ripe. Not sure of the variety.

The road past the orchards to the campground.

Hardly anyone here!

Tomorrow we head into Montreal to take a tour bus. No peace or quiet there!

......and that was Our View From Here!