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Published: October 12th 2013
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Public art at the Parc Jean DrapeauAnother beautiful fall day here in Montreal..it's cold overnight but the days are just super - couldn't ask for any better.
Dropped off the RV this morning and then took a taxi $60 to airport to pick up hire car. We ended up with a Hyundai Sonata $280 for 7 days hire including full insurance - no complaining with that. We booked our hire cars on the Internet with "economy cars" - used them plenty of times before - they are very competitive with their pricing.
Next we booked into our hotel in downtown Montreal - Hotel 7 Saisons...a very cute heritage hotel. We were a bit worried as reviews for this place weren't too good but we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived. Staff could speak broken English and were very friendly. The hotel is in a narrow street about 1 street away from Old Montreal. There are no lifts in the building and we had to go 3 flights of stairs to get to our room. The whole place is on a severe slant but very clean and quite cute. The electrical work also leaves a lot to be desired but hey we feel very comfortable here
Our room at Hotel 7 Saisons Montreal and at $54 per night including free parking and breakfast we are not complaining one little bit.
This afternoon we went for a walk and had a look at the Underground Tunnels - Montreals answer to a shopping mall that is underground - keeping customers warm when the temperature is -30 degrees in the winter. Locals tell us that winter here is very brutal - they don't look forward to it!
Took advantage of the wonderful weather and ventured over to lle Sainte Helene Island home to Parc Jean-Drapeau - the site of 1967 World's expo. We went over on the metro - very fast - only took a few minutes. You get beautiful views of Montreal and the St. Lawrence river from here. It is also home to the Bio sphere - and environmental museum - part of the world expo.
During our walk around the island we chatted to a couple of local French Canadian men who were very friendly - gave us a beer each and we sat chatting for at least an hour. These are the moments we love about travelling - meeting new people and getting to know more about life in
Hotel 7 - Saisonstheir city - will stay in our minds forever!
This evening we went back down to Old Montreal. It is so very beautiful here. The people around here dress very fashionably and sophisticated. The European influence means they like to eat out at restaurants and there are plenty of them in Old Montreal. Hard to explain how it feels here but it is very romantic - you will see plenty of young couples sitting quietly holding hands and kissing.
We felt quite a bit undressed to eat at one of the more upmarket restaurants (although it is something I would like to do). We had dinner at a cafe in the centre of town - watching street performers as we ate our dinner.
Things are different in this part of Canada - we noticed that quite a lot of locals smoke cigarettes - seems to be quite a social activity. They can smoke cigarettes in eating areas while enjoying their meal. Something we have not seen for a long time.
It's been a long day...then when we got back to the hotel I thought I would enjoy a long hot bath...guess what - no hot water
Outside our hotel- seems there was a problem with the plumbing the day before and the plumber forgot to turn the hot water back on up here on the 3rd floor...so staff offered us to use the honeymoon suite jacuzzi - sounded good so off we went.
The honeymoon suite was a tacky Las Vegas style room with mirrored ceilings and cheap looking fixtures - no worries though we were looking forward to using the jacuzzi...filled it with hot water and then went to turn it on - ummm - it didn't work! By this time it was wat after midnight so we had a bath in the jacuzzi then off to bed...the joys of it all!
Happy thanks giving weekend to our Canadian friends! 😊
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