Fly to Montreal

---

Up bright and early for the 300km or so drive to Calgary for our flight to Montreal. Tim didn’t sleep so well last night, too much afternoon napping and maybe going to the gym late didn’t help so he had a sleep for most of the trip, don’t worry, Sam driving!

We use the self check-in machines (there is no other option here) and it prints everything, boarding passes and baggage tags. All we then have to do is take our luggage to the counter and hand it over - they don’t even weight it, if only we knew!

We decide to hire a car when we get to Montreal as we have some down time there and I think it will be really exciting to explore as Quebec’s supposed to be such an old traditional state. I am given 2 options - pay $700 for the few days we are there if we pick it up from the airport on arrival or pick it up from town tomorrow morning and the total cost will be $180, so tomorrow it is!

We had to go to gate at other end of airport to get through security and as the security wasn’t open near our gate. But we make it, and then Tim gets questioned about his carry on luggage - his bag of liquids were underneath another bag in the box that goes through the x-ray. The security people didn’t realise that they were separate and didn’t look. Eventually they figured it out, although history does state that if anyone is going to be questioned, looked at, searched or have bags go missing, it will be Tim! Tim was pretty angry that they didn’t even look through the box properly, just kept questioning him like he was an idiot or trying to hide something. We get to the gate with 5 minutes to spare.

The flight was okay except for a very unhappy screaming toddler with parents who thought it better to let him scream and have a right tanty for most of the 4 hour, and the very loud mum whose little girl was absolutely the sweetest thing - quite unlike the mum, and woman in front of Tim pushed seat back straight away, just about spilling drink all over Tim.

As soon as we are on the flight all announcements in French first and translated into English after, it kind of takes us back to the first half of our trip when we were in non-English speaking countries. Even though we have only been in English speaking areas for a couple of weeks, we have become accustomed to not having to think about what we are hearing or saying. This is already starting to annoy Tim.

We arrive in Montreal earlier than expected to absolutely beautiful weather.

The taxi ride is a flat $38 from airport to downtown so that makes it nice and easy.

We are staying at the Holiday Inn right next to Chinatown, so everything is busy in the streets when we arrive with markets and people everywhere. Our room has been upgraded as we are members of their loyalty program, which is nice. So our room is a little bigger with table and chairs. The foyer has a beautiful pond with huge fish in it and a little bridge that winds over the top to a restaurant in the back. The oddest thing is the main foyer is not on the ground floor which takes us a few times going up and down to remember.

Today is the last day of the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. Before too long we come across the closed off streets where it is being held. Unfortunately all the stand up comedy acts in the streets are all in French, sadly the joke is lost when you can’t understand the punch line!

Were going go to the Hard Rock Café for tea, and after going up and down the street we discover they have closed up. So Plan B…

Went across the road to the Winston Churchill pub for dinner instead, was really nice and where we sat was alongside the footpath but down a few feet, so I got a good look at all the great shoes walking by, and Tim got to look at the legs attached to them. It’s a fairly up-market area and so everyone is dressed straight from the catwalk it seems. The waitress gave Tim a Rum and Coke instead of straight Coke and then did the exact same thing to the table next to us. Perhaps it was her way of getting a bigger tip, because she didn’t change the bill back to a straight Coke.

Walked back to the hotel, it’s a nice place to walk around and I’m excited to get the car and explore more tomorrow.

We book to see the new Cirque du Soleil show ‘Totem’ in Quebec City Tuesday night. In Quebec City there is an old walled city, similar to St Malo in France, I’m hoping to drive there in the early afternoon and have a look around.Hopefully this will give Tim something to look forward to in Quebec, so far he has not warmed to the place.

 

---