Meandering Many Miles in Montreal

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Our day began by awakening and making our way at a leisurely pace to the airport for our 11:05 flight. We opted for the long 725 route around Cincinnati to avoid the rush hour traffic which we never did see. So we either made a very good choice or were overly cautious for naught. Parking was a breeze at the longterm Value Park, and it makes you wonder why all airports don’t use their model. When you get your time-stamped ticket the attendant tells you which row to park in. A shuttle is already there when you park with a driver and a porter to help with the bags. The driver hands you a stub marked with where you parked. And all for $6 per day. On the return they drop you off at your car! All flights are now out of Terminal 3. After a short ride on the airports underground, we found ourselves at McD’s for breakfast. We had about 2 hours to kill at the gate.

The flight to Detroit went quickly. Our flight to Montreal waited a bit on the ground before taking off but I kept busy with Sudokos and Sharon reading, and it wasn’t long before we arrived in Montreal, completed Declaration form in hand. We then meandered through the Montreal airport, from one end to the other, down and up through and around weaving through a maze on three levels, at one point with a glass wall separating us from the main terminal area below as we finally wound up at the border entry and customs clearing point. Here again were miles of cordoned pathways for diplomats, Canadians, and all other international travelers. It was reminiscent of the lines in front of a popular E-ride attraction at the original Disneyland; except we were fortunate that these lines weren’t full of people and we went straight to the customs agent. We then had to walk around the outside of the large customs assembly area to baggage claim, dropping off our customs form along the way. This is a bit different from the US where you clear customs with all of your bags, which are subject to examination. I guess they use the honor system here.

We had to wait a bit for our Park Inn shuttle at the A stop outside Door 25 of the airport, wondering why we hadn’t stayed at the Comfort Inn, Days Inn, Holiday Inn, Quality Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Mariott or a slew of other whose shuttles came, sometimes more than once, before our shuttle arrived. But I already knew the answer to that: this is Grand Prix weekend and most all of the rooms were sold out. Our shuttle did come, and almost within the 15 minutes they had said, and we had a rather uneventful trip to the Park Inn, including a brief stop at a gas station to fill up. I’ve never been on a shuttle that stopped for gas before so we mark that down in our list of firsts. We were dropped off first and the driver helped us with our bags, even fetching a dolly.

We checked in, and made our way to the second floor. We found our route in the sign that pointed the way to Rooms 201 to 346. Left, then right, then down this hallway that seemed to stretch on forever. Halfway down we noticed a ramp that seemed to take that part of the floor to a slightly lower level. As we approached we realized it wasn’t a ramp at all but 5 steps, which wasn’t going to work for our bags nicely stowed on the dolly. We were still only about two-thirds of the way to our room, which wasn’t even on that hallway, but half-way down another. So I took a couple of the bags and headed to the room while Sharon waited with the others. I found another dolly on that level so went back and got the remainder. We actually did pack lighter than normal but sure didn’t seem like it at this point. We eventually got our bags to the room and decided to have dinner at the Italian Restaurant in the hotel. Not that there was much choice since there doesn’t seem to be much around the hotel which is in a sort of industrial area. The desk clerk told others that the only other place around to eat would be at the airport. Since it had been 9 hrs since we’d had breakfast we decided to stay here. I started with the Stracciatella (Italian egg drop soup) and had their version of cannelloni (a spinach crepe stuffed with ricotta and covered with Bolognese sauce). Sharon had the hamburger, two burger patties only, with French fries. The roll had cheese in it, which the waiter was kind enough to warn, and needing no bun, cheese, bacon or anything, is why I think she wound up with two patties. She finished about three-fourths of that, only because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. The waiter was very friendly and asked us about our trip. There was another group in the restaurant and one woman came over to say they were going on the cruise too (with her parents and 2 teenagers).

Not sure we’d recommend this hotel but it’s served its purpose for a 1 night place to sleep before the cruise. The people were very friendly but it is obviously an old hotel (but not one of the charming types with character) and could use some sprucing up. Checkout time is noon so we’re going to take our time this morning (hopefully they serve breakfast) and then get a cab to the port. Will post more from there.

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