Montreal

After two wonderful days in Quebec, it was time to hit the road for Montreal.  But first we visited Montmorency Falls, which is on the outskirts of Quebec and on the way to Mont Sainte-Anne.  Cable cars continued to trend, as we rode the funicular down from the top of the falls to the base.  If we weren't wimps we would have crossed the river at the bottom and hiked back up.  But we were wimps and opted for the lift.  No pictures due to the light rain, and I didn't feel like paying to have camera repaired again.

Mont Sainte-Anne was a bit of a bust.  There was actually a toll booth in the parking lot, which was funny because there was zero happening on a Tuesday in the summer.  Absolutely deserted, nothing open.  They did look like they were getting ready for some sort of mountain bike event on the weekend.

So we headed down Route 138 and picked up Highway 40 outside of Quebec, then all the way down to Montreal (Katie was shocked today when I told here Montreal is only 2 hours from Vergennes).  On the way we passed Île d'Orléans, an absolutely huge church, Montmorency Falls, and, Trois-Rivières, the visiting team from the baseball game the night before.

In Montreal we stayed at the Delta, which apparently has some affiliation with Marriott.  Though a little tired from all the driving, we decided to head right out to Old Port, which of course is where any good tourist should go.  Lots of shops and restaurants.  Like Quebec we were one road off and didn't realize all the cool stuff we missed until we were walking back from dinner.


For our full day in Montreal we decided it would be Mont Royal and the Olympic Park.  Katie would return the next day to run around Mont Royal, but for Mike (who was still limping) a car tour was it.  We stopped at one pull-out to take a few pics of the Montreal skyline.  That's the Olympic Park in the distance.

There's a lot to do at the Olympic Park.  In the years since the 1976 Summer Olympics, almost everything has been converted to other purposes.

Olympic Stadium was home to the Expos for many years.  I visited as a kid, when my little league team won some competition for selling the most candy bars to raise money (then I'm thinking we pretty much blew it by sending an entire team on an all expenses-paid visit to a foreign country!).  While the stadium has some impressive training facilities inside, it's mainly a tourism attraction for the cable car ride (3 days running!) to the top and the resulting views.

Olympic-size (and then some!) swimming pool, and boat-load of gyms and other training facilities inside the Olympic Stadium

Olympic Stadium is like something out of a sci-fy movie

 Ride to the top

 View from the top.  This is the Biodome.

 

Another view, of the Stadium itself

We had more than one recommendation to see the Biodome, which is in another competition venue (judo or something similar).  So after coming back down off the tower, we went to check it out.  Unfortunately every 8 year old within a 50 mile radius was also there, so we opted out.  Also opted out of the planetarium, which is the other major attraction in close proximity.  There's also an insectitarium on campus.  But learned about rocks and insects wasn't on the agenda this day.

Instead, we decided to go exploring on the way back to our hotel.  After missing a key turn we wound up with a car tour of downtown.  Back at the hotel we decided to lay low until going to check out the craziness that was the Just for Laughs Festival.  Conveniently located just a couple blocks from our hotel, we had walked right by it the first night without even realizing what it was.  Free entry, free street performers, free shows, street food, etc. etc.  Katie let Mike splurge and get a couple tickets to a popular American comedian.  But we got there early to check things out.  Sorry for no photos, we really didn't realize what a cool scene it would be!

After a visit to the hotel room to "freshen up" we went back to pick up the tickets at will call.  With some time to kill we just pulled up a seat on the curb, enjoyed a French-Canadian tuba band, people watching, and some great poutine-sicilienne.  Then show, bed, and ready more adventure on Thursday.