May 25th - Montreal

I haven't mentioned the incredibly hot weather we have had over the past couple of days and today was the hottest, 34 degrees Celsius!! So, our desire to climb up to the top of Mont Royal and see Montreal from above was tempered somewhat by the heat.

We left the hotel at about 10am and walked up the street opposite the hotel. We had seen,  from the 18th floor of the hotel in a square opposite, what looked like flowers arranged in a pattern. Howvere, when we walked up to them, they turned out to be bras!!. Literally tons of bras had been piled up to form the logo of a charity for breast cancer awareness. It was quite a strange sight!

We walked on and came across this rather weird statue, called the Illuminated Crowd, done by an English sculptor, Raymond Mason

By now we realised that the walk to the top of Mont Royal would be quite a feat in the scorching heat, so we hailed a cab and took the ten minute drive up into the park to the summit. The views from the top of Montreal are superb.

This is the Olympic stadium.

We then walked to the southern side of the park. The walk through the woods was a real delight, especially in the shade of the trees.

We reached the view point and took these photos looking down on the business district and the St. Lawrence River.

We missed the tulips in Toronto and Ottawa, where there had been a tulip festival so, when Wendy saw these tulips still in flower she had to take a photo.

We then took the walk down back into the city where we caught another cab to take us to Vieux Montreal to see the Basilica of Notre Dame.

The rather beautiful interior.

By now we needed a break and stopped at the waterfront to have a snack lunch. Next door to the bar was the ticket office for a cruise line that does a short tour of the St.Lawrence River. We bought the tickets and rushed to catch the 2pm sailing. Here are a selection of photos from the cruise.

The old locks, now only used by pleasure craft.

The avant garde housing development from Expo 67.

Heading up the St.Lawrence River.

Passing an enormous roller coaster that reminded me of a serpent.

The entrance to the commercial locks is through the arch in the centre of the bridge.

Our cruise boat after we had docked.

We then walked along the dockside through this lovely shady avenue of trees to the old town.

The cobbled streets with lovely old buildings reminded me of France.

We then took a cab back to the hotel. This evening we are having a farewell dinner with Kenny and DeeAnne, who tomorrow will be driving due south from Montreal to deliver their rental car back to the rental company in Boston. It will be a very sad moment for us all.