Thursday 10/2/08

Old Montreal

We have been into oatmeal for breakfast on these last few morning. We heat a little hot water in the coffee maker, whip up a package of instant and we're ready for a chilly day in the Great White North. Perfect for today. It is one of those weird cloudy days when the sun peeks out, then the wind blows, then it spits rain for a few minutes and repeat.

We start at Notre Dame Basilica in Old Montreal. This is the area of downtown Montreal where the city began and still boasts the original old buildings, cobblestone streets, and palacial city offices built in the 1800's. Notre Dame is patterned after some of the great European churches and has been looked after for the last couple hundred years by the order of the Sulpicians. To test your memory think of the church of St. Sulpice in Paris from The Da Vinci Code. We start with Mass in the rear chapel of the church with a priest who can actually sing. We have now attended mass at Notre Dame in Paris and Notre Dame in Montreal and since both were in French we still have slightly puzzled looks on our faces but the music was good. The church tour is included in the price of admission (yes, they charge to come in and look around, but not to pray or attend mass) so we do the English tour at 1:00. It is a story of inspiration over decades by some sculptors, architects, artists and organizers. The detail is really astounding from the organ to the bells, and the stained glass to the altar carvings. When you have trouble trying to find a starting place to clean the garage, this type of project is unfathomable.

We wander up Rue St. Paul where many of the galleries, shops and restaurants reside and pick out Suzzettes Creperie for lunch. John has the chicken and avocado crepe with a chive sauce and Mary has a smoked salmon bagel with a salad. Our waiter doesn't sound like a local and he explains that he spent the last couple years in Banff so can sound like a local in several different places. We stopped at Restaurant Les Filles du Roi (daughters of the king) to book a table for tonight at the recommendation of our Quebec coach and old friend Andre Levesque, and then spend the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets of Old Montreal poking into interesting looking shops and galleries along the way. An hour or two with feet up before dinner.

We booked our reservation for dinner at 7:00 so we could be back for the VP debate at 9:00. The restaurant is in the oldest building in Old Montreal and it reeks of character when we are seated. The thick stone walls, smell of candle smoke, heavy draperies, period furniture and critter heads hanging on the walls all add to the character. Our waiter struggles a bit with English but we order quickly and get a nice bottle of Margaux to start the meal. It is a three course option and Mary has the brothy vegetable soup, smoked tomato napolean and red snapper, while John has the soup, duck pate and lamb shank cassoulet. There is a large group being served in another room and this definitely affected our experience. They were obviously not staffed in either the kitchen or dining room to handle both the group and us and we would suspect both suffered. We finally escaped at 9:00 and so missed 15 minutes of the debate but with about 30 hours of analysis afterward we need not have worried. Our waiter was apologetic and we all knew that was not their finest performance. We understand, stuff happens.

Sarah was "golly gee" and Joe was his wordy self so we think not much changed with the debate tonight. In retrospect we thought McCain should have voted against the "rescue" plan with the extra hundred billion dollars in it (even though we need it to pass) and Sarah could then have ripped the idiots on Wall Street and Washington that got us into this financial mess and strengthened the reformer image. A lost opportunity for drama which will probably lead to a loss in November. Oh well.

Wednesday, 10/1/08

Montreal

It is pouring rain this morning so we start slowly. Hurricane Kyle is still working through the Maritimes but our stuff is still rolling in from Pine River and points west. There is a chance of snow right behind us in Sudbury so we don't have much of a lead. It is almost noon when we finally straggle out and wander down to the Montreal visitor center among all of the workers bees who are scurrying about their daily tasks. A nice lady tells us that there is a city tour bus leaving in about a half hour so we book a couple seats and run outside to find food to grab for lunch. Good old Subway is always there for us. By the time we get our tuna sub the bus is already loading so we run back across the street and find a seat near the back. Crowded bus, tuna sub--you get the picture.

The tour lasts three hours and the driver/guide is informational and chatty. We hit the highlights of downtown, old Montreal, the Olympic Park, McGill and Quebec Universities, St. Joseph Oratory, and Mont Royal. Montreal is on an island in the middle of the confluence of the St. Lawrence, Ottawa, and Prairie Rivers and is the largest inland port in the world. The docks are mainly along the St. Lawrence on the south side of the island which is really the east side because the river turns north for a bit here. Just like the west side in St. Paul is really on the south. The highest point in the center of the island is named "Mont Royal" and hence the name of the city. We have opportunities to snap some pictures along the way and we think it was a worthwhile three hours. Most of the folks on the tour are even older than us (hard to believe) and at every stop it takes about 10 minutes just to get everyone off. At the end of the tour the folks across the aisle from us are arguing about whether the bus is really stopped at their hotel while we all waited for resolution. We left them standing in the street still staring at the hotel trying to decide if it was theirs. We decided we had better hurry with any traveling we want to do.

We stopped at "Mary, Queen of the World" Cathedral which is one of four basilicas in the city. All of these huge churches are new by European standards but about the same age as our cathedral in St. Paul. Quebec is 80% Catholic but only 8% attend church on a regular basis so many of the smaller churches are being converted to other uses.

We move underground for the rest of our hike back to the hotel. The subway system (Metro) runs off in various directions from several downtown stations and most are connected by an underground city of shops and restaurants. It is now after 4:00 and all the folks we saw at lunch time are now rushing for their trains and we are swept up in the flow of people. We are certainly the slowest moving as we are trying to peek into the shops and food stalls while everyone else is on a mission. We are spewed back out into the light of day at some point, get our bearings and keep moving in the direction of our hotel.

One last stop back in our neighborhood is s stroll through the few streets of Chinatown. It is mostly restaurants and touristy shops but we find a sort of bakery-buffet just like one we visited in Melbourne. While we are tempted, we pass on the sweets and head up for a little rest before dinner.

In the mood for Chinese, the Princess gets on-line and finds that the best Chinese restaurant in all of Montreal is called Chez Chine and it is located downstairs in the lobby of our hotel. Voila!! John has a beef mixture and Mary has a chicken mixture and we mix and match with a very fluffy fried rice. There are all of the ponds and soft lighting that keeps our Feng Shui vibe moving in the right direction and it is the perfect choice for us tonight.

The Wall Street gang is beating on us again today.