Starting this morning we left Ottawa about 7am. We had about a two hour drive to get to the famous city of Montreal. This city was a huge bucket list spot for our trip, as this was the largest historic city of Canada. We parked near the business district of the city, very close to where our hotel or the night was. We actually started the walk today at Tim Hortons (naturally), and since we were close to our first spot to see, we headed that way. This would be the Mantreal Basilica.
This building is a massive church, and I believe may be the largest in Canada. It features a catholic styled interior with 12 side rooms, fashioned after the basilicas in Rome. We were able to walk around the inside for about 20 minutes to enjoy the interior of the church. This church was a great start to the day. The downtown area surrounding this church, was no different than Chicago, or Toronto, but not quite as big and populated as NYC. The morning was quite brisk and windy, and we had a decent sized bucket list of things to see. Since we had the most remote destination taken care of, we took a rather log walk for about a mile to the next church. This was the Cathedral of Montreal, which is famed for its gorgeous blue interior. As we came upon this cathedral and its massive front, we were presented by the town square, which was very European in nature, having musicians and vendors performing. This was pleasant to see after a long trip of slumming it for the last 2 and half months.
We entered the building, which is free, and were able to walk the halls and appreciate the architectures and history, however though it was beautiful, it was not quite as charming, or epic as the old cathedrals of Rome. Nonetheless we were happy to have seen this, and when we were done, we were within steps of the old town district.
Upon finishing the church, which cost 12$ we decided to check into our small hotel called…. which was almost a hostel, but was a charming studio room with a shower, and private bathroom, but was reminiscent of European hostels interns of how small it was. During this time, we were getting tired, and the new Game of Thrones episode had just been released, so we took time in the afternoon to take a quick nap, and watch the episode before going to dinner.
The hostel was located just north of the old town area, and with that we were able to continue into the history area of the place taking this walking path. This brought us by many small shops, and historic buildings before we decided to head south, back through a city park. This park was great, and there were waterworks and kids playing which was nice during the setting sun.
It was time to enter the old town district where it started to become explicitly french . It seems as you enter canada from toronto, heading eastward to qUebec, it continually gets more and more french, and Quebec itself is primarily french, which I explain int he next post. This area is extremely charming, and we decided to get a beer at an underground bar called…which I actually enjoyed so much I went back the next year when we visited again.
The old town area is full of entertainment, bars, and restaurants, but the most famous of steakhouses in Canada, is called Gibbys, and we were lucky enough to get a seat for 2 that night to experiences this world class restaurant. We ended up having two filets, with sides, and wine, and it was a treat and a half.
We were getting tired, but knew we had a good hotel in close proximity, so me and Ashley went out to a piano bar to listen to some piano and have a beer on the way back. I attempted to play the piano but the performer didn’t want me touching his instrument, which I suppose is understandable….his loss. However, We ended up going to one more bar along the road to the hotel, and ended our day around 9pm, in order to rest up for our short drive to Quebec city tomorrow. Excellent day!
EXPENSES
20.95 gas
6.90 tim hortons
12 entry to church in montreal
73.70 hotel
69 lunch
140 steak dinner
27.76 beers rooftop
35 beers
Total – 385.31