Girly Thirties: Day 24 - Quebec To Montreal

We were heading off to another French speaking province today in Montreal so another early morning start. This tour had a lot more 5.30 - 6am wake ups than the last tour. I don’t like it.

The beautiful Fall colours

Luckily it was only a few hours down the road but I did feel a bit unprepared for Montréal I just knew I wanted to see Old town and the massive basilica since a few friends had told me they were must sees.

The Olympic Stadium

Although I was feeling so weary after yesterday with sore feet and chaffing … the hazards of spending full days on ones feet walking around the city in Quebec yesterday. So I must admit there was some snoozing going on today on the bus as we drove the 3 hours west to Montréal.

St Catherines

Even through the DVD that Christina put on and there were so amazing pictures of Canada which I had already seen … wooohoo

downtown area looking towards Palace De Royale

We had a morning tea/breakfast/toilet stop about a 1 hour or so into the trip. I had to do my little nifty manoeuvre down the bus in order to beat everyone off and I think I did it before we even came to a complete standstill and came to a stop in front of Christina before she had a chance to tell us how long we had and what time we had to be back. She said go on then with a laugh.

St Catherine's - Downtown Montreal

For some reason this morning I was busting to go I think it was the gallon of water I had procured this morning before I got on the bus. I have resigned myself that I am not invisible anymore so I might as well start to have some fun with it.

Shopping Area

So I enjoyed some breakfast while I tried to sit outside but there was dew all over the seats so I had to go back in which was disappointing considering I wanted to enjoy the sunshine.

About the peace Symbol

We made a stop at a square right near St Catherine’s Shopping area once we arrived in Montreal. So we were all guided to the Information centre so we could get some maps and have another toilet break. So we did that I tried to work out from the information that Christina had given me whether I could get to Old Town Montreal in the tours that we had.

Peace man!!!

Because the public transport system in Montreal isn’t as frequent as other cities there wasn’t much of a chance. But she did assure me that I would be able to catch a train from right near the hotel after we finished the city tour.

Random Street performers dressed up as doctors

So I headed down to the shopping precinct with Neil, Heather and Marie to do some shopping since there wasn’t a lot of sight seeing in the downtown area. But there were plenty of shops. While I didn’t really plan on doing any real shopping it just ended up that way.

Downtown with Sunflare!!!

I left them at the dept store and ended up wandering in the underground city for a bit then found my way up the top to Old Navy. We don’t have a comparison store here but basically you can get a lot of casual wear with Canada emblems but also without them as well.

New and old

I found some many cool things there and I was really surprised how much value I got with some shirts only like $2. While yes they were on sale because they were summer ones so I got some for the nieces and also Helens very special “hello kitty” tissues.

Beautiful old Church

I decided to brave the food court to find some lunch for a province that is supposed to be bilingual there wasn’t a lot of that in the food signage but then I found Subway… woohoo healthy food that I can read!!!!

Bank of Montreal

Grabbed some food and then found a souvenir shop which I am glad I did now because we didn’t get the opportunity later. Wandered back to the pick up park and I was feeling weary with sore feet still from yesterday so I didn’t wander far.

the beautiful park

While I waited for the bus I sat down in the park to soak up some sunshine while eating some lunch and I heard this clicking which was a certain someones camera going off. It was one of the tour people from the welsh crew… It is not funny! You know how I feel about this especially after the sun peaks incident … what david didn’t realise… I am the queen of the camera wars …