The border crossing was really easy. I have heard horror stories from others about getting into Canada by car, but we had no issues at all. We were through in probably ten minutes or less.
Welcome to Quebec!
It took a little less than an hour to get from the border to downtown Montreal, where we promptly got lost (thanks to Google Maps). We are renting an apartment this week in the Mont Royal neighborhood of the city. We found the apartment on Airbnb. The owners have been really helpful and the apartment is quite nice.
Mont Royal is an older, more residential area. The street we are staying on has a ton of really great shops and restaurants to choose from, all within a short walk. The Metro stop is about 7-10 minutes away on foot.
After dropping our gear at the apartment, we took off to see some of the city. Our first stop was a restaurant called Cornichon in Mont Royal for lunch. Shelley had a croque monsieur and I had a chicken club sandwich. Hers was way better than mine, though mine was good. We then headed to Old Montreal. We took the Metro to the Place D' Arms stop, which drops you right at the border of this section of the city.
The first landmark we came upon was the Notre Dame Basilica. The facade of this buildings is beautiful. We unfortunately arrived a bit too late to go inside, but are planning to do so later in the week.
We wandered the streets for a bit and walked into an art gallery featuring the new exhibit from Barbara Cole. It was the first time seeing her work, and this particular exhibit was called "Two People Walking on a Tightrope in an Ordinary Life Full of Extraordinary Moments." She took pictures of people both on land and in the water from under water, then used editing to transform the pictures into something spectacular. The pictures animate as you move past them in any direction, creating an amazing effect. You can watch a report from the CBC on the exhibition below.
The first landmark we came upon was the Notre Dame Basilica. The facade of this buildings is beautiful. We unfortunately arrived a bit too late to go inside, but are planning to do so later in the week.
We wandered the streets for a bit and walked into an art gallery featuring the new exhibit from Barbara Cole. It was the first time seeing her work, and this particular exhibit was called "Two People Walking on a Tightrope in an Ordinary Life Full of Extraordinary Moments." She took pictures of people both on land and in the water from under water, then used editing to transform the pictures into something spectacular. The pictures animate as you move past them in any direction, creating an amazing effect. You can watch a report from the CBC on the exhibition below.
After walking through a few more exhibits, we found our way to a restaurant where we enjoyed a nice cold beverage and took some time to soak in the views. We stopped at a place called Bevo which had a great view down a few streets. And beer.
Old Montreal has a very European feel, with cobblestone streets, many of them closed to car traffic. There are lots of open air restaurants and people playing music all over the place. One of the more clever ones is in the video below. Watch the kids chase his cup around to put money in it.
We ended the day with dinner at Pizzeria Napoletana, a neat Italian restaurant in the Little Italy section of the city. We ordered two pizzas, which was plenty for us. The pizzas are the thin crust variety we ate all over Italy a few years ago. We really enjoyed the food here, and the atmosphere was fun as well with lots of people scurrying about.
Tomorrow we are planning to go out to the Olympic Stadium area, and perhaps a few other things depending on what we feel like.
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