Old Montreal, rain, fireworks, and more rain!

Dalan and I started out our first full day in Montreal with a plan to ride the metro and go down to Old Montreal after enjoying the complimentary hot breakfast that came with our hotel. Hotels with free breakfast are really the way to go, because you save a ton of money that way. We would eat a huge breakfast, a snack in the afternoon, and then get a nice dinner in the evening.

We navigated Montreal's subway system with ease, and found it to be an accessible and convenient way to travel. We arrived in Old Montreal and started to explore. Old Montreal is the former city center of Montreal that was forgotten during the 1960's, and then has since been restored mainly for tourist. It is beautiful, and has a lot of things to do. We walked along the Old Port, and went into the science museum. We learned how to tie nautical knots, and took some silly pictures. As we walked over to our next stop the wind started to pick up and the sky got a little darker.


We arrived at Pointe-a-Calliere, which is the museum of archeology and history for Montreal. We bought a pass that was good for three days and allowed us unlimited use the metro system and to visit as many museums as possible over the next three days. It ended up saving us so much money, and I would say was a must have for our trip. Pointe-a-Calliere ended up being one of my favorite places we went. It was built on the site that the old city was founded, and you get to go underground and explore the ruins of the old city. I love underground tours, and this one was unique. We also got to go on a tour and learn about pirates while visiting this museum!


As we left the museum and headed up to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the rain started. It was a light rain, and we were not too bothered. We arrived at the church, and there was a wedding going on so we could not go in. We took some pictures at the fountains across the street and waited for the bride to come out. I love a wedding! They rang the bells as the bride and groom emerged from the church and it was beautiful. The rain also started coming down much harder at this point. We ran into a gift shop, and bought some dorky Canada maple leaf ponchos and walked over to an art museum from our book. It clearly was not a museum, but a gallery instead. It was not my style of art at all, and not worth our time at all. As we walked back to the metro, the rain really, and I mean really, started coming down. Despite our ponchos, we ended up still being soaked. We got back to our hotel, and laid our clothes out to dry. They did not dry for about two days due to the humidity! We ended up having to iron and blow dry things to get them to dry!

Dalan is bummed about the rain!

Dalan is sucker punching the rain. A Vala/Sellers tradition!

That evening the rain cleared up, so we headed out for dinner. We ate at a really good Indian restaurant by our hotel, and got on the metro to go watch the fireworks. Every Saturday, there is an international firework competition in Montreal. This time is was Hong Kong's turn! We got off the metro and followed the crowd to go find a spot to watch the fireworks. Apparently we followed the wrong crowd of people, and ended up having to back track to the bridge where you can see the fireworks. Then it started to rain, and rained the entire time we walked to the bridge. Luckily we had our dorky ponchos and did not get too wet. We found a good place on the bridge and waited for the show to start. The minute the fireworks started, so did the rain! It only lasted about ten minutes, and our ponchos kept us dry again. The fireworks were awesome, then we started our walk back to the metro, and the rain started again. And it poured! And poured! And poured! We were totally soaked from head to toe again by the time we got back to the metro. So, we had another set of clothes we needed to get dry in the humid Montreal climate!

Waiting for the fireworks, you can see the amusement park in the background....it was a nice break from the rain!