Montreal

What can we say about Montréal apart from you are one crazy city, and very French. Which I'm not saying is a bad thing. It's more a reflection on ourselves and the feeling that I personally wish I had paid more attention at school to learn the language. The second largest French speaking city in the western world after Paris. In fact I thought we were in France, not a two hour drive north of the American border. We we're staying in a nice little hotel in the gay district of the city. Not too far from the places you need to see, just off Saint Catherine, one of the main downtown streets. To say the area was a bit of a culture shock would be an understatement. Surrounded by the neon lights, graffiti and numerous sex shops, it took us a while to climatize and feel comfortable. We did take one left turn from the busy streets to find ourselves in the middle of a run down residential area which jangled the nerves slightly but we took it in our stride.

Old Montréal was a much cleaner and comfortable area to walk round, sure it was the main tourist area but for good reason. Streets of old architecture and old shop fronts, outdoor café bars, street performers and portrait artists. Also within Old Montréal stands Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica which from the outside I found nothing too spectacular to look at. However step inside and the place is a complete masterpiece. Possibly the highlight of the weekend.

We took the trip with Carrie a native Canadian and a nurse who helped Emma settle at the hospital in Boston. Carrie's step sister also lives in Montréal and met up with us on Saturday evening for a trip to Mount Royal which provides views looking over the city and the local raccoons. We certainly saw more of the city with our two excellent guides, introducing us to other neighbourhoods and a good restaurant for some Persian food.

I would say Montréal didn't meet my expectations when we first arrived but grew on me and Emma over the following day. It's certainly an interesting vibrant city with an acquired taste in certain areas. The only thing missing from the trip for Emma was to see a Canadian Mountie. We did see a young Moose on the journey up, jogging casually across the highway. Not a common sight we're told, so we felt pretty fortunate. Unlike the various bits of road kill lying on the side of the road.

We're into our final 2 weeks living in Boston, we fly to Seattle on the 18th June to start our journey down the west coast by train, plane and automobile. Well a bus actually. So there will no doubt be more to follow.

Cheers for reading.