After the excitement of Niagara Falls, Wednesday’s train ride to Montreal was very tame by comparison.

We caught a trolley car (identical to a Melbourne tram but newer) to Union Station. For anyone else visiting Toronto, the trolley was simple as long as you had the exact change - $3.25

The VIA train was also easy to catch. The only close hiccup was when they weighed our bags. Mine seems to have suddenly put on weight even though we’ve only been here 3 days! Might have to go on a shopping diet for the rest of the trip. Luckily, it was exactly the 50lbs allowed – I claim this as a superior packing effort!

We shared the carriage with a group of four, vacuous, early 30 somethings who talked, non stop, very loudly, about absolutely nothing of any consequence, for the entire 5 hours from Toronto to Montreal. To complete their stereotype, I sincerely hope they were American.

Having set a precedent in Toronto, there was no question of a taxi from the station. With our screen captured map in hand we hoofed it through the city to our hotel. So far I am two for two on satirical hotel names. The Super 8 was anything but Super and the Comfort Suites is neither comfortable or a suite. Unfortunately a pervious valued customer had spilt water on the card machine so we have no room key but have to wait for someone from reception to come with us every time we want to enter our room. And the promised air conditioning is really more of a boxed in fan, circulating the hot air of Montreal’s warmest summer day around the room. Still, we’re in Canada and that trumps any minor inconvenience.

We set off downtown – again on foot. I was keen to see some of the Montreal Jazz Festival - until we got there. It was only when I was hot and bothered and totally exhausted that I remembered I don’t like crowds of people or expensive beer and I actually don’t like jazz.

The upside was that we found an IGA supermarket on the long walk home. Taine was most impressed (that it was an IGA) and so was I…they had six packs of cold beer for the same price as one cup at the jazz festival. We also found a park with squirrels. Free entertainment.

Today we tried a later start and didn’t get down to breakfast till 7.30. Comfort Suites redeemed themselves somewhat by including bacon in their breakfast bar and a bowl of fruit available to take away for snacks. We walked down to the closest Metro and bought a day ticket each for $10, an excellent deal.

First stop was Old Montreal where we collected some more share bikes, $5 per bike per day. This is such an excellent way to move quickly around the quieter streets of the city and, like Toronto, there are plenty of designated bike lanes.

Old Montreal and the Port area are very pretty, with a very French feel and lots of lovely old buildings. Having survived the bike riding, I managed to trip on the pavement and fall flat on my face (and knees). Luckily there was no real damage and plenty of lovely Quebecois to fuss over me and check that I was ok.

Back on the subway we headed to Olympic Park to see where the ‘76 Olympics were held. This area is kind of under construction as they attempt to bring the stadium and surrounds back to its former glory. You can tell that it must have been state of the art 40 years ago but now it’s a bit of a white elephant. There’s a crazy, leaning tower beside the stadium that was designed for the Olympics but not finished until 1985. You get to the top via a funicular type elevator. I guess they’re still trying to make up the 40 yr debt because it was a very pricey exercise – we decided we’d get the same view from the plane so we grabbed some more bikes, meandered around the park and botanical gardens area and then hopped back on the subway to Ile Saint Helene.

The island is man made, created for the World Expo in 1967. There were lots of signs to promising activities but nothing actually open that we could see, apart from the golf course and a giant mesh dome. The dome, called a biosphere, looked intriguing, so we went there. Taine conned us into forking over $30 to enter because it looked vaguely educational. It wasn’t. And it had interactive games. It didn’t. The people running it were lovely but it was seriously boring. If you come to Montreal, don’t go there.

 

Montreal biosphere

We rode the subway back downtown and took an afternoon siesta. Remembering the weather we left at home, I hesitate to complain about the heat but 30C here is very hot (and did I mention our air con is useless?).

After a little bit of afternoon shopping we rode another few stops on the subway, just for the hell of it. And then we grabbed some more bikes to ride back, just because.

To date I have walked 86,406 steps in the 4 days since we landed.

Luckily there’s still cold Milson beer in the fridge so we can lay around and watch Thursday night baseball on the tv.

Niagara Falls

I don’t really have a travel bucket list. I want to go everywhere and see everything but if I did have a list then Niagara Falls would be on it. When we were in New York we toyed with the idea of a day trip but it was too cold and too far. I’m glad we didn’t go then because if we had then we mightn’t have gone today and I think it’s safe to say that the view from the Canadian side must be superior to the view from the US.

We booked our tour from Australia, based on TA reviews. We had to meet the bus in town and we still had an hour on our bike share so we were confident of making the 8am departure. Unfortunately, there were only two bikes on the rack when we got there so Geoff had to walk. It’s a good thing he’s a fast walker!

The trip to Niagara was interesting. The driver was knowledgeable and so we learnt quite a bit about Canadian history and to break up the trip, (140kms) we made a few stops. I’m not entirely sure of the reason behind some of the stops but I imagine the tourist network is a closely linked organisation. It did remind me a bit of our trip to the Cuchi tunnels in Vietnam – we’ll just stop at my brother’s cousin’s sister in laws café for a snack in case we can’t find food later! The first stop was at Niagara on the Lake, a picturesque little retirement/tourist mecca, reminiscent of Hahndorf, with nicely restored colonial buildings and a magnificent view out over Lake Ontario to the United States on the other shore. It was here that much of the battle for Canadian territory between England and America took place.

Niagara on the Lake

Next stop, a fruit stand featuring the smallest wayside chapel in Canada. Interesting. I bought a lot of cherries and two giant apples (in case I got hungry later).

After that, a winery where the speciality is ‘ice wine’. This syrupy concoction is made in the depth of Winter from frozen grapes, picked at midnight and trampled by fairies (ok, I made up the fairy bit). Anyway, it’s very expensive because each grape only yields a tiny drop. Either 11 am is too early for me to taste wine or someone is having me on because I’d rather scull a glass of maple syrup than that stuff.

Ice wine

We also stopped at what is purported to be the largest floral clock in the world. I think the Melbourne City Council might choose to disagree but it did provide an option for a toilet break. Eventually we made it to our destination, Niagara. Maybe it was the ice wine but somehow Geoff convinced me that a helicopter flight over the falls would be a great way to see the big picture. He was right! I nearly wet my pants as the chopper took off (I blame the wine drinking again) but after that I was too mesmerised by the view to be scared.

Turn your head sideways, I can't figure how to rotate!

Back on the ground we tried another vantage point, this time on the Hornblower boat to the base of the falls. Any other time a boat ride with a hundred other sardines in pink plastic ponchos would seem absurd, but the company was irrelevant. To top it off, we walked the length of the bank to see the display from yet another angle. On July 4^th, Niagara is crawling with people on both sides of the river border and the banks are littered with outrageous, gaudy attractions. I never fail to be bemused by the extent to which humans can take a natural resource of such beauty and turn it into a carnival – but remarkably, none of this takes away the majesty of the falls. It is simply awe inspiring.

When we come again to Canada, (I already know once will not be enough), we will stay in Niagara and take the time to fully appreciate the beauty and power of the landscape.