Xiaoniu 小妞

Yesterday was Sue’s birthday. I had some personal time to use up this week and she wanted time off just to be away from work for a couple days. So, we both took off Thursday and Friday. Not ones to be idle for long we decided to go away for the day. We first thought about Niagara Falls, but it is a slightly longer drive than we wanted for day trip and staying over night was not an option. We had plans for Friday. So, we both thought that going to Montreal was the ticket. We’ve never been there and it is just shy of 4 hours drive from our place.

We left around 6:30am, which got us in Montreal around 10:30am. After running around to find a parking lot that wasn’t full and finding a bank so that we could convert money and pay for parking we set off for a walk around Vieux-Montreal (Old Montreal). It is the oldest part of the city with old buildings and it is near the port. Our first stop was at a McDonalds. Not for food, but for a bio-break. After some confusion of figuring out which bathroom was for women we were off on our walk. We stopped to get a map and some hints at the local tourism information office.

Our first stop was Bonsecours Market. It is an old building on the road near the piers. The building has a bunch of small shops for local artists. Some of the stuff was pretty nice, but everything was expensive. One store was filled with very expensive ($3000) glass vases and other glass things. Very nice stuff, but not worth the money to me. There was also a big clothing sale going on. For a Thursday morning the place had plenty of people We looked, but the only thing that interested us was some stuff for the baby and a coat for Sue. It was all pricey though. We bought a gift while at the market, but nothing else.

After the market we walked towards the Notre-Dame Basilica. It is a fairly old church. It costs about $4 per adult to get it, but it is worth the donation. The stained glass windows and elaborate wood work is worth going to see. Like many old large churches it is a humbling experience. I tried to take some photos, but it is just too dark inside for my camera. Some things came out okay, but pictures of the interior didn’t come out. When you are inside though your eyes adjust to the dim light just fine. Across the street from Notre-Dame is Place D’Armes. We didn’t go in, but we took some pictures of the courtyard outside.

We left for Chinatown, Montreal style. This is where I made my big mistake of the day. Let me say from the start that it was an honest mistake, but it worked out in the long run. We hopped on the train (subway) to go a little bit north. From the directions I got from Google rue Clark (where Chinatown and Little Italy are near) said that we had to go up to the beginning of the street. We took the 10-15 minute train ride up, found rue Clark and walked down the street to find Chinatown.

Now, I already knew that the restaurant we were looking for were at 1115 rue Clark. We were in the 8000s at that point. So, we decided to walk a bit. After 30 minutes were were only at 6500 and no where near anything but small apartment buildings. By now Sue was upset with sore feet and I was getting annoyed because we couldn’t seem to find Chinatown. We asked a local and he said that he thought it was downtown, near where Old Montreal is located. We hopped in a cab and $9.50 later we were back downtown. Come to find out China town was two blocks away from the train station that we left from. If we had only seen the gate to Chinatown and the directions from Google we accurate we would have been okay. Instead we spent nearly an hour and $9.50 trying to find a place we were right next to. I think the biggest clue was this building:

If you take a close look you can see the Chinese style roof. Just about 100 feet to the right of that building, hidden from view is the beginning of Chinatown. Oh well, we made our way eventually.

In Chinatown we found the two restaruants we read about in a book. We chose one and had dumplings for lunch. The food was okay. I think we are spoiled when it comes to food. We’ve been to Chinatown and to China to eat and to be honest the food we got in Montreal was subpar. It looked good, but was pretty bland. We ate our fill and then walked around and checked out the local shops. Once we finished checking out both blocks of stores we walked back to the train station to get on the train to up town.

We got off the train near the University of Montreal and walked the streets to St. Joseph’s Oratory. From a distance the building looks big, but not as big as it really is. When you finally get up to the building and start making your way to the top you start to realize just how big the building is. Take a quick look at the following picture and try to imagine just how big the building is when I tell you that the cross at the top is 26 feet tall.

Kinda puts things into perspective.

After the oratory we made our way back downtown. We decided to have a quick meal before we left so we tried another restaurant in Chinatown. That was another mistake. I think we got robbed. We tried a buffet restaurant that looked good. Their food was not that good. We ate what we could stomach and then left.

We made our way back to the parking lot, got our car and left. It was about 6:30pm when we got back on the road. It was rush hour and we sat in traffic for a while, but once we made our way to 15 south we had no trouble getting home. After about 4 hours we got home safe and sound. Sue stayed up the entire way up and back, which made things nice for me. We talked the whole way about what we saw and about other normal stuff.

It was well worth going up for the day. If we had the time two days would have been more than enough time to get a fill of the entire place. We took our time and hit the big sites at our own pace. Next time we may try Quebec City or Niagara Falls.