Bonjour Montreal!

We had an uneventful flight from LAX to Montreal with a stop and plane change at Washington Dulles airport.  We got up at 3:30 a.m PDT and it took us most of the day to fly to Montreal when you add the time zones. We caught an Uber from the Montreal airport.  Light rain on the way in.  Our Uber vehicle was a Tesla with autopilot controls.  Our driver assured us that she didn't trust the autopilot and then went back to her crossword puzzle.  (Not really; she was a very attentive, good driver.). 

We're staying at the Hotel William Gray located in the oldest part of Montreal. The hotel is just wonderful.  Our room is light and airy, and they left us a tray of delicious macaroons as a welcoming gift.  Super comfy bed with really nice sheets. And the shower is fantastic. Some readers may recall that I really appreciate a nice shower, and this one is 5 stars. Gentle rain from above and several shower heads supplementing from the side. I'd better really enjoy this shower while I can because the shower on the ship will probably be pretty small with a weak trickle of water.  Ok, enough shower talk!

When we arrived at the hotel last night I was a bit jet lagged so I got into bed early.  Cath went down to the Maggie Oakes steak house right in our hotel and had a  chou-fleur frit (fried cauliflower with beet hummus, smoked sour cream smoked paprika, almonds, lime caper and browned butter.)  She said it was very good.  Here's a photo of the Maddie Oakes dining room:

Here's what's on offer for meat eaters:

This morning we enjoyed complimentary in-room Nespresso (surprisingly tasty) before heading out for a walk around old Montreal.  What a beautiful place. So many unique, very old stone buildings.  Here a sample of what we saw:

This is St. Paul Street, which is lined with historic buildings. Many interesting shops and restaurants.  I could spend a lot of time exploring this street and nearby areas.  

If you look closely at the above photo you can see Cath reflected in the window. 

We met a couple of friendly Canadians along the way who offered to take our picture:

We stopped for breakfast at a place called Tommy recommended to us by the concierge at our hotel. They were filming a commercial with this Chevy SUV in front of the restaurant when we arrived.

It was a really charming coffee shop with delicious breakfast offerings.  I had a breakfast toast with avocado, cheese and tomatoes on top.  Cath had a breakfast bowl with quinoa, tomatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, dried cherries and a few other things I cannot recall. And great coffee.  I complimented the manager on the coffee and she said "Well, we are a coffee shop so we'd better have good coffee." She's never been to Denny's.

After breakfast we went to see the Basilica Notre Dame de Montreal.  After visiting so many beautiful churches in Italy I didn't really expect to be so enthralled with this church. The moment you step inside you know it is a special place.  Unlike most of  the very impressive stone churches in Italy, the interior of this one is built of wood. Beautiful wood.  Many of the visitors were sitting in the pews just absorbing the atmosphere.  Here's a few photos of this Basilica.  First, the main altar:

This is the pulpit:

Detail of the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah:

The ceiling has a blue cast to it:

This church is really worth a visit if you make it to Montreal.  

Leaving the Basilica, we wandered back towards our hotel and marveled at how nice Montreal is.  What a delightful city.

Tonight and tomorrow the siblings will arrive for the cruise.  Tomorrow we're going on a Montreal food tour (will there be poutine?), and we'll set sail on Saturday. Fortunately the docks are steps away from the hotel so embarcation should be pretty easy.  

As usual, comments are welcome.  

À tout à l'heure !