I visited Montreal 1977. My friend Sandy and I spent a long 4th of July weekend here. A couple of impressions linger. 1) Quebec Province and Canada were in a serious Separation battle. Thus, as a point of honor, Québécois refused to speak English during the 3 days we visited. Besides English, Sandy spoke a little Polish and I had barrio Spanish - we spent lots of time lost; until we went into a bar and suddenly the young women became the toast of Old Town. 2) We visited the Iranian Pavilion at the Man and His World exhibit. I was on fire to visit Iran. I begin saving $ for the trip. Obviously i remained ignorant of world affairs by '79 Khomeini assumed leadership. No going to Iran. Now it's 2023, we're planning a New England trip to check in with Fam and watch a couple of Grandson's football games. Looking at the map; we decided to go to Montreal. No other reason other than it's about a 5 hr drive - why not? Flew to Bradley, Hartford, CT, picked up our rental car.
1st day in a new city, we're fans of a tour bus. We get our directions aligned, spot landmarks, usually learn a little history. Then we plan our routes. So much for that plan. Plan was in shambles by noon. Even tho we purchased tickets, the buses arrived at the 1stop of the day, no seats available. There were approximately 40 of us waiting, no one could get on. The solution given was to walk to the main depot (30 mins) to catch an empty bus. But i digress. After a dreary breakfast - sausage tastes like baloney, we walked 3 blocks to Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal. Cousin Susan said not to miss this building. So right. It's one of the most beautiful I've visited. The interior is all wood. leaving the basilica, we walk 2 blocks to the Infamous Hop On-Hop Off 1st stop; to learn no one is hopping off. It was a beautiful day, we decide to walk to the port; surely people would be getting off the 2nd stop. We
Previously the drive from Hartford to Oakland, Maine was 5 hrs of interstate. Finally, perfect back country roads; miles with no traffic. Except for the last hour outside of Montreal we were on a road passing thru small towns and across mountains. It was serene. The town of Eustis was odd. For miles along the road there were dozens of American flags flying from telephone poles. We thought maybe they wanted drivers to know they were entering or leaving the USA. But Eustis is a good 30 min drive from the border. Odd, very odd. There were lots of Beware of Moose signs. OK with me as long as the only moose were on the signs. Border crossing was a 5 min chat with a friendly young woman; still we had the feeling she knew more about us than what our passports indicated. No I'm not paranoid. Chain of Ponds, yup that's the name just before the border. Once we crossed into Quebec Province PB was busy converting miles to kilometers so I wouldn't be speeding thru small town
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