Montreal, Quebec

We arrived in Montreal on Monday, June 18!  As we approached the basin where the Port D’Escale Marina is we encountered 7 mph current against us for about 2 miles!  The marina is right in the middle of Old Town Montreal!  It was a great spot to stay and tour the beautiful city!  We were joined by Blue Heron and Jackets II.

The first stop in our exploring was the Basilica de Notre Dame!  It is exquisite!  To think this beautiful structure was built in the 1800’s.  The first mass held there had 11,000 people in attendance.  You could buy a seat for $16/year so only the wealthy could sit as the average wage for a worker was $.50/day.  Those that didn’t have a seat crammed into the third balcony to hear mass.

The massive organ has 7,000 pipes!

The pulpit was at the top of a spiral staircase in the middle of the congregation! 

What a magnificent structure!

Montreal is known for its wonderful restaurants, artists, churches and beautiful old buildings.  Here are some examples!

We had dinner here at Jardins Nelson seen below!

The old firehouse!

Government Building!

Below was city hall until 1878.  Today it is full of shops with goods made by Canadians.

This was known as the church of the sailors!  Its steeple was the first thing seen when the sailors entered port.

The clock tower was built as a tribute to the heroism and devotion of the soldiers.  It greets all boaters as they enter Montreal!  We walked up to the top!  192 steps, with the last 50 being a narrow spiral staircase.

The views from the top were great!

Walking back after dinner one night we stopped to watch a street performer!  Well it wasn’t long before Ken and Craig became part of the show.  Craig is in the blue shirt!  They had to dance to “the Lion Sleeps Tonight” and Ken had to dance like James Bond and Craig like Rocky!  We were very entertained!

Our last night we went to dinner with Stephen and Charlotte from Jackets II.  Blue Heron had friends from work joining them.

We ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant and ended the evening with a horse drawn carriage ride through the city!  Life doesn’t get much better than this.  Seeing the city at night was wonderful!

Right  now we are sitting at the St. Lambert lock waiting to be locked through.  It will likely be a 3 hour wait, just like on the Mississippi. The commercial traffic has priority and there is a lot of commercial traffic here.  The lockmaster said he would make sure we made the two locks we needed to get through today but couldn’t give us a time.  The two locks today are not included in our Canadian locking pass so when you approach the lock you must tie up and pay $25 per lock to go through.  Here are Stephen and Ken paying.

Each day is a new adventure!  Destination today is Saint - Anne - de - Bellevue lock where we will tie up for the night!

More to come - stay tuned!

Pat