There were some really nice fellow passengers disembarking today. They were replaced by way too many boarding. The only thing we really needed to do was have a photo id along with our ship’s card to be able to get on and off as we chose. And, considering the number of stairs yesterday and all the hill climbing, I was grateful for the relative flatness of Montreal.
I looked it up, the last time I was in Montreal was at WorldCon in 2009 (August 2009) with the youngest three (aka SpongeMonkeys) who also put in a fair amount of time volunteering at Registration. There were pictures. George had plenty of time to explore Montreal on that trip as SciFi wasn’t & still isn’t his thing.
As a result today we mostly walked around while the ship cleared out the passengers disembarking here (almost all the Canadians and a fair number of others) before filling up with a lot more passengers.
We decided to walk the old city before venturing into the newer sections. Compared to yesterday, the flatness was much appreaciated.
But first – the approach to the city was beautiful –
The old city had a variety of fancy boutiques, tourist shops, art galleries, eateries, and some really unique offerings such as the Rubber Ducky Shop –
(I think the last time I bought a rubber ducky was either at IMED 2016 in Vienna or perhaps at the pool shop when we had to have work done on our hot tub at about the same time….)
There were the usual conquering hero statues (more French than English) –
and a pair which really appealed (and just might express it all)
(The English Bulldog & The French Poodle).
I ended my time with a bit of an underground adventure. This is Eastern Canada, right? Montreal is a large city, correct? So there should be a Starbucks somewhere and perhaps a thermos to add to my collection? I had looked up locations before leaving the ship this morning. There were several. I kepb looking while we were out and about, perusing shops, avoiding a demonstration and attempting to ignore the extremely large number of police, riot police, and bicycle cops keeping an eye on the peaceful demonstrators and their not so peaceful hecklers.
Anyway, when I returned to the ship and had internet access a bit of reseach answered my question –
This is the entrance to the Metro off of McGill. We had walked right by it (near the statue of Queen Victoria). As it turns out, Starbucks is located underground near the various Metro stops. DUH! So I walked back and attempted to find one. Interesting, there is a whole world down there, and under skylights between buildings. What isn’t there? Signage on the wall with the layout of where you are. Overhead signs direct toward Metro Stations and Bus Stations, but that was it.
After about 15 minutes of walking through mostly empty underground passages, going up and down more than a few stairs and escalators, I exited about three blocks from where I started. Going around the corner to figure out the direction of the port there was a sign on the corner of the building – address and …… Starbucks. Ok, is this luck or what? Up stairs, across a patio, around a corner, down more stairs. I gave up and headed back inside to find myself right in front of what I had been seeking. They had the thermos, the App even worked, and I also enjoyed an iced pumpkin latte, It is fall, right?
I figured, before I looked up to see that I was surrounded by tall buildings, that it couldn’t be that hard to find my way back to the ship. A block here, a block there. Electric street signs, one of which provided “port this way” and I found myself approaching Queen Victoria again. Back down McGill and along the water front where I was scolded by this dude for not providing a snack.
