N. Ameritrip – Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Montreal/Quebec City

Montreal - Place Jacques-CartierLate April, we were at our second last stop – Montreal. Back to the East coast – We felt the difference right away. It was COLD. The wind was chilling at night. We arrived at the Montreal airport in the evening – couldn’t find a shuttle bus. So we took a cab to our hotel (fixed price $35 + tips). It was a pretty cozy hotel located in a good location – not too far from old Montreal, and not too far from the Rue Sainte-Catherine shopping area. Since I’ve been there several times before, I had a vague sense of where things were… Didn’t do much planning – just grabbed some free maps at the airport. The first night, we asked the concierge where we could grab some food. He recommended walking towards Rue Saint-Denis. First dinner: burgers and poutine ordered from a French menu.

The next day, we walked around the city – first stop Old Montreal. Had lunch @ Place Jacques-Cartier. It’s definitely a popular gathering place. I’ve never been there in the summer but I could imagine how relaxing it would be to walk around in the summer – not too humid… summer breeze. Last time I was here – it was around Christmas time. Since it’s a tourist spot – you still hear a lot of English.

Then, we walked passed a lot of banks and old buildings. I guess that was the financial center of the city. I went into a CIBC – old-fashion but grand. The service was good – teller was speaking with French accent. At that time, I felt that I hadn’t been to a Canadian bank for so long… been living on US cash for over half a month already.

Montreal - St. Catherine

Then we walked along Rue Saint-Catherine. A lot of people on the street. Of course, it’s the shopping core of Montreal. Walked by this flower stall. I thought… I have never bought a bouquet just because I feel like it. (But I’ve bought some likely bamboos out of the blue.) I will do that next time – one day before I go to office or head home, I’ll buy myself one – coz I don’t expect that I’d get any. :p A romantic Pisces. After wandering around the area, we saw some artists on the street. I got myself a souvenir from one of them – a burned copper ring. Forgot to take a picture of it. Because it’s burned copper – every piece is different. The color is similar to this. Wasn’t expensive – just $20. I love it.

That evening, we met up with Uncle T again since they were having a “fam trip” at Montreal and Quebec city – for an upcoming Catholic event in early June. We had dinner @ a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown! OMG. The taste of Chinese soup came back after almost a month. It was good :p Before the dinner, we walked around the small Chinatown and took some snapshots.

Montreal - Chinatown

After dinner, we went to Casino de Montreal and played “horse-racing” a bit! Lots of fun w/o paying a lot. I wish we had that in Las Vegas – just for fun. But other than that, of course the casinos in Vegas were much more attractive.

Uncle T invited us to go to Quebec city with them. We looked at each other… why not? The only thing was that we’d have to wake up early like 8-9am. But… we’ve had 4am morning call. 8-9am wouldn’t be a problem.

After over an hour drive and stopping at another hotel – coz they need to check out the venues for the upcoming tours… we finally arrived at Quebec City. This is the landmark – if you’ve been to Quebec City you would recognize this hotel right away. 2008 is Quebec City’s 400 years anniversary.

Quebec City 1

Walked around… This area was much busier when I was there last few visits. Maybe April was really a low season for tourism. I remember the first time I was there, over 10 years ago, there were the sound of harp music, a lot of artists painting, and a lot of kids – they had face painting and hair braiding.

Quebec City 2

The dog was so relaxed. (Thought of G all of a sudden.)
Quebec City 3

We had lunch at this restaurant right across from the hotel. The red roof made it very stand-out. The food was good overall. Not sure if it was because the crew knows the managers there and they bring this restaurant a lot of business every year. They have a selection of 3-course set lunch – A lot of people went for the fillet mignon. Looked really good. I liked the dessert as well. But my poor friend had an allergic reaction unfortunately -.-

Quebec City 4

Quebec City 5

Took some pictures from another angle…
Quebec City 6

400th anniversary – I wonder if that was why they are renovating the floor and everything. I heard it’s been like this for a year. Hope it’s already finished by now.
Quebec City 7

Quebec City 8 - Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-Du-CapThe last spot in Quebec city was the Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-Du-Cap. It was a very beautiful church. Too bad I don’t know much about Catholic or else I could have appreciated it more. Heard that the event was going to take place at this church. And here’s a snapshot of the shadow of my own underneath a tree.
Quebec City 8 - Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-Du-Cap (2)

The Montreal/Quebec city trip was relatively relaxing. Of course… I’ve also went to Simon’s and bought some stuffs from there. On our 2nd last day, we had lunch @ our hotel – again, thank to Uncle T, we had really good stuffs – HEAVY but tasty Italian food – Tiramisu and Expresso as finale. They said there were some really good breweries nearby. But we didn’t have a chance to check those out.

Cheers.

4 thoughts on “N. Ameritrip – Chapter 8

  1. Hey Fun! I’m in Shenzhen now. OMG… so modern. But of course, just like another other parts of China… some places are really nice, some are nah. Will be in Shanghai again early Aug – gonna miss Sandy’s concert -_-

  2. Yah, I have a home in SZ. School won’t start until mid-Aug. I’m gonna be in HK around end of June to July. Not sure if you like Alicia Keys – I’m gonna go see her concert in HK on July 29 🙂

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.