Wow, is this ever a party town! I don’t imagine Montreal is this full-on all the time, but we certainly struck it big while we here. Our first impression is that Montreal is a much more beautiful city than we expected, and that there is lots of partying going on! After a few navigtional glitches due to me not listening to the GPS, we finally found our way to our hotel in Rue Sherbrooke, located at the top of the very happening Latin Quarter. The hotel was not the most salubrious of establishments, but I guess it was adequate as a place to lay your head for the night.

We went out exploring, and found our way to Vieux Montreal, or Old Montreal. It was just beautiful - narrow cobbled streets, lots of great looking restaurants and bars, and a very lively public space on Rue Jacques Cartier, with buskers, street performers and street artists. After a quick pizza feed we went exploring and tried to take it all in... Kate had her portrait drawn by an artist, we saw some fireworks displays, and there were thousands and thousands of people out and about with an amazing atmosphere.

On Sunday we went to a local church service in the morning, then went exploring some more. On the list of places was a walk through the gardens of Mont Royal, a visit to Stade du Olympique from the 1976 Olympic Games, more time in Vieux Montreal, a walk through the Rue Prince Arthur district, dinner in the Latin Quarter, then finally a visit to an amazing street fair celebrating the Montreal Comedy festival! What a day! We’re all exhausted.

As I say, Montreal has been a big party town while we’ve been here. Onward tomorrow to Quebec City!