I had a half day of driving today and hoped to spend most of the afternoon and evening seeing parts of Montreal. My first challenge was getting stuck in traffic approaching Montreal - there had been an accident and everything was stopped for miles.
By the time I got to where my motel was, on the outskirts of the city, it was after 2:00, which was check-in time according to my confirmation email. Well, at least I could find the place in the daylight and unload bags before driving on into the city. I checked in with the friendly guy at the desk, grabbed my bags, and headed for the room. Hmm - the door was wide open with a mop propped up against the door jamb. The room wasn’t quite ready. It was about 3:30 before I got to the city center. And POURING (can I emphasize that enough?) down rain.
I had three places I thought I’d go, then see if there was time for anything else. Probably too late for the Marché Jean-Talon (farmers’ market), so I headed up to Parc du Mont-Royal (park), where I should be able to enjoy some nice views. After two failed attempts to make my way up the hill and find the entrance, I gave up listening to Google’s navigator and finally found my way in. Only to find fog obscuring the city view.
Okay, so headed down to Old Montreal and the waterfront. Drove around and looked at stunning old buildings, but the narrow streets were a mess of detours, and I couldn’t figure out the parking signs with confidence, not that I found any open spaces large enough for my pickup anyways. So I wasn’t able to see Place Jacques-Cartier, another site on my list. I didn’t give up trying to find parking easily, but when it started getting dark, I threw in the towel. I was hungry for dinner, so I went to another part of town, where the lanes were wider and things weren’t so compressed, and finally found a large parking spot open on the street near a couple of restaurants. And bonus - by now it was 6:00 and parking was free.
So much for seeing Montreal. I hear it’s lovely. Hopefully I’ll have better luck and better weather tomorrow in Quebec City!
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