Montreal, Quebec

June28-30

We left the 1000 Islands region on June 28 and drove 160 miles to Montreal. It was cool and cloudy when we left and we expected rain later in the day. We had been warned by other tourists to expect not only rain, but smoky conditions. How can smoke linger in the air with so much rain?  

Nothing like driving behind a truck carrying Radioactive material!!

We checked into the Montreal South KOA Journey in St. Phillips de Laprairie. It was raining as we navigated to our site. Ken went out connect the RV to the electric , water, and sewer. When he came in out of the rain, he told me that we didn’t have a water hook-up on our site. What? That couldn’t be right, since we were paying a premium price for for a full hook-up site. After the rain stopped, we went out to get a little exercise. After talking with another camper, we found out where our water connection was located. There was a large hole that resembled a dry well. It was about 10 feet deep and covered with a lid that had a rope sticking out of the side. Ken pulled on the rope and found the water spigot and hose attached. It was actually sort of gross! ( I wish I had taken a photo) We decided that we didn’t need to be hooked up to the water and would just used what we had in our storage tank.

In the morning, luck was not on our side…it was raining. With only one day to see the sights of Montreal , we set out in the rain for a self-driving tour of Montreal. Even with the rainy conditions, the Montreal traffic was more manageable than in Toronto.

As we traveled around Montreal we had a window into the city’s history with its cobblestone streets and architectural styles ranging from the 16th cnetury to the present. Since we never studied Canadian History, the landmarks didn’t have any significance other than being beautiful buildings and sculptures.

Montreal is often said to be the second largest French-speaking city in the world with French Canadians being the majority population. Since we are not french speakers, we had difficulty with the street and nformation signs.

At the end of the day, we felt like we saw everything we wanted to see in Montreal. 

(Tap on the picture to start the slideshow)

We made a quick stop at Costco and Wal-mart before returning to the RV park.  We were shocked at the number of cars and people at Costco.  Our home Costco is busy, but this store was 3 times busier.  On the flip side, when we entered the parking lot at Wal-mart, we thought the store was closed.  There was only a handful of customers in the store and half of the lights turned off.  Maybe Canadians don’t like Wal-mart?

Our next stop –  Quebec City, Quebec