Day 7 - Montreal Day 2

Today was great! We did what I think is actual sight-seeing. We got in the van, set as destination the Basilica de Notre-Dame and in 15 minutes we were in the Old Montreal.

The church of Notre-Dame is among the biggest churches in North America. According to our guide, it opened its doors in 1829, and it took 40 more years after that to be completed; even today many renovations and alteration are taking place. We spent almost 45 minutes in the church being very impressed with the size and decorations. We left because there was a wedding starting in the church at the time.

We then hired a horse-and-carriage for a stroll in Old Montreal. It was really fun. The guide was very nice, excellent English, and pointed out promptly old buildings and history of the old town as well as places to stop for lunch later - unfortunately all her recommendations were closed when we tried them, so we had to pick on our own... And of course at the end Sophia had to feed Jack (our black percheron horse) and sit on the driver's seat for a photo.

After that... lunch for the rest of us. We wondered alone in the streets of the old city (narrow, cobble-stone roads, with high buildings on both sides) to find a good place to eat. We settled at a small cafe. The food was good; I am starting to develop a taste for paninnis now.

We then walked down to the piers. There is a road - no cars allowed - that runs parallel to the lake front where one can walk, bike, roller-skate, etc. The day was great and we started walking down the street. We ended up renting a quad-cycle and spending half an hour going up and down the street one it... it was harder than we thought. It had six seats, Maria refused to take an actual seat and insisted on sitting either on my lap or Margie's (mainly Margie's) and since all of us could pedal, you can imagine Maria going up and down on each rotation of the pedals... well, it was fun.

We made it back to the hotel around 5pm. After a little rest we ventured in the nearby neighborhood for food. We ended up with KFC (or PKF locally) and some great treats from Adonis Market. The name seems Greek and the pastries we got looked pretty much what you can get in any Greek bakery - the small, personal-sized cakes with full decorations and great taste.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a low profile day... no excursions planned as of now. But,who knows, tomorrow is not here yet! Happy first day of summer to all.