Wednesday July 11: In
the afternoon we met with family, John & Peter (aka: The RVGeeks of YouTube
fame). They are transiting Canada and
visiting RV parks as part of their business and heard we were in Montreal, so
we were excited to have an opportunity for a visit. We met them at the Port’s main ferry terminal
and walked back to show them Santorini.
We sat in the cockpit and had some great conversation comparing land
yachts and seagoing yachts. Later we did a mini tour of the Old City, then went
for dinner at our favorite French restaurant BARROCO where we had a wonderful
time wining and dining. After our meal
we continued our pre-dusk mini tour of Old City to the lights and sounds of
bars, jazz clubs with live music and everything else in between. The streets were crowded, and we rubbed
shoulders with an eclectic mix of people from all over the world.
We returned to Santorini to enjoy a planned desert of
Champagne, macaroons from the famous Maison Christian Faure Patisserie, and
then watch one of the world’s largest pyrotechnics competition of its kind in
the world, the Montreal International Fireworks Competition. This event has been ongoing since 1985 and
it remains one of the city's top summer attractions. The event is so large that the city closes
their main bridge, the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, to all vehicle traffic at 8:00pm
to permit thousands of pedestrians to have a free front-row-center seat that is
guaranteed to give them a spectacular view of the fireworks show. The show is choreographed to music. Rather than join the masses, we decided to
watch from the luxury of our boat with desert and wonderful company. Tonight’s presentation was Austria, and their
fireworks display was excellent. It was
called, "Let's Dance" and our only complaint was the music did not
seem to marry well with the fireworks.
Thursday July 12: We lunched at Terrasse, a favorite roof top
restaurant we visited last year, in the Hotel Nelligan. It has good views of the Old City and the
Port. After lunch, Karl ran some errands
while Donna had a haircut. The weather
has been picture perfect, sunny, warm, breezy and with low humidity.
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| Terrasse and Kapt Karl looking very pensive...wonder what he is thinking! |
Saturday July 14: A couple weeks ago when we were at Chez Lin
and Rays in Essex, Karl had fabulous escargot. The garlic-wine sauce was
remarkable and we tried to deconstruct the dish, which had sweetness from
perhaps some sherry and a touch of cream.
So for our Saturday dinner on-board, Karl served a wonderful version of
the escargot sauce served over shrimp, along with a green salad and crusty
bread to mop up the delicious sauce.
The
evening’s fireworks display was courtesy of China. It was their turn to demonstrate their
centuries-old craft in pyrotechnics. We
were not disappointed … it was perfectly choreographed and synchronized to
Chinese folk music. The "Butterfly
Lovers” was magical, the music and the fireworks were gentle and lyrical, all
light and music with little noise. It
began with beautiful pink and green lotus blossoms floating in the night
sky. It ended with incredible layer upon
layer of gorgeous shapes and colors superimposed one over the other.
Now
having witnessed several of these firework events in Montreal, this one was a
definite WOW moment! We were not the only people to think this performance
exceptional. We could hear roars from
the crowds gathered on the Jacques Cartier Bridge, cheers form the masses
gathered under the Clock Tower, and of course an irritating cacophony of
various trumpet horns from vessels in the Yacht Club.
Sunday
July 15: Started as a lazy day, beginning with
brunch at Jardin Nelson on Place Jacques-Cartier Vieux, a wide pedestrian
avenue lined with cafes, stalls selling artworks and street musicians
performing classical and pop tunes.
After brunch we strolled down Rue de la Notre Dame and passed a film
sound and light crew breaking down their equipment and scaffolding. Upon investigation, we discovered that they
are filming a Netflix movie “Murder Mystery” starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer
Aniston. Both stars have been spotted
around town. Sandler reportedly
challenged someone to a 1-on-1 basketball game, and later crashed another’s wedding
here in Old Port.
While walking
around the city, Karl noticed that almost all of Montreal's church steeples were the same metalic color. He speculated that there must have been a special discount on aluminum paint at
"Steeples- R-Us".
Monday July 16: Yacht Club de Montreal’s staff is
exceptional. For example, Donna needed nautical charts
for the Seaway Sorel to Quebec City. We
stopped at the office to inquire if the staff would know a purveyor here in
Montreal. The young man and woman on duty immediately logged on to a computer station and found us a shop within walking distance; then called the shop to verify they
had the specific charts in stock, and confirm business hours. Then they printed a map of this section of
the City and highlighted the walking route. Gee, great customer service still exists.
Tuesday
July 17: It rained heavily overnight and
the morning brought some intermittent light showers. We were not deterred and
set out for Aux Quatre Points Cardinaux.
The shop was beautiful, arranged in two sections one for land and one
for sea. There were maps, a great selection of
globes, guide books, nautical charts, nautical logbooks, etc. The staff there was also very helpful.
After
leaving the store, we walked to Jardin Nelson for a bite of lunch and finally,
to the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel for a self-guided tour of the museum,
church and climb to the top of the tower. Donna decided to take a short guided tour of the crypt and archaeological site
under the church, while Karl returned to the boat to do some light maintenance in our crypt, called the engine room.
Interestingly, the tour disclosed that Marguerite Bourgeoys
emigrated to Canada from France in 1653 and founded a group of Catholic
Sisters. Refusing to be cloistered,
Sister Marguerite and her followers administered to the sick and educated young
girls, the poor and native peoples. In
1657 she persuaded a work party to build Montreal's first permanent church. She was Canonized as a saint by Pope John
Paul II in 1982. A fire destroyed the
church and today's chapel was built on top of the ruins. Beneath the current church, the footprint of
the original church, including low stone walls that held up the floor and
remnants of the church bell were discovered.
When excavating, a 2400 year old native campsite was discovered. It is unknown who the people were but they
predate the Iroquois. Shards of pottery,
the bones of an animal that had been roasted for dinner and remnants of
primitive tool making were uncovered.
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| Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours from the Port |
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| A view of the Port and famous Clock Tower as seen from the church tower |
Although
the day was not really hot temperature-wise, it was very humid and uncomfortable,
the afternoon sun made it even more steamy.
Returning to Santorini’s air-conditioned interior felt very good. Later, the cold front arrived and it was
pleasant to sit outside. We noticed
police and emergency lights in the park surrounding the clock tower across the
way. Our neighbor explained that around
5:00 PM, a man had fallen from the tower and died. It was unclear whether it was an accident or
suicide.
Wednesday, July 18: News accounts today seem to indicate the man
who died as a result of a fall from the clock tower was a suicide. The man, around sixty years old, was agitated
and the police tried to calm him and talk him down but unfortunately he did fall
or leap to his death. It is hard to look
at the beautiful tower without thinking about this tragedy. A neighboring slip holder said there are recurring events at the Clock Tower ... last time was in 2014, when a man jumped from the tower into the
St Lawrence and was rescued by a fisherman.
It was a
spectacular weather day, high 80F bright sun and not a cloud in the sky made it
a good day for us to walk to Atwater Market.
We followed the bike path along the St Lawrence and then the Lachine
Canal to the Market. We bought a baguette,
some duck and pork terrine, lamb and pork shish kabob, tomatoes and assortment
of fresh berries.
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| Stash Cafe |
Later in the day,
and
since we walked a total of 7.5 miles along the river and canal, we felt justified
pulling out all the stops for heavy dinner, so we walked to Stash Café for an early dinner of Polish cuisine and rye
vodka. We sampled pirogue stuffed with
meat, mushroom and sauerkraut and potato and cheese; also small potato pancakes
for appetizers. Karl had pork and
sauerkraut and Donna had fillet of soul almandine for dinner. No room for desert!!
We
returned to Santorini to catch the last of the fireworks displays we
would see on this trip. Tonight it was Canada’s
turn, and the program titled “Immortals" featured lesser-known songs from recording
artists who have died in recent years.
Starting with Michael Jackson's "Earth Song", moving to David Bowie's "Under
Pressure", Amy Winehouse and
other artists. The event ending with Leonard Cohen’s rendition of "Hallelujah". We would give mixed reviews to the
choreography on this show, although the finale of Cohen’s Hallelujah was
perfection.
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| Bon-Secours Angel overlooking the Old Port |
