Day 10 Sunday 3rd May Montreal

Day 10 Sunday 3rd 2009 Montreal.
Today we are off on a bus tour of Montreal at 9am. John was concerned that the tour guide had not turned up. After spending several minutes on the cell phone it was arranged that a guide would join us further down the track. At first I did not find much of interest but at our first stop at the top of a hill; there is not much high ground for hundreds of miles in every direction. Montreal is a wide spread city situated where the sea meets the river. We could see the Olympic stadium built for the 1976 Olympics where NZ won thirteen Gold Medals. After the games a big slanting tower 175 meters high was built alongside and reaching over the top of a large covered arena. Steel wires from the top of the tower can lift the domed roof. On the inside of the tower as a gondola like carriage that will transfer you for $9 to the top where a 360° view can be had of the city and its environs. We then drove back to the city through splendid brick and stone houses. The houses were double storied; greatly varied in structure, had an attractive appearance and colour. Next we were to visit a famous church but there was no parking available due to the huge crowds. Our guide thought we would like to see the airport and watch a few planes landing; so we set off on a massive journey to travel only a short distance. Why you may ask. At first I could observe lots of motorways. The one we were on was travelling alongside another separate one going in the same direction. On our right was the Canon building; soon we exited the motorway and joined another and guess what? The Canon building appeared on our left. Once more we exited and joined another only to behold that we were once more passing the Canon building on our right hand; this happened a couple of more times. You may remember last year in Switzerland I described how we climbed mountains by the train travelling with a landmark on one side the diving into the mountain, doing a loop and then passing the same landmark on the other side of the train. Well this time we were not climbing mountains, we were traversing flat terrain to get from one side of a complicated motorway system to the other. The guide said that other counties in the world sent their engineers to Montreal to observe how “not to build a motorway system“I do not think he was joking! After the tour Fay and I returned to our hotel room and rested before checking out the town. I turned on the TV. The programme was about unusual houses. Back home at Maraetai Beach we have a two storied round house which revolves 360° at the touch of a hand held remote button. This house was being featured on Canadian TV. We retired early in order to get up early to catch an early train to Quebec City.