I woke up pretty early, but just when I got up I saw Gilles leaving from the kitchen window. I was glad we had said our good-byes the night before. We had a light breakfast with Francine and then were on our way. The weather, as it has been for most of our trip, was foul. Don’t get me wrong, I love all kinds of weather and think it is delightful, but, by most people’s standards, the weather was foul. It was dark, it was gloomy, and as has been our norm... it was pouring rain. I loaded the car in quick spurts and then we were on our way. On our way out of Lambton we took a final photo of Gilles’ church and were on our way to Montreal.
Montreal is not that far from Lambton so we would get there relatively early in the day. The trip was rather difficult. It was a beautiful trip as the rain had made the colours clean and pure, but the water was a bit extreme. We pushed on through the water and dodged the sketchy Quebec drivers. It was at its worst when we got to Montreal. The rain was pounding down on us and as the roads and highways converged all of the crazy drivers were pushed into one place. Since Montreal is an island we had to cross a bridge to get there; a bridge with too few lanes and insufficient drainage. The rainwater was making it difficult to see (even with the wipers on full) and when a semi drove by our windshield was covered with a layer of water so thick that I could not see through it. I gauged the distance from the car beside me to maintain a safe course while the wipers did their best to clear the view. We were crammed in like water under high pressure laminar flow – running fast across the bridge in fluid streams that could not be stopped. As soon as we crossed the bridges and the pressure decreased we broke into a turbulent flow pattern and exploded into a number of different directions. My GPS (thank you Granddad!) safely directed us through the chaos and to our B & B. I will admit, it had a hell of a time doing it, since I took a wrong turn in my attempts to keep us alive as the cars scattered about and the nutty Montreal drivers did their thing.
The rain was pouring and we were in Montreal before the actual check-in time. There was no one staying at the B & B so the manager said that we could check in early. It was a good little B & B called Repos & Manna, and it was just on the edges of Montreal’s downtown. We got settled in and were given a brief overview of Montreal.
Having some time we headed out. The rain was terrible. The umbrella I had purchased in Chine (which is the best umbrella I have ever owned) did a great job to keep the rain away, and the wind breaker did the rest. The combination of the two kept the two of us mostly dry as we headed to St. Catherine’s Street (a main shopping street). We tried to find the Museum of Architecture but a lack of signs thwarted us. We tried to walk around to see what there was to see but the weather stood in our way. The rain was still coming down in thick streams and the wind was so severe that umbrellas were being ripped to shreds. It appeared that half of the people on the street with umbrellas had them turned inside out, and the other half were struggling to control them. There were umbrellas scattered in the garbage piles along the street and soggy people rushing about. Most restaurants were not yet open (because it was too early) but we managed to slip into a Mexican restaurant that was surprisingly busy. We figure it was busy because of it being the only open restaurant and of all of the people trying to escape the rain.
After a great meal we retreated (defeated) to the B & B. We resolved to catch up on blogging, and to enjoy another fantastic episode of Castle.
I Heart Castle.
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