Bonjour!!

Yesterday we spent the day travelling from Toronto to Montreal on the train.  It was a pretty uneventful journey with not much to look at apart from a few million trees!! 

We are staying at the HI Youth Hostel in the city - it is in quite a good location, quite central for the main sites.  We have had to go to the supermarket to buy groceries.  We are now on a tight budget.  Pasta is on the menu for the next few days - its like being a student again!!

We spent much of last night pondering on the purpose of rtw travel.  Diane is reading a book - The Art of Travel - this may give us some answers!!  At the moment though we are adjusting to our new way of life, this includes being poor, living on a shoestring, sitting and staring into space, no meetings to go to, and not having a set routine - its quite difficult really!

Today we have explored the old part of the city of Montreal.

  First stop was the Cathedrale Marie-Reine-du-monde, which looks like a scales down replica of St Peters in Rome.  We then went to the Place d'Armes, a square with a statue of Maisonneuve (that famous person!?!?).  The square is dominated by the neogothic Basilique Notre-Dame - who said we wern't cultured!!!  We then wandered through the old cobbled streets in the area down to the quayside and had a look in the ISci centre. 

After further wanderings we headed back to the hostel for a cup of tea - we have treated ourselves to a box of Tetley (there were no PG Tips!) tea bags.

Emma almost treated us to two tickets to see an ice hockey match involving the Montreal Canadiens tomorrow night but unfortunately all the tickets at the hostel were sold out.  We are going to try and catch a game in Vancouver if not before.  Diane has read about ice hockey in Canada; an old Canadian adage has it 'I went to see a fight and an ice hockey game broke out!'  She is therefore looking forward to it!!