Back in the USA

Teresa and I just spent two days in Montreal, and we had a good time. Since Montreal is a very European, this is as close as I can get to getting her to Europe since she has a fear of flying. Only five hours north of here by car, an easy five hours too, and I've never been there.

Montreal is a small city, under two million people, and in some ways it reminds me a bit of Edinburgh with the mountain in the background, a bit of Dublin in the way some of it is laid out and a bit of New Orleans along the waterfront. The primary language is French, but most people speak English as well and they are very friendly, and very accommodating. They will speak English to you without being snooty. Of course, they do get quite a few tourists, many of whom are non-French speaking Canadians. It is helpful to know some French though, as all of the signs are strictly in French but my high school French, augmented by reading French for Dummies over the past week, was sufficient to get by.

There were some mixed reactions from the people of Montreal when we got there, please note the photo above. Actually, this is a sculpture and it was intended to be an interpretation of a group of people's reaction to sighting something that the viewer is not privy too. And no, Canadians are not that pale, they do get sun.

We like to visit cities and walk around exploring. I think we walked about fifteen miles over two days, so our legs are tired, but it was well worth it. We used the Metro as well, once we figured out how to buy tickets, and found it clean.

We like to look at people, locals and tourists alike, and speculate what they're up too. I use these observations later to create characters for my writing and this trip provided a few new characters. There was a man we watched carrying on a lengthy conversation with an imaginary person. I think the imaginary person even stepped out of the way to let people pass. I also like to see how people dress, and what type of shoes they wear to walk around in. Teresa pointed out that many men were wearing capris. I pointed out the girl in fishnets, black shorts, boots and a red top. I said I'd pass on the capris and she said that she'd pass on the fishnets.

The food was great and we ate at a charming place called Creme de la Creme Cafe in old Montreal. The inside had stone walls, wooden tables, French music was playing, the waitresses spoke English for us with a pretty accent, we had good toasted sandwiches with a salad, coffee, and I had a local micro-brewed stout. What I liked too is that they don't rush you. They won't bring the check until you are ready. By the way, the tip in French is called a pourboire. What that used to mean extra money so the waiter can buy himself a drink after work. Now of course it is a huge part of their salary just as it is here.

We're headed to Washington, Boston and Baltimore this summer as well.