Montreal

Hello All: I arrived in Montreal this afternoon for just a few days before I go visit my brother in New York. Bill is doing a multi-country trip to Europe! He has set up his own blog, and he’s trying to get into the travel agency business. His blog is great and has a lot of pictures! Here is the link: https://lighthouseoutboundtravel.wordpress.com/2026/08/12/solar-eclipse/

My vacation fell at a weird time this year for a lot of complicated reasons, so I’m not doing a two week trip somewhere like usual. As many of you know, my brother moved to up state New York a few years ago, met a super nice woman, and got married. He has been wanting me to visit for a while. He’s only 3 hours from Montreal, so I decided to fly up here for a couple of days. Brandon and Heather are going to join me on Friday for a trip to the Montreal Biodome and Botanical Center, then I’m riding back to their house in NY for a few days before I go back to MO, then back to IA.

So far my trip has been pretty smooth. Customs agents in Montreal were very concerned about why I am vacationing alone. I got grilled by two different agents at the airport about why I’m here alone when I don’t have friends in the city. I tried to explain that people vacation alone all the time, but they didn’t believe me. They weren’t happy until I told them that my brother was joining me. If I come again, I’m going to tell them that I’m a history professor here to visit some historic sites or something like that. It was weird.

My hotel is lovely and right downtown. It’s a little noisy because I’m in the middle of the city, but it’s easy to walk to things. I found a very nice Thai restaurant right around the corner for supper. I had a green curry chicken dish, a lychee martini and crème brûlée with tea. They curry and the martini were both recommended by the server. I don’t drink a lot of alcohol, but I love lychees, and this was really good. I had planned to swim tonight in the lovely salt water pool at my hotel, but at this point, I’ve had too much food and too little energy, so I’m going to bed early instead.

I haven’t been to a French speaking place since 2008, so it’s been fun to be in a place where I’m surrounded by French again. People in the city speak English and French equally well, but it’s given me a good opportunity to practice. My spoken French is really rusty, I speak Spanish a lot more often now, but I still understand what people are saying pretty well. I watch a decent number of French-language documentaries so I don’t lose my skills completely. The picture I posted above shows the really modern part of the city, but as the taxi was driving me in, I saw a lot of older European-style architecture too. It feels kind of like Paris but friendlier. I’ll have more pictures tomorrow.

I don’t really have a good plan for tomorrow. I probably need to develop one. I want to try to find some outdoor markets, but there are also lots of shops and restaurants around the hotel, so I’m on the fence about how much of a plan I need. Brandon, Heather and I have a pretty good plan for Friday, so I could probably use tomorrow to wander around and see what I find. I think I’m walking distance from the old part of the city.

Montreal is incredibly diverse! There are restaurants from all over the world in the block around my hotel, and the population is a mix of people from all kinds of ethnic backgrounds who all speak French now. It’s super interesting! The city feels very safe so far.

I’m out of energy! Maybe I’ll have more good pictures tomorrow. Montreal is supposed to have good bagels so I’ll try to find a shop with those.