I had booked the 9pm bus that arrives into Montreal at 3.45am. I thought the bus would be express but there was a 45 minute layover in a small café in Kingston. Arrived on-time into Montreal’s central bus terminal but nothing was open, neither the subway nor the lockers which I had planned to store the bulk of my luggage in order to make the most of my day.
Luckily the security guard allowed me to purchase a locker token through him that allowed me to catch the first subway at 5.45am out to the sights of Old Montreal, otherwise I would have had to wait for the locker cashiers to open at 8am.
Upon arrival at Champ de Mars metro station I hired a Biki bicycle from an automated booth. Now this is what every world class city should have, the bike was in top condition with 3 speeds, bell, kickstand, front basket, extremely comfortable to ride and cheap to hire by use of ones credit card (so I thought at the time, but actually I take it all back as it cost a bomb to hire after I checked my credit card statement later as I misread the Frenglish T & Cs).
Biki would allow me to cycle around the cobblestone streets of Old Montreal before the eventual busloads of tourists. Unfortunately not a single thing was open before 9am except Mcdees which I had for want of choice for breakfast.
By the time the helpful tourist office was open it seemed I had done everything that was open for the public (a lot were closed for restoration work).
With time in hand it was onto the 1976 Olympic tower near the Uaia metro station, this is the tallest leaning tower in the world but really who would build a leaning tower deliberately!
Afterwards only had time to get to the airport to finally leave North America, Bon Voyage to the land of big fast food and even larger high rises.
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| Montreal |
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