On our epic voyage we’ve been generally having green days (nature days) or grey days (concrete / urban adventures). Today was a green day.
This morning we walked up Mount Royal (from which Montreal gets its name). It was quite an effort climbing up to the top of the hill in the heat (lows 30s today i think, but meant to have felt like 34C with heat warnings).
After walking down again we caught the underground to the botanical gardens. Other than a lack of toilets, it was a great place and we only scratched the surface. The gardens are next door to an old olympic velodrome which looks like a spaceship so that was fun too.
We got the tube back to our local tube station then headed back to our hotel. When we arrived there were lots of security about and some googling suggested it might be due to the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, staying at our hotel as he’s in town today. This was confirmed half an hour later when a load of protesters took up residence outside the hotel front door (which is below our room – we’re on the sixth floor) and started chanting/shouting for a few hours VERY loudly.
It was quite exciting leaving the hotel as we were offered a number of ways to ‘sneak out’ including going via a Japanese restaurant in the basement or a side door by a secret service officer. In the end we went out a side door near the front door as we weren’t the target of their protest, and although noisy, it wasn’t dangerous.
Then this evening we’ve been to see the Cirque du Soleil’s KURIOS – Cabinet of Curiosities We were super lucky to get tickets on the third row and the show was amazing. As we got home we could hear drums and feared the protesters were still here, but it’s just some youths singing in the square across from our hotel. Still noisy, but not quite as grumpy !
