Montreal's Old Town

Wednesday was our last day to enjoy the city before leaving on Thursday.  The weather was perfect for walking, so we headed to Viex Montreal (Old Montreal.)  It was beautiful and reminded me a lot of Old Town Alexandria.  The building pictured below with a dome is the Bonsecours Market - just a large old building that houses many shops.

We walked through the market and they had a neat display of women's fashion from the 1880's to the 1920's.  All the dresses were made from paper.

We headed over the water and noticed a playground.  The boys enjoyed that for a bit.

They really wanted to go paddle boating and we agreed to give it a try and paid for a 30 minute session.  Brian and I were having a really hard time making the boat go where we wanted it to though.  Thankfully, we both laughed through the struggle, but unfortunately, we didn't make it very far.  After struggling (and probably looking ridiculous) for about 20 minutes, we were ready to turn the boat in!  After we were back on land, Brennan told us that he had been holding onto the rudder!  No wonder we were having such a hard time.  Ha!

Here is a photo of the made pedestrian walk through Vieux Montreal.

As we made our way back to the Metro, Brennan got sight of these soldiers dressed in old uniforms in front of the Chateau Ramezay (Montreal's first governor's mansion.)  They were doing an exercise and he wanted to stay and watch.

Brennan really wanted to go inside the house, so we humored him.  We learned a lot of interesting information about Montreal's history by going through the house.

One part of the house talked about crime and punishment in the early days of the city.  We learned here that some criminals would have to stand in the town square, wearing the iron collar around their neck with a sign to display their crime.  Brennan picked up the thief sign and we laughed that Tyler chose "seducer."

Here is another shot of Montreal's beautiful old town.

This is the city hall.

Back at the hotel, we had our last swim of the day.  The boys and Brian went again on Thursday morning before we left for the airport.  There were huge art pieces on display by the pool area.  The one photoed below was Tyler's favorite.  I asked him what it was and he said it was cars driving.

I had read some terrible reviews about the Montreal airport.  You go through US customs on the Canadian side, so you don't really know how much time you need to budget.  We got to the airport WAY too early, so we had a lot of time to kill.  We ate at an airport restaurant and then found these cool lounge chairs to chill out in by the gate.

The boys were watching as our tiny plane arrived at the gate.

Thankfully, the turbulence on the way there hadn't freaked them out and they were ready to fly home!  It was a smoother ride home and we landed safely!