We’re in Canada! We drove up to Montreal today, which was a trip of about 3.5 hours through the beautiful Adirondack mountains. Crossing the border was easy and the wait wasn’t very long, and before we knew it all the signs were in French!
Our hotel room is unexpectedly fantastic. It’s big and comfortable and the bath could hold a hippo with space to spare (I’m only slightly exaggerating; it’s truly enormous). We’ll be very relaxed here for a few days.
We learned today that Canada is a country in which most stores are still closed on Sundays. Even some fast food places (such as McDonald’s) were closed! So we just wandered around the city this afternoon to soak in the vibes. As it turned out there was a massive pride parade in the city today and it was full of people – many in outrageous outfits – so that was amusing. It also made it even more unusual that almost all shops and restaurants were closed!
We went to a big church and saw the above sarcophagus in which a senior priest was buried. This wasn’t the prime tourist attraction church in the city, but the main one was asking $16 just to walk in the door so we passed.
We discovered a ‘Barbie expo’ in a mall near our hotel so we stopped off for a gander. It’s a mysterious display of hundreds of Barbies with no explanation or documentation (or entry fee), so I assume it’s someone’s collection they’ve just put on display.
We had no idea this many collectible Barbies existed, and it was a treat seeing them all. Our favourites the the ‘Vampire’ and ‘Empress Of The Aliens’, and I look forward to both of them taking lead roles in the inevitable Barbie film sequel 🙂
It took us a while to find dinner, but the fish and chips we shared was great. On the way back to the hotel we got caught in a sudden torrential rainstorm, but the discomfort of wet clothes was soon abated by a steaming hot bath 🙂
Donna would have loved that exhibit.
I didn’t post pics but they had cases and cases of the world Barbies (America, Ireland, Spain etc), which is what she collected. The best? Amazonia! Google her 🙂