ALL ABOUT MONTREAL

 Montreal:

• Is an island, the meeting point of the Saint Lawrence River and Ottawa River.
• One of 234 Hochelaga Archipelago.
• 193 square miles.
• 30 miles long and 10 miles wide.
• Connected by 20 bridges.

• 
  Is the second-largest city in Canada next to Toronto.
• Toronto:  3.3 million residents, over 6.6 million in the Greater Toronto Area.
• Montreal:  1.7 million, about 4.3 million in the total metro area.
• Montreal is 315 miles east northeast of Toronto, 122 miles west of the national capital, Ottawa, and 160 miles southwest of the provincial capital, Quebec City.

• 

  Takes name from Mount Royal, a triple-peaked mountain around which this settlement grew.
• 90% are fluent in French, and 59% can speak both French and English.
• Is #2 to to Paris in French-speaking population.  You'd never guess the #3 city of Francophobes?  Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• 
  Named UNESCO City of Design in 2006.  There are two others, in Berlin and Buenos Aires.
• 12th most livable city.
• #1 is Copenhagen, #2 Vienna and #3 Melbourne.
• Tokyo is #10 and Honolulu #25.
• Home of the Montreal Canadiens, winner of 24 Stanley Cups.

• 
  History.
• First nations people occupied the island of Montreal 4,000 years ago.
• Jacques Cartier visited in 1535 and Samuel de Champlain in 1603, who is credited with originating a spot where Montreal grew.

• 
  A lot of French-Indian wars followed, mostly with the Iroquois and Mohawk.
• Fell to the British in 1760.
• During the American Revolution, under American control in 1775.
• Incorporated as a city in 1832.  The Golden Square Mile (where the Le Centre Sheraton is located) formed around 1850, and by 1860 became the largest city under British rule in North America.
• Reached a population of a million in 1951.
• The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 allowed vessels to bypass Montreal, leaving to loss of revenues.

• 
  Held the 1967 World's Fair, known as Expo67.
• Hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics, which brought prestige, but resulted in massive debt.

• 
  That geodesic dome of the U.S. 1967 pavilion, designed by Buckminster Fuller, had a terrible fire in 1976, recovered, and is now the Montreal Biosphere.
• In 1995 re-opene as the Biosphere.  
• Became Space for Life in 2021.

• 
  Montreal was merged with 27 surrounding municipalities on the island in 2002.
• Has experience temperatures as -36 F (which is -37.8 C) in January of 1957, and a high of 99.7 F in 1975.  Before weather keeping, got down to -44 F in 1859.
• Rains 39 inch/year and snows 83 inches annually.

More about the Montreal Sheraton Le Centre.  Room, nice.  Our view.

Our hotel club is about average.

• Score of 5 compared to most of the Orient at 8-10.
• But better than most lounges in Canada, USA and Europe.
• Alcoholic drinks are incredibly high.  
• One ounce of Dalwinnie scotch is Canadian $40 or USA $29  A bottle costs around $100, so they make a 10:1 profit.

• Beer around $10/bottle and wine closer to $20/glass.
• The view from the lounge on the 37th floor.

Breakfast is limited, but free.  The following two photos are of two breakfasts.  Looks almost the same.

Went out for a walk and lunch.  Met by my Blue-Bar Pigeon....and a snake.

Had a Chinese lunch.  Hot sour soup.

• Back up to the lounge for appetizers, served from 5PM to 7:30PM.

I'll close with three tropical storms.  

• Dolly formed in the Atlantic/Caribbean, is at 40 MPH, heading for Puerto Rico and not expected to become a hurricane.  No hurricane yet this year in the Atlantic, nor Gulf of Mexico/America.  In comparison, the Central Pacific and East Pacific have had 2 hurricanes, while the West Pacific has had 23 named storms, with three of them reaching Category 5.

• Two storms in the East Pacific, and these could theoretically threaten Hawaii.
• Karina is at 45 MPH and expected to become a hurricane tomorrow, reaching Category 3 on August 31, but weakening on September 2.  Current projections shows a path heading east northeast and passing Hawaii to the north.

• Lowell is at 40 MPH, and will strengthen into a hurricane on August 30 and up to a Category 2 on September 2.  The path at this time should be going west, but south of Hawaii.

• Either hurricane can still change courses.  So be watchful.
• We will board on September 1 the Silver Whisper from Vancouver to Hawaii.

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