SO HOW WAS OUR LATEST TRIP?: Part 2

Yesterday provided highlights from Iceland to Montreal, including our experience of the total eclipse of the sun on the Azamara Journey.  Today, will feature our stops in Montreal and Vancouver.  Tomorrow, Part 3, will be our ten days on the Silverseas Silver Whisper.  If you missed them, here are the full Montreal and Vancouver postings, in chronological order:

• WE ARE IN MONTREAL
• ALL ABOUT MONTREAL
• AMERICA'S BEST COLLEGES, 2026-2027 and NCAA FOOTBA...
• TOUR OF MONTREAL
• MY BEST DINNER IN MONTREAL
• MY LIFE: Part 3h--Incredible Journeys during Reti....
• WE ARE IN VANCOUVER....Again

Here is a professional travelogue of Montreal by fox Tours and Travel.  Our highlights:

• On Day 1 in Montreal, I mostly paid tribute to Dolly Parton:

Goodbye Dolly.

A Look Back at Her Extraordinary Life.

• 
  All about Montreal.
• The city is an island, 30 miles long and 10 miles wide, connected by 20 bridges.
• Is 315 miles east northeast of Toronto, 122 miles west of the national capital, Ottawa, and 160 miles southwest of the provincial (like a state in the USA) capital of Quebec, Quebec City.

• Montreal and Quebec city are in the province of Quebec, while Toronto and Ottawa are in Ontario, which borders Niagara Falls.
• Has the second-largest metropolitan area at 4.2 million to Toronto, with 6.2 million.
• Takes its name from Mount Royal, a triple-peaked mountain in the middle of the city.

• 
  90% of locals speak French, which is #2 to Paris in total French-speaking people.
• Became the third UNESCO City of Design in 2006, with Berlin and Buenos Aires.
• Held the 1967 World's Fair, known as Expo 67, and hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics, where Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome was the U.S. pavilion.  In 1995 became the Biosphere, and converted to Space for Life in 2021.

• We stayed at the Sheraton Le Centre.  View for the Executive Lounge on the 37th floor.

• I guess our tour of Montreal was the main highlight.

• Took several videos.  Here is one.  To see all, click on this.

• Chinatown was established in the 1890s by early railway workers.  Area survived various urban redevelopment and expropriation threats to remain the cultural soul of the Asian community.

A market we strolled through had a variety of colored veggies I never saw before.

• Montreal is a university city, with 50 major degree-granting college level institutions.  #1 in Canada is McGill, ranked #27 globally.

• Last stop was on Mont Royal.  That icon in the far background is Olympic Stadium.

• We did not do much more in Montreal.  We did have some excellent Asian meals, for there were Chinese, Korean and Japanese restaurants in very close walking distance from our hotel.

• First lunch was at Kan Bei, where I had a hot-sour soup and dollop of scotch.

• Next day, lunch at Hanyang Jokbal.  Very authentic.  The Kim Chee was special.

Of course, with a green bottle of Jinro shoju.

• Dinner at Sakura went well.  Had sukiyaki.

• On our final full day, went to Reuben's, a Jewish restaurant, to get their sandwich special.  Really enjoyed it in our hotel room with a view of Montreal and Mont Royal, red wine provided by the hotel as a birthday gift, and a bottle of Molsen's.

Then an Air Canada flight to Vancouver.  First, entry into an excellent Airport Lounge.  My mostly Mexican lunch was aided by a drink of Cucumber Gin Caesar, which was like a Bloody Mary, but tomato juice and vodka replaced by Clamato and cucumber gin, Aberfeldy scotch on ice, and two kinds of Molsen beers.

The plane meal featured chicken teriyaki, bolstered by Johnny Walker Black Label.

Our stay in Vancouver amounted only to two nights.  

• So we did not do much, except hang around our hotel, the JW Marriott.  
• Hotel gave me a birthday gift.
• It was constantly raining, and we had been twice to Vancouver in the past year, so saw everything.  

• 
  Won about a hundred bucks at the hotel casino.  
• Only noteworthy mention is that soccer ball.
• Vancouver was one of hosts of the recent FIFA World Cup.
• Their geodesic dome was converted into what looks like a FIFA World Cup soccer ball.
• View from our room.

We then boarded the Silverseas Silver Whisper.  Tomorrow, the final and Part 3 of our latest trip.

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