The Amazing Race Series 2 - Day 3 - Day in Montreal (Jet Boating, Old Town)

[neilhd]

Given our early bedtime the night before, we were unsurprisingly up early again today, at about 05:30. We were ready and out the door by 06:45.

Today we were going Jet Boating at the Lachine Rapids on the St Lawrence River. If you think that sounds like fun, you'd be right!

The dock was in the Old Port area of Montreal, which was going to be about a 30 minute walk. We considered a taxi but we had plenty of time, and you see a lot more the city walking. It was early still so there was nobody about. It was a little chilly this morning.

We soon reached the old town area, which was really nice. Reminded me a little of Bruges. We went past the Notre Dame cathedral:

Now I know you're thinking "fools, they haven't had breakfast yet!". And you'd be right, but fear not! We were heading to breakfast. In fact, we were heading for another branch of Eggspectation. Yesterday's was so good that it was Eggactly what we fancied.

It was pretty deserted at this early hour. Today Joe had pancakes with scrambled eggs, Ele had fruit and French Toast and I had an All-Meat Benny, which was basically Eggs Benedict with bacon and sausage. As per yesterday, it was all delicious and the price was also about $60 including juices and orange juices.

Whilst waiting we built towers of milk:

The leaning tower of creamer:

My breakfast:

Ele's:

Suitably full we left and walked the last couple of blocks along the river to the Clockhouse pier (Quay d'Horloge or something).

To get to the pier we had to cross a set of train tracks. There was a train in the distance getting ready to go and we waited around for a few minutes to watch it pass but it didn't, so we gave up. Oddly, there were police at the junction - presumably to stop people getting run over by it as there was no barriers or anything.

We took a few pictures:

The Shadows:

As we were walking along past the stalls they have there (not yet open), the train started to go past. It was a freight train. We watched it for a minute, then continued our mooch along the pier. We eventually got to the actual bit we needed to get to, and realised the train had been going past for a good 5 minutes now, so it was obviously really long. Joe and I went closer to take some pictures:

And it still kept going. I took a video for a while, and it still kept going. I then took one of those time-lapse speeded-up videos - filming for quite a while - and it still kept going. This is the video:



Eventually, after about a full 15 minutes, the train finished. Given that it was going at about 3x walking speed, and that in 15 minutes I can walk a mile, then by NeilHD maths it was around 3 miles long! I was just glad we'd crossed onto the right side first!

It was now 09:15 and time to present ourselves at the Saute Mautons building to check in. We did just that.

They stamped our hands for some reason. Joe and I went to the restroom, and it immediately washed off as we washed our hands. Turns out it wasn't needed.

We took our seats for the safety briefing. There were a lot of people there. The one problem with Montreal is that they have to do everything in English and French, so things like safety briefings take forever. I got the gist of it in French anyway - I got an A for GCSE French you know. Je m'appele Neil. J'habite a Londres. J'aime le Football. Ou est la Piscine?

Totally fluent.

Basically the instructions boiled down to: You will get soaked. The poncho we give you will not keep you dry. You must wear our water shoes. Don't take anything with you that you don't want lost or ruined. There's a special pouch to put your glasses in. You must wear a life vest and there are sweaters if you are a wimpy person who gets cold.

Ele and Joe put on the sweaters, but I'm a manly man so I didn't. We donned our life vests and ponchos and were looking good:

We got into our boat - sitting in about the middle. I ended up at the end of a row which is obviously a bad place to be.

This is the photo we bought afterwards:

We powered out of the harbour and along the river. Unsurprisingly, the jet boat goes really fast. It had about 1500 horse power and is basically a giant jet-ski. We reached the rapids in 10 or 15 minutes.

We were allowed to stand up and take some pictures before we headed in. I'd bought my waterproof camera along, hoping to get some videos as well. Then it was time to hit the rapids, and they went into a small one to ease us in.

Liars.

You think you get wet on Blige Rat Barges at Islands of Adventure? You don't. That ride is basically an afternoon stroll in the Sahara desert compared to this. An absolute tidal wave of water just crashed over the entire boat. Everyone on board was immediately soaked head-to-toe and gasping. Luckily it wasn't too cold. Once we were able to open our eyes again we realised that there was about a 18 inches of water in the bottom of the boat. The captain spun the boat around and it all drained away.

This was basically then repeated many, many times over the next 30 minutes. It was absolutely the best fun ever! Here's some videos:



Eventually it was time to go back, and the high-speed ride back dried us out a bit. We got back to the dock, returned all the gear, got our bags back from their storage system and headed to the respective dressing rooms to dry and change. We'd bought complete changes of clothes and towels with us. We went out and got one of the hot chocolates they were handing out. They'd taken some pictures of us all on the boat before we left and we bought those.

The jet boating was not cheap, but it was one of the best activities we've ever done and totally worth the money. If you ever go to Montreal, make sure you do this!

It had warmed up by now, and we walked back along the riverside, looking at the stalls we had passed earlier which were now open. At one of them Ele and Joe bought each bought a watch and I bought a new strap for my Apple Watch. Ele considered getting one for hers but didn't.

We came to some food trucks we'd passed earlier and decided we were hungry. Well, Joe and I did, Ele wasn't. Joe bought a burger and I got some smoked meat Poutine. Both were pretty good.

We walked back into the Old Town, just generally mooching around. In one shop we bought an Ice Cream which was really good. We weren't really shopping for anything much, so after a while we left and walked towards Chinatown which wasn't far.

Few pics of the Old Town:

We soon got to Chinatown:

We went into one shop and Joe wanted to get a fidget spinner they had there which was a really cool one, but it was $25 and they wouldn't take a card for less than $30 so they lost out on a sale.

There wasn't much to see here so we walked back towards Place Ville Marie where we had eaten lunch yesterday, because Joe wanted some slip-on sandal type things, and Ele wanted some new Fit Flops as hers were getting past it. Personally, I wanted to go and see the track for the Formula E street race that was happening over the weekend and was just down the road, but shoe shopping is obviously more important than that.

We went into all the shoe shops there and found nothing suitable, so followed the tunnel underground to the Eaton Center which is another large, mostly-undergound mall. We did find Joe some sandals (white Nike ones) for a good price, but Ele didn't find anything in any of the 224 shoe shops we went into.

Eventually the torture ended and we went back to our hotel to relax for a bit. After half an hour, at 6pm, we went out again to go for dinner, at a place called The Keg Steakhouse which was next to Place Ville Marie. It's a slightly upmarket steak place. Just about not upmarket enough so that I can afford for us to eat there, and we could wear shorts and trainers.

We were seated immediately. Ele ordered a sirloin and I ordered the Teriyaki sirloin. Joe ordered ribs. We were given some sourdough bread to start with which was delicious. All the food was great. My Teriyaki sirloin was absolutely amazing and one of the best steaks I've ever had. For dessert Joe and I shared a Billy Miners Pie, which is basically mocha ice cream with fudge and caramel sauce on a biscuit base. Our server said it's quite big you could probably share it. It was ENORMOUS!

Sorry, we got a bit carried away eating it before we took a photo. Ele had this brownie:

All-in-all, including a couple of beers and a G&T it came to about $125 plus tip.

We waddled back to our hotel. Ele was asleep by 8:45, with the rest of us following shortly after.

[Melbatb]

Too funny - I think I said on your report of the day before that we had eaten in another eggspectation this time round - it was this one! I think we even sat at the same table!

The boat ride looks amazing! I am off to Montreal again in February for work but I don't think it will be running then

The desserts look amazing (non meat eater so not bothered about the rest )

So what was your overall view of Montreal? For me it is a town that has grown on me! I prefer it over Toronto but to my surprise Ottawa takes first place (and Vancouver is on the same rank as Toronto).

[jocat]

The jet boating on the rapids sounds great fun and I love the look of the Old Town there.

[mossyflossy]

Another eggsellent day: the boat trip looks like so much fun and your evening meal looks fab.

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Too funny - I think I said on your report of the day before that we had eaten in another eggspectation this time round - it was this one! I think we even sat at the same table!

The boat ride looks amazing! I am off to Montreal again in February for work but I don't think it will be running then

The desserts look amazing (non meat eater so not bothered about the rest )

So what was your overall view of Montreal? For me it is a town that has grown on me! I prefer it over Toronto but to my surprise Ottawa takes first place (and Vancouver is on the same rank as Toronto).

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I really loved Eggspectation! As a spoiler for the next day's report, we go there again!

Boat not running February for sure - even if it was you wouldn't want to be doing it...

I loved Montreal actually. Ele said she preferred it to Toronto, too. I like both for different reasons. Toronto has the high-rises and the hustle-and-bustle and the "wow". Montreal is a bit calmer and definitely more interesting, and that makes it a great place to visit.

I like Ottawa a lot, but haven't had enough time there recently (spent a lot of time there back in the 90s visiting a friend there).

[Pussycat Doll]

Looks like a fab day! Desserts look lovely!

[WileyCoyote]

Ah the jet boating , sounded crazy in the pre trip and clearly for lunatics. It looks pretty awesome fun though.
Lovely to read about your wanders around the town and only 224 shoe shops .. That's a bit feeble really and not up to Orlando shopping standards. I hope she found some , flip flops are the devils footwear when they start to wear out.
Dinner sounded nice and not unreasonably priced.
We ate at a place called Speggtacular in Florida. I wonder how many egg based puns there are out there ?!