Amazing Azamara – Day 3 – Montreal (2nd Day)

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Welcome to our BIG Holiday of 2025! We’re with our great friends, Ralph and Karen, taking in Canada, Greenland and Iceland.

Day 3 — Monday, 4th August
Even More of Montreal!

Morning!… or as they say in these parts… ‘Bonjour!’. Yes, we’re in Montreal, Canada, where it helps if you can speak a little French! It’s our second day here, having arrived early evening on Saturday. If you missed my first Post, it’s HERE (I’m beginning to hate long haul!), and yesterday’s is HERE (but I love Poutines).

Even More of Montreal!

Today is our last full day, and so we’re continuing our exploration of the City, where we have a visit to the waterfront planned, a wander around the Notre-Dame Basilica and maybe a boat trip too!

After another fine breakfast in the Hotel, we took the short walk to the Big Red Bus that would take us back to the old part of Montreal where we were yesterday. The old part of the City was worth a closer look and along the way, we took in a few more sights.

Back on the Bus!

We arrived to find the Big Red Bus as popular as ever, with even more people waiting to board than yesterday. In fact, there was a second vehicle on standby to cope with the numbers.

We headed upstairs and were lucky in getting four seats together. After a quick introduction by our Guide, we were on our way! Next stop: Notre-Dame (but not that one!)

Notre-Dame Basilica

Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal is a minor Basilica of the Catholic Church in the Old Montreal district. Opened in 1829, it was completed in 1865. More details HERE on Wiki. Although the outside looked relatively plain, and it was a shame half was covered in scaffolding, once inside, the interior was simply stunning!

I’ll just leave these here….

The subtle lighting helped, but it was probably the most visually stunning interior I’ve seen anywhere!

Just one word: Wow!!! Next stop? The Old Waterfront

The Old Waterfront

There has been a lot of redevelopment here where the old and decaying buildings from a bygone age, had either been restored, replaced or repurposed. It all looked very inviting!

Looking around the Waterfront and Old Montreal was great fun, although by now, the weather wasn’t living up to its promise. It was much cooler than the forecast, but it didn’t prevent us from enjoying ourselves.

Boat Trip

Our boat trip was next, and we headed for the nearby booking office of Croisieres AML. The trip promised an hour-and-a-half ‘there and back’ and cost us C$50 each (around £27.50 each). We were soon on board and headed to the open deck to ensure we got the best views.

Unfortunately, the blue skies had now gone and as we headed out on the St Lawrence River, the biting wind, err, began to bite!

Surely some drinks would help! Well, one of us made the right decision (and it wasn’t me!) ☹️

The trip was complemented by a live spoken commentary by one of the ship’s crew in both English and in French. He was super-enthusiastic, but I’m not sure many people were listening! 🤔

It was good to appreciate Montreal from the water, but those grey skies made it all look somewhat drab. The above photos look perhaps more inviting than they actually were! But that was simply a generous use of a number of photo filters when finalising them. All in all, it WAS a worthwhile trip, and it gave us a sense of the size and scale of the river, and how it related to the success of the City – but the weather could have been kinder! 🤔

Lunch

As we thawed out and said goodbye to the river, once ashore, we headed for where the majority of the eateries were located – De la Commune Street. There was plenty of choice, but in the end, we chose Boqueria – a Spanish Tapas Bar.

The menu was straightforward and we soon made our choices.

The food was served quickly and tasted delicious! Croquettes for me; Chicken for Ann, whilst Ralph & Karen shared a Paella. As we enjoyed our food, it was a pleasure to observe our Waitress working so hard around the Restaurant. From serving to cleaning to dealing with customers – she seemed to be doing it all with a smile and a great attitude. 👏👏

We all agreed it had been an excellent meal in every sense, and afterwards, we walked along the main drag parallel to the Old Waterfront, heading for the nearest ‘Big Red Bus err, Bus-stop. During our walk, we took in more of the sights of the Old Port, passing Nelson’s Column that we’d visited yesterday.

Luckily for us, the next Bus was only minutes away, and the driver must have seen our wristbands, and he stopped the bus prematurely, between stops, to pick us up – how’s that for service!? 👍😊

Retail Therapy

We finished the afternoon with a little ‘retail therapy’. We got off the Bus near St Catherine Street – an ‘Oxford Street’ lookalike in every sense.

It offered a great range of shops, and judging by how busy the area seemed to be, everywhere was in rude health.

And if that wasn’t enough therapy, we drifted into Crescent Street. It was full of boutique-like shops and reminded us a little of the retail scene where we stayed in San Francisco in April 2023.

After a minor purchase, we’d had all the therapy we needed! 👍. We continued our walk back to the Hotel with the thoughts of packing and saying goodbye to Montreal.

Tomorrow…

Around lunchtime, it’s all aboard the good Ship ‘Amazara’ for a 15-dayer, so that means we have most of the morning to chill out and complete our packing.

This time tomorrow, we will have said goodbye to Montreal, and we’ll be on board Azamara, Deck 6, and in our Cabin – ‘6005’!

See you at sea! 👍🚢⚓