New York II

After a very delicious breakfast at the Westin with toast bread, salmon, ham, egg, yoghurt, cereals, fresh fruits and coffee, we went out in the drizzle and walked to the old town of Montreal. In 1967 the Expo 67 took place in town. For that event Moshe Safdie built an interesting living complex called Habitat 67 which is located on a small island behind an ugly wheat factory. This factory is just huge and the biggest part is shabby and derelict. From Habitat 67 we walked over a bridge from where we had a good view on the skyline of Montreal as well as on the Saint Lawrence River, a massive river that connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic. We then took the metro to get to the Olympic Stadion that held the olypmic games in 1976. The stadion looked like a building of Calatrava (in Toronto we later saw a gallery of Calatrava). Montreal has a huge underground city. You can find the entrances at some metro stations or in the underground level of shoppings malls. You'll find restaurants, bars and many shops down there. In the evening we went to Vargas for Dinner. I had a Tataki Salad with grilled tuna that was just great. Unfortunately, that was only the appetizer and I was already quite full. As main plate I had a Chicken Teriyaki with chinese noodles. However, I couldn’t eat all of that even though it was really delicious. After eating we intended to go to a rooftop bar next to the Vargas. There was already a long queue of girls in short skirts and high heels waiting to get to the top of that building. We also took the elevator to get up, but as we had to pay 15 Dollars to get in, we decided to just have a drink at the Hotel bar, because we didn't wanted to dance as we were all completely full.

The next day we drove to Quebec, which took us about 3 hours. Quebec is rather small compared to Montreal or Toronto and has a unique french character. There are narrow cobblestone streets, with small european houses. The old town is even on the UNESCO world heritage list because the protection wall around the city is the only remaining in North America. We strolled around the old town, went to see some churches all called Notre Dame, went to see the Chateau Frontenac, which is really beautfiul and reminded me of Schloss Neuschwanstein in Germany. From there we had also beautiful views on the Saint Lawrence River. The weather was fine and sunny and we even met some swiss guys from Basel when we visited the citadelle of Quebec. In the evening we even witnessed a firework in town. Our Hotel was the Loews Le Concorde, which was inside one of the highest buildings of Quebec. On top, there was a revolving rooftop restaurant. We went up there for a drink and had nice views on Quebec by night.