Scenes from Old Montreal!

Its hard to believe, but in less than two weeks I will be a married lady.  I can't believe it was only about 9 months ago that I got engaged!  To say time has flown by is an understatement.  Around Thanksgiving I got an email from my friends A and M saying they were going to steal me away for a weekend in December for a girls trip to locations unknown.  I was told certain things that I would have to pack for a complete weekend and that was it.  So, on the Friday of that weekend I was picked up and we were off, still none the wiser of the destination.  I did have a strategy of guessing based on what roads we followed.  When we finally turned on 89N I assumed we were going to Burlington, Vermont because other than that, there was not too much going on that way and any further north required a passport!  Turns out I have a sneaky fiance and friends, they had actually gotten my passport from Nick earlier that week, so we were off to Montreal!

Notre-Dame Basilica

After 5 short hours of chatting the car ride away, we arrived in Montreal, pulled up to the Westin and quickly checked into our room and got settled only to then get ready to head out in search of food.  The Westin is located right on the fringes of beautiful  Old Montreal.  Having only been to Montreal once before for less than 24 hours, I really did not have a good feel for the city, so I was excited to get out and explore.  The nighttime views got me excited to see the city.

When we awoke the next morning we hoped to and headed out to see what Old Montreal had in store for us.  Turns out it's amazingly beautiful!  I felt like I was in the middle of a European city - between the architecture and the foreign languages everywhere Montreal made me feel like I was much further from home than 5 hours.  The main focal point of Old Montreal is the Notre-Dame Basilica and its surrounding square.

Everything about the area was just so striking and other-worldly.

Impressive Lampposts outside Notre-Dame

Entrance 

After fully enjoying the grandeur of the Basilica we set off down toward the river to explore the small streets lined with loads of shops - perfect for window shopping and starting some Christmas buying.  Each street was lined with stone houses that seemed out of a storybook.

Eventually we turned out onto City Hall Square, which was completely decorated for the holiday.

The copper lined roof top of Montreal's City Hall was impressive!  The building was so intricate in every way.  They seriously do not make buildings like this any more.  The detail and lines in all the windows and corners must have taken a considerable amount of time to set up.

Copper Lined Roof of City Hall

Really, it was hard to stop taking photos in Old Montreal as around every corner really was something new to see and photograph.

I was obsessed with the copper!

I will have a few more posts about some delicious food we enjoyed during our stay.  Old Montreal has so much to see and enjoy.  Really though, I was amazed at how far away Montreal felt even though it was a quick 5 hour drive north.  It seemed like I had been whisked away to a European village instead of Canada.