Through the monsoon…

Back in August 2008, Rose and I decided to take a trip to Montreal.  I had never been there, but had always wanted to go.  So, we made a reservation for two nights and packed our stuff.  We left around 5 pm on Friday, and hit monsoon like weather most of the way up.  High winds, torrential downpours, thunder and lightning.  Rose even thinks there was hail.  No big deal you say?  In a car, no.  But we were on the motorcycle.

We left Albany and the weather was threatening to rain, but didn’t start until the Adirondacks.  It was pretty brutal, but I loved every minute of it.  We had on raingear, with the exception of my jacket.  It had zippers on the sleeves, so the rain poured in and ran down my sleeves and into my shirt and pants.  Luckily, the Yamaha has heated hand grips, so my hands kept warm most of the trip.  My upper body, not so much.  If you don’t ride, or don’t know about riding in the rain, here’s a quick lesson.  The gloves are leather and dyed black.  When they get wet, the dye covers your hands and makes them black as well.  Until you scrub them with some type of a bristle brush, they will stay black.

We arrived at our hotel around 9 pm, parked the bike and went to our room.  I immediately stripped down and laid my clothes out around the room.  It was time for a hot shower, as I was freezing.  After we warmed up, we went out for a walk to see what we could find to eat.  We found a Chinese restaurant and then hit a grocery store for some soda and snacks.

And then it happened – I found Kit Kat Dark.  Kit Kats drenched in dark chocolate.  I haven’t been able to find them in the Northeast.  If you find them, please let me know.

The next day, we walked around the city, with showers off and on.  It is a beautiful city.  Of course I had my camera, and I took a few pics.  There was a church that I took this picture in, but I can’t for the life of me remember then name of it.  I didn’t have a tripod with me, so I had to brace the camera on top of one of the pews in the choir loft and hope for the best.

Overlook

This window was also from that church…

Outside the church

We also went to see the Notre Dame cathedral, but it was closed for a private wedding and they wouldn’t let us in.  Here’s Rose sitting outside by the bike when we were getting ready to leave.

Rose

We were sweating, as we had our raingear on over our clothes.  It was supposed to rain that day.  It never did, and it was extremely warm instead.  So, we were lucky and stayed dry. Here’s a few pics of Rose getting ready to get back on and a horse and carriage.

Rose again

Horse and carriage

Waiting

When we left there, we went to St. Joseph’s Oratory.  It was huge.  I am not a religious person at all, but I do appreciate the architecture.  It was incredible.  I took quite a few pictures while we we there.  I could have spent hours there shooting, but we needed to head home.  Here are a few shots I took while we were there.

Incredibly tall

This was handheld. Can't believe it came out so well.

Go towards the light

Coming home took a bit longer than going up.  For some reason, we went through customs going into Canada in about ten minutes.  Coming home, it took us at least an hour, hour and a half to get through customs.  Why does it take so long if I am an American coming back into my own country?  Talk about being efficient.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the extra security that is hopefully keeping the undesirables out.  However, they should put in a line for U.S. residents to come back in.  I understand having to wait to go into Canada.  But coming home?  Ridiculous.

It was a great trip, all in all.  I hope to get back up there soon.  The one thing about taking the bike is that it costs almost nothing for fuel, but you can’t pack too much.  It’s definitely worth it if you have the time.