Time to say goodbye. Aw. We’ve really enjoyed this trip – and Azamara is a great line, but now it is time to disembark and head home. We had a pretty large onboard credit, which was hard to spend because, well, everything was included! So, we ended up booking a tour that ended at the airport today. Nice way to waste the hours we have before our 3:30 flight – and it was basically free (well, you know).
The morning however got off to a rough start. The luggage wasn’t ready in the terminal, so unless you were walking off with bags in hand, we all got stuck at the exit doorway. There is a huge line up there, and we are all joking and messing around – and people keep coming up – looking at us, then trying to go outside to get off the ship. We tell them they can’t get off, the luggage isn’t ready (duh, why do you think we are all standing here?), but nobody listens. They walk out, then immediately turn back around and come back in. Virtually all of them tell us “the luggage is not ready yet.” This ensues for a while, as about 10 of us continue to find the behavior a cross between hysterically funny and startlingly annoying.
Finally, even though the staff still says they aren’t quite ready, we head out into the terminal. For our purposes, they actually are ready – and all our bags are where they are supposed to be. We grab the cases, and wheel them out to the waiting bus, say goodbye to Michael, the ever so helpful and totally wonderful excursion guy – managing to snag the seats right behind the tour guide. Cool. Although being up front sometimes gives you glimpses of things you might not want to see, as in the wrench that is used for…well…the ignition switch? Not too sure…
We’ve got almost everyone on the bus, and then the old couple arrive, who can barely walk, and he tries to get onto the bus and his knee gives out. So, he’s sitting on the ground, with everyone around him, and finally he gets on the bus – we give up our hard won seats – because – well really? We might be getting older – but we aren’t that old and we can walk – and quite frankly, we are the only ones who even bothered to move. We aren’t in the back of the bus, so who cares.
Finally, off we go on our quick tour of the highlights of Montreal. But first, we have to sit through the traffic! And the train! We are leaving the port when a freight train crosses the road, and crosses, and crosses…and…well, for about 10 minutes we sit watching this thing block the road going forward then reverse – heaven knows why! All the while our tour guide is regaling us with the story of the tour he had yesterday where the bus broke down and stranded the tour for about an hour and a half before they could be on their way. He’s telling us this to make our situation better, but…not something you want to tell a bus load of people who need to be at the airport for flights while they are riding in a bus that uses a wrench as dashboard equipment!
We finally get underway and tour around the Olympic stadium area, while hearing about what a basic boondoggle it was/is/has become. It’s a very intriguing structure, the big white domed arena with the oddly soaring tower attached. There is a funicular that goes up the outside of the tower to an observatory at the top – but it may be under construction at the moment. The arena is hardly used for any events because the roof has issues, and people are afraid of the structure of the building. Particularly in the winter (ala the Minnesota Viking’s stadium roof collapse). They’ve been doing repairs, and you can see where they have guide wires to help support the roof and the tower, but there is some concern over the funding of repairs. The tower itself has been empty since they built it 30 years ago – seriously! – but the city has just signed a lease with a company to take over the space . Good news, except there are $60 million worth of repairs to do before they can move in (a huge hunk of that coming from the city).
Past the stadium we wind our way around the massive construction projects (with a running commentary from our hysterically funny guide who is just totally annoyed with all the construction!) to arrive at the top of Mount Royal for a photo op overlooking the city. Five minutes! Chop, chop people! We are on a schedule! Ed stays on the bus while I hop out for a few shots. You can see the stadium in the distance there…
Back on the bus, we head down the mount, and into the city proper for our tour of Notre Dame. We have to park a few blocks away (oh horrors – half the bus may not make it up to the cathedrale!), so we all walk at our own speed and congregate in the Place d’Armes for a little overview of the area. We’ve just been here, but it is interesting to listen to the history, and to know for a fact that that building in the corner is a replica of the Empire state building! Looked awfully familiar…
We head off into the Cathedrale, which is swarming with people on this Saturday morning. It is a beautiful church, and we spend a few minutes taking pictures….
…use the facilities, then wait outside in the sunshine for the tour to regroup.
Back to the bus we troop, and then off we go to the airport. Short tour – but perfectly timed for us. We had nothing to do but sit at the airport! We get stuck, predictably, in more traffic on the interstate. This place is awful for traffic! And of course the construction doesn’t help. People on the bus start grumbling about the time, and they have to catch their flight. Huh? You weren’t supposed to be on this tour if you had flights earlier than 3:00pm – these people are saying they have 2:00pm flights—or earlier. Your bad!
We end up at the airport a little before noon – so no one has any issues – unless they make them for themselves. We check in – totally forgetting to ask about the possibility of going stand by on the 12:45 flight (although Delta charges for going stand by now, so it may not have been our best option!), and head into the terminal, through customs and immigration in a flash, and onto a restaurant to have lunch and await our flight, which goes off, according to schedule. We catch a cab to the hotel for our car (getting ripped off by the cab driver because he wanted a longer fare), but nonetheless, we are in our car and on the road by 7:00 which is what we had planned. The drive home is uneventful, and we are safely ensconced in the house before 11:00, going through mail and leaving the unpacking until tomorrow.
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