Montreal

Montreal is crazy for traffic and parking so we drove to one of the metro stations in the outskirts, parked there and took the tube into town. Had a nice walk through the old quarter which is pretty much as old as you can get in the Americas. Reached one of the main thoroughfares where a street performer was just beginning his show, so we joined the crowd as the kids really wanted to see it. It looked promising, with 3 fire juggling sticks at the ready. In the end that was just a ruse, all he did was light them and put his hand through the flames. The main act was just getting people to do a little dance, with a smattering of cheap jokes. We were really unlucky as Gus was singled out for wearing an Indiana Jones type hat and was press ganged into the dancing troupe, so we couldn't wander off until he was released at the end.

We slowly made our way to a beach that had been set up next to the St Lawrence river. On the way we had parks, a quick aborted visit to the science museum, a playground, and a big tower. The beach was pretty cool, with a small bar and plenty of lounging area. Later at night the whole area apparently becomes a hip night bar.

Slowly made our way back through the old town, past a marching band (unsure of who they were exactly, the music sounded sort of Yiddish), and on to the tube. The kids were well and truly knackered, and all four of them fell asleep so we had to carry them to the cars. Where they promptly woke up. We had talked about going to a hill to view the city, but with the kids in this state decided it wasn't worth it and all went home for a bit of TV time and relaxation.