Montreal is the second largest city in Canada. It is in the French-speaking province of Quebec. I wanted to visit this city to take in some of its best (to me) sites. But, like both Toronto and Ottawa, hours spent in traffic jams cut the time available for siteseeing.

I did get the most important one visited Notre Dame Cathedral. It is INCREDIBLE inside. Neither words nor photographs can do it justice. It can only be seen and FELT.

IF you can speak French, or, at least read it, then Montreal is for you. However, if French is merely a foreign language you do not speak or read, then Montreal is quite unfriendly when driving since every sign and every street name is in French. However, listening to others speak it, especially with their accents, is very cool to hear.

Also, I was impressed how well-timed the traffic lights are, at least once you get out of downtown.

The botanical gardens surprised me, especially after having been at the Edwards in Toronto the day before (which was beautiful and free shaded parking and free viewing). The Montreal gardens has high-priced pay parking in the sun. Then several dozen people line up in the hot beaming sun to stand in line to wait to buy entry tickets that are even more than the expensive parking. Then, when I first see the gardens, they were disappointing -- things barely growing out of the ground much less in bloom. But then I discovered that the place is HUGE and goes for several blocks. One had to keep walking to find the flowers in bloom. And the best part was when I walked across a grassy area to some large flower beds in bloom and smelled the fresh-cut grass which is one of THE best smells, period!

When I booked this the hotel, I thought (1) it was in the main downtown portion of Montreal, and, (2) it was a large, fancy hotel with high-class amenities like many downtown hotels are. I was incredibly SOooooo wrong on both counts. This place is what you might call a hole-in-the-wall mom and pop hotel that, when I first walked in the main door, I thought I was not even in a hotel but a movie theater or museum. Nevermind with how things went downhill from there. Suffice it to say that this place should not even be on Expecdia.com's list!

Something interesting on Montreal resident asked me about is the use of roundabouts for city streets. He said they are new to Montreal whereas I first saw them in many U.S. cities decades ago.