Ah, parting is such sweet sorry.  Yeah, yeah, I know, you’ve heard it before.  To be honest, we are looking forward to being in Montreal on our own for the next few days.  The cruise has been wonderful, and we’ve loved connecting with all the staff we know and had some wonderful adventures.  Time for a land tour!

The ship is arriving later than originally planned this morning, making early morning connections tenuous for folks (again! we won’t go into why – see above post).  Doesn’t really matter for us, except we have to be out of the cabin by 8:30 and aren’t planning to leave the ship until a little before 10.  Beyond that? Eh, we’re good.  We are up early, as usual, and treated to a magnificent sunrise.  We break into the gym – really break in this morning as Jay never opens up – oops – and watch as we sail into the city, gliding past the old Molson’s factory, the clocktower at the Vieux Port and the massive Cirque Du Soleil tent complex.  Done with the work out, we grab a quick breakfast, then organize our things to get out of the stateroom as soon as possible for Satej to start his busy day. 

Hanging out in the Living Room – trying to avoid the really noisy, annoying family and the sickness that is all around them and other – we finally leave our sweet home for the last 25 days, getting a big hug from Louie on the dock and hoping to see at least some of the crew on the Journey in a couple of months.  Outside of the port, we order an Uber which takes us straight to our AirBnB host’s Sports bar, MVP, where we can store our luggage until the apartment is ready.  We arrive just as they have opened, and the sweet Bartender/Waitress/Manager sits us down and starts some coffee for us as we try to message our host to see if we can get into the apartment early.  They never reply, so after finishing our coffee we leave our bags in the kitchen and strike out across town heading toward the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. But first – a pit stop for lunch! 

Ever since Dr. Jannie talked about Montreal’s famous smoked meat, we’ve had our sights set on trying some.  She talked about Schwartz’s – supposedly the original deli in Montreal – but their location is way off of our route today, so we instead stop at Dunn’s Famous Deli – equally “original” starting operations in 1927 and still run by family – the great-grandson of Myer Dunn runs the business today.  Can you really go wrong?  We think not. 

Once inside, we settle into our little booth, reveling in the smokey smell that permeates the place and ordering a Reuben and a Bagel smoked meat sandwich.  Two Montreal delicacies in one!  Montreal style bagels are boiled in honey-sweetened water for chewier texture and sweeter taste.  And it does not disappoint as we dig into the two enormous plates of food that arrive on our table.  We will definitely not need a big meal for dinner tonight!

Soon we are on our way to the Fine Arts Museum, where we have free admittance for Seniors from 10a to 1p (Seniors being 65+ which I have availed myself of since I am in my 65^th year 😊).  One of the oldest museums in North America, founded in 1860, the Museum of Fine Arts began as a consortium of sorts – a group of some of the most distinguished collectors of their day came together to make art accessible to the local community.  It is now a massive sprawling affair, contained in 3 huge buildings that are linked through an underground-under street tunnel.  There is so much to see! The bizarre Forever!! Never!! Statue (death carrying away a young woman), the life-size realism of William Bouguereau in Crown of Flowers, the aptly named Guano (an oil on canvas that came from scraping away layers of old paint from an artist’s studio floor), The Table and Stool by Niki de Saint Phalle, who we fell in love with yesterday in Quebec and Joan Miro’s Bird Nests in Bloom Fingers. There is also Dali’s odd Chess Set made from replicas of his wife Gala’s fingers (Queens), NYC Saint Regis Hotel’s salt shakers (Rooks), molds of Dali’s fingers (pawns) and finally, most bizarrely the kings’ and queens’ crowns made from ama old of one of Dali’s baby teeth.  Ok, I love him, in all his weirdly bizarre mentality.

Another room holds intricate models of famous buildings around the world, such as the Duomo in Florence, stained glass windows from a “domestic” chapel and a weirdly placed panel of overlaid brass and glass beads called Eruption – which is neat and cool, but sort of odd in the midst of all the gothic architecture.  Wrapping our way around the museum, which has stairways encased in huge glass windows, we have a fabulous view of the Leonard Cohen mural, a tribute to one of Montreal’s hometown favorites, and stunning in its realism and likeliness.  The last area in on this side of the street holds a few incredibly interesting Inuit pieces.  Carved from a single whale bone – with caribou antler, muskox horn and walrus tusk added in certain places – this huge statue took 2 ½ years to carve and has such detail and expression. 

Moving on to the other side of the street where the galleries are set up in pavilions behind concert halls, we meander through more Inuit art – a mask, a ladle made from a sheep horn; a strange modern rendition called “Prototype for New Understanding No. 20 – a mask that looks like an evil, dangerous bird made completely from Nike athletic footwear; a really weird portrayal of Jesus on the cross from 1930 – the face is just odd, the chest wound looks like it was cut out and replaced, and the INRI sign is upside down. 

The next area is much more sedate with gorgeous paintings – one of Lake Superior in the morning which really catches our eye – and another fascinating piece called Red Garden which was created from Oil, silica and modeling clay on canvas.  The 3D effect is eye-catching and intriguing.

By this time, our host has finally texted back saying we can get into the apartment now, which is perfect timing as we are through with our museum wanderings.  Out into the bright sunlight we go, passing great statues, more murals and the ever present Gothic style architecture around the city.

The apartment is perfect, small and compact with everything you’d ever need.  Full washer and dryer (well, that we don’t need, but still), full kitchen, cute little kitchen table, full length windows and comfy sitting area.  The bedroom is pocket size, but it will do for our 3 day stay.  Dumping our bags, we head off to the grocery store, stocking up on necessaries – including dinner tonight, some great chorizo sausages and a ready-made crab and shrimp salad.  Perfect!  We are in for the evening, cooking dinner and strategizing our next 2 days here in Montreal and environs.