It seemed that parking availability would be the dictator of our morning in Montreal. We got up early so that we could get ready before the spot the car was in turned into a no parking zone. We jumped in the car and took it to the old town by the docks where parking was again an issue. Our van was too big to fit in the multi story carparks so we parked on the street for a couple of hours so that we could do a quick exploration of the old town. The most striking poop building in the old town is the Notre Dame cathedral, as far as I'm aware it is based upon the famous cathedral if the same name in Paris. We first headed there and then down to the waterfront via a cache at Marche Bonsecours and then along the waterfront. The old town to me felt like a strange mix of the old world and the new, old buildings that are in many ways very much like European cities next to modern ones. The people give the best glimpse at Europe though. The main language in the area is French so I was expecting to hear French, but I was surprised how people seemed to have the mannerisms of the French, especially when talking. I know it's a very strange thing to say, but that's how it seemed to me when wandering around the city.
After a few hours wandering and grabbing a couple of caches our car parking was up and we hit the road and headed back towards the good ol' US of A. Our brief excursion into Canada has been fun, good to see people who I haven't seen in many years. We crossed the boarder back into the states at some tiny town so there was no queue and no fee just a couple of boarder control guys who check your passports and check the car for Mexicans. I have to say that it was nice to be back in the world of cheap gas, free wifi, miles and gallons. Normally I would say that imperial units are stupid, but we have go so used to them that kilometres and litres were just a bit confusing. The our route took us into Vermont for about 5 minutes then New Hampshire for about half an hour and then into Maine. The route we took was actually really cool, no major roads for about 5 hours of driving just cute little villages and back roads winding through the lush Maine forests. We passed through the sorts of places in the Stephen King novels and dropped into his home town of Bangor. Those of you who read King's books will know that many of them are set in Derry, a made up town that is loosely based upon Bangor, so we had to visit Bangor standpipe, which pretty much is the Derry standpipe, a major land mark in IT and mentioned in many of his other books. Unfortunately the door to the standpipe was not open, so no clowns or drowned children today, alas, but there was a cache nearby. Although it was a flying visit, Bangor was a great place to go, especially if you like King's books as you can see the influences all around you.
From Bangor we headed east and ended up for the night in a little town that seems to have no name on Tomtom and is a bit of a nothing place right next to the Canadian boarder.
Cube out
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