Finding Formula 1 & Olympic Gold

We arrived in Montreal at the same time as the Formula 1 Grand Prix and the cold, wet weather.  The F1 street parties & displays were trying to brighten up the city but for us it was too miserable so we did a $5 tour of Notre Dame Basilica (above).

     

Our Montreal CS hosts Harold & Ansy kindly showed us around Mount Royale and the St Josephs Cathedral there. In this small chapel you can see displayed the many crutches left by the believers who were ‘cured’ after their visit.  If it were me I’d keep the crutch & ask for next weeks lotto numbers. I couldn’t shoot the main chapel as there was a mass in progress at the time of our visit, but try to imagine bigger statues and many, many, many more crutches.

      

Visiting Atwater markets was a mouth-watering experience and although I wanted to buy a pastry for later, Deb assured me that I would be happier & fitter if I resisted.

           

It was later that afternoon during our visit to the Olympic site that I realised that not all rules apply to everyone equally.

           

Although the weather was still un-cooperative a visit to the Botanical gardens finished off a wonderful day.

           

After Montreal I had arranged to meet some on-line photography buddies at a pioneer town called ‘Upper Canada Village’.

At this village they have a working cheese factory, sawmill and printers all using 19th century technology.

            

Fortunately for us this just happened to be the day they hold their annual medieval festival in the adjacent field so we were also treated to bold knights, busty wenches & jousting.

          

There was one lady there who, when she heard my accent, asked me if I was Barry’s brother….

 

she also asked if I knew Paul.

An hour further down the road was a town called Ganonoque from where there are many boat cruises touring the Thousand Islands waterways. As you can see the islands range in size from ‘barely big enough to hold a shack’ right up to ‘Boldt’s Castle’.

          

We stopped for 2 nights at the next town down the river, Kingston. I knew I was going to enjoy this place when I walked the 1 block from the car-park to the restaurant and passed 6 Irish Pubs.  It was here, after trying to order Bourbon, I was advised to try a local refreshment called ‘rye’. I can’t really remember anything after that except we ended up at another CS hosted by a wonderful lady.

Linda’s claim to fame is being the mother of Simon Whitfield who was the gold medalist at the Sydney Olympics in the tri-athlon.

She is naturally very proud of his achievements and her own.  And so she should be, for at the age of 69 she is an avid Kayaker.