The idea of going to visit Montreal came to our minds when the 2019 baseball schedule came out last fall. For the last several years, the Toronto Blue Jays have hosted an exhibition baseball game in Montreal at Olympic Stadium against a different team each year. This year, the Blue Jays happened to be playing the Brewers! We did not want to pass up this opportunity, so we planned our trip for March 23-27, with the baseball games happening on March 25 and 26. We were excited!
We had a 6 pm flight departing Cincinnati on Saturday, so it allowed us to sleep in that day, which I loved! We went to the airport a little earlier because we wanted to watch some NCAA Tournament games. So, we camped out at Outback Steakhouse in the airport for a few hours! As the time got closer to our flight, we got emails saying that Delta was trying to re-book us on a different flight. This was really confusing because the last we checked, our flights were on time! So, we went and spoke to a Delta agent, and he mentioned that our flight from Cincinnati to Detroit was delayed, but we would still make our connecting flight, so we kept everything as-is for now. Then, about a half hour later, we get another email stating that Delta has re-protected us on a flight the next morning! What?! So we went back up to the counter and they stated that we are still confirmed on our original flight, but they just re-protected us in case we missed it! Very confusing! But, at least we were still confirmed! Soon after, we were on our way!
Aerial of Cincinnati!
Being our flight from Cincinnati to Detroit was delayed, we didn't have that much time in Detroit, which was fine. On our way to our connecting flight, we walked through a really cool tunnel in the airport, and it made us feel like we were at a dance club! Also on the connecting flight, Robbie got jipped on a window seat!
Aerial of Detroit!
When we got to our gate, we found other Brewer fans who were going to Montreal for the game, and they were staying at the exact same hotel as us, too! How cool was that?!
We got into Montreal around 10 pm, and went through a very 2019 Customs process. Now, it's been 15 years since I've been through Customs at an airport, so things have changed a lot. When we got to Customs at the airport, it was all electronic! We went to a kiosk (much like where you go to print your boarding pass at the airport at the self-serve kiosks), scanned and verified our passports, then the machine took a picture of us, and off we went! It was kinda cool, and really slick! We also exchanged money before we left the airport, and the Canadian currency is beautiful! I wanted to take it all home with me!
We chose our hotel, the Hotel Universel, for location. We were going to be spending most of our time around Olympic Stadium, and this hotel was the only one close to it. As a bonus, it was really close to a Metro Station if we wanted to venture downtown at all. We got to our hotel around 11 pm and were all settled in!
We were really looking forward to this trip because we didn't have a set itinerary; only the ballgames on Monday and Tuesday nights! We could sleep in each day, and set our own itinerary as we went! And we definitely slept in on Sunday, and took it easy! We did, however, want to get out and start exploring. The first place we went was Olympic Park, of course! I hadn't done that much research on Olympic Stadium before we left, so I was in for a big surprise! Let me tell you, that stadium was huge! It looked like a big UFO with a tower on the east end! The design was really cool! They originally built it for the 1976 Summer Olympics.
On the west end were the Olympic Rings, the Olympic Torch, and the Olympic Podium, all in which were used for the actual Olympics that year! We spent some time there to get some good pictures!
I like the U.S. flag placement in the 3 pictures above! Robbie almost broke his leg taking these pictures! He did a GREAT job!
Next, we walked through the neighborhood and found a Canadian staple, Tim Horton's! By the time we got there, we were starving, so we ate an actual breakfast there, complete with bacon and egg sandwiches, and donuts! It was a very Canada way to start off our trip!
Next, we walked on the other side of the Olympic Park looking for the Biodome, which we believed was a greenhouse. We found it on a map, then walked to where we thought it was, went in, and found that it was an ice skating rink! And there were people in there, practicing for speed skating! The doors were unlocked to the rink, so we decided to just walk right in and watch! I have never seen speed skating in person before, and it was very fascinating! The skates that they use are about 2x longer than regular ice skates, and as they turn, their skates criss-cross. There is no way I would be able to do that with such grace as speed skaters do! Watching this practice really made us want to go to a Winter Olympic Games! Maybe one year...! We spent a good half hour just watching this practice! We were close enough to hear them talk, and to hear their coach lead them! This arena is called the Maurice Richard Arena.
Statue of Maurice "Rocket" Richard. He was a Montreal Canadien great!
I love how in this picure, the skate is actually cutting through real ice!
After leaving the skating rink, we made our way to what we thought was the tour to the tower of Olympic Stadium. This Olympic Park had several buildings, and they were all labeled in French, of course, so it was tricky to really get an understanding of where we were. We walked in to the Planetarium, but the guy who was working at the front desk pointed us in the right direction. We were finally inside Olympic Stadium, and it was much bigger than what both of us had thought! We made our way to get tickets for the Olympic Stadium Tour, and to go up the tower to the observation deck!
We had about 45 minutes before the tour started, so we decided to go to the observation deck first. We rode an inclinator up on the exterior of the tower. It was really cool to see more of Montreal this way! From the ride up, we could see more of the Olympic Park, including out hotel!
Soccer Stadium in the foreground, and the pyramid shaped building behind it is the original Olympic Village! The small building just behind the soccer stadium is our hotel!
Olympic Park! Soccer Stadium in the upper left. The snow-covered field below is the soccer practice field. The white-roofed dome in the middle is the Centre Pierre-Charbonneau, a sports arena/gym that was the former home of a Canadian NBA team. The white-roofed dome in the middle right is the Maurice Richard ice-skating rink. The building right below the skating rink is a movie theater. The white-roofed building in the bottom right corner is the Biodome!
When we were up at the top, we had a 365 degree view of all of Montreal. I made my way to where I could see downtown, and just beyond that, Mt. Royal. This was very cool to see from above! We also had views of the St. Lawrence River as well! We spent about a half hour up there, then made our way back down to the bottom to get ready for our tour of Olympic Stadium!
The tour was bi-lingual, which was pretty cool. Quebec is mainly a French speaking province in Canada, so it was nice that the guides were accommodating. The tour started off in an atrium-type room, then made its way to a room with the stadium renderings and history of the stadium, including timelines, and miniature models of the whole complex. It was fun to learn about the construction of the complex. It was here that we learned that to hold the Olympics in Montreal, it cost the city 12 billion dollars in today's money, in US Dollars. To build an Olympic site in today's age, it would cost about 23 billion dollars! Yikes! The tour guide said that the city is still under water because of it. Very interesting!
We then made our way to the Olympic pool area! I had no idea there was a pool in Olympic Stadium! This area consisted of the actual lap pool, the diving area, and the water polo site. All of these pools are being used today in some way. On Sunday's the pool is open to the public, and it happened to be a Sunday that our tour was. So we got to see all these people having so much fun! There were blow-up play things all across the pool! On other days, the pool is used for swim training, and people wanting to swim laps. As we were walking by the water polo area, there were practices going on there, too! I guess they have to come up with ways to continue to make money!
Lap pool, now used for open swim
Diving pool!
Water Polo pool!
After the pool area, we walked down dark corridors to the actual stadium. Now, the whole stadium hasn't really been updated since it was built in the 70's, so everything was very out-dated! And I could tell when we walked into it! We walked into the stadium in right field, and it was pretty cool to be there! A crew was working on the field to get it ready for baseball, and there were a few people in the outfield with soccer balls! The stadium bore a striking resemblance to the old Metrodome in Minneapolis! The roof was initially open-air, but they covered it with a blue plexi-glass material on the inside, and the color was white on the exterior, to match the half-dome! The one thing that really struck me as odd was the seats! The majority of the seats were individual classroom-looking seats. If you think back to your grade-school years, those colored plastic seats that connected to your desk, those were the seats that covered the stadium, and they were original! As the guide was giving his talk to the French speakers, we had plenty of time to walk around and take pictures! I was excited to see what it was like when it was baseball-ready!
Our tour ended near where the king and queen of the 1976 Olympics were painted on the walls! Nadia Comaneci was right next to Bruce Jenner, forever changing and breaking Olympic Records! Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast ever to score a perfect 10.0 in an Olympic event, on her way to collecting 3 gold medals that year! Bruce Jenner beat his own record in the Olympic Decathlon! Such a cool thing to remember these athletes by!
After our tour was over, we headed back to our hotel to rest. Robbie also had his Fantasy Baseball Draft during this time! I used this time to nap! The rest of the evening we relaxed and explored our hotel. From the top floor windows, we could see Olympic Stadium, the downtown skyline beyond, and Mt. Royal to the right of downtown!
If you look closely, at the top of Mt. Royal there is a cross to the left. Many years ago, the St. Lawrence River was flooding pretty bad, so the governor at the time had this cross built in hopes and prayers that the flooding would stop. Pretty powerful stuff!
Later, we just stayed in our room and ordered a pizza! We were going to order from a local place, but we couldn't find a website that was in English, our hotel phone wasn't working to make calls out, and it would have been expensive to call on our cell. So we ended up ordering from Dominoes! Haha!
Monday was a very chill day for us! As we were walking around the day before, we found a breakfast place that had a lot of people waiting in line for, so we figured it had to be good! So, on Monday, we ventured there for brunch, a place called L'Oeufrier! Last year, Robbie started learning French on a Duo Lingo app, so he remembers a lot of it, including food items, so he was able to translate the menu enough for both of us to order a really good breakfast! We had so much food, including the best crepe I've had since going to Paris 15 years ago! This crepe came stuffed with bananas and strawberries, and drizzled with Nutella! It was perfection! We also had bacon, eggs, sausage, and breakfast potatoes to accompany it!
After our breakfast, we went back to our hotel. We had plans to go downtown this afternoon, but it was too cold and windy for our liking (like 30 degrees and a wind chill to feel like probably 20 degrees). So, we chilled in our room until about 4 pm. We wanted to go check out the hotel swimming pool and sauna, but the sauna wasn't working, and the pool was cold. :( Bummer.
It was about that time to head to Olympic Stadium for the first of 2 exhibition games between the Blue Jays and Brewers! For both nights, we got tickets behind the Brewers dugout, but a bunch of rows up! We knew that the Blue Jays fans would outnumber the Brewers fans, but other than that, we had no other expectations! Even though we were staying so close to Olympic Stadium, we had no idea how to get in. Their signage was poor, and we ended up walking practically all the way around the stadium in order to get in, but at last, we were there!
The games started at 7:10 pm, and we got there around 5:30, just as the gates were opening. The concourses were packed, and there were in fact, a lot of vendors (contrary to the day before on our tour when there was nothing)! We had eaten before we left for the game, so we went right to our seats. We made it just in time to see the end of the Brewers batting practice. The first night, we were lucky enough to sit in a modern seat, with cup holders and everything! Haha!
Notice how they have a French and English scoreboard!
The pre-game festivities included turning all the lights off in the stadium (which made for a real interesting time when people were trying to find their seats), showing a cool video of former Expos greats, and introducing them as they came out onto the field. It was pretty cool to see!
The Star Spangled Banner and O Canada was sung. Not only that, but O Canada was sung in French, which I had never heard before. Very Cool. Also, the gal singing had PIPES!
Soon after, the first pitch was thrown, and as far as I was concerned, the baseball season was underway! The Brewers offense looked really good, as we put up 10 runs! That first night we saw 2 homeruns from the Brewers, too, one from Travis Shaw, and one from newcomer Yasmani Grandal! The final score was 10-5! It was a fun night, and according to the clock, the game let out at 22:45! :)
Eric Sogard. He used to be a Brewer, now the Blue Jays are stuck with him! Haha!
During the game, Robbie started to chat with the people behind him. The 3 of them liked his hat (he had a Badgers hat on), so they got to talking about Milwaukee, baseball, and our goal of making it to all 30 ballparks. It turns out that one of the guys was an investor in the Expos, Stephen Bronfman. He had a friend who was doing a documentary on hoping to bring baseball back to Montreal, and he interviewed Robbie! Pretty cool! Montreal really does want baseball back and there is much talk about it around the city! If it does come back, Bronfman wants to build a stadium right downtown where it's more developed, to attract more fans! It was kinda cool to have the lowdown on the direction of baseball in Montreal! I'll definitely be keeping my ears open to our neighbors to the north!
Tuesday was our downtown day! We found out that the place we went for breakfast on Monday is a chain, so we found the same place, but closer to downtown. We got a day-long Metro Pass for both of us, and we were on our way. The Metro System in Montreal was pretty easy to navigate. All you have to know is which direction your stop is; it may even be better laid out than New York City's subway system!
After breakfast, we headed to the Notre Dame Basilica, famous for holding the wedding of Celine Dion! Again, I did not know what to expect because I hadn't done much research on it, so much so that I didn't even know we were in front of it until we went inside!
My all-time favorite picture of our whole entire trip!
The stained glass windows didn't tell the story of the bible, which most do, but instead they told the religious story of the city of Montreal!
Then, as we were walking towards the alter, I looked back to the most beautiful pipe organ in the balcony, consisting of 7,000 individual pipes and a pedal board! Being at this Basilica reminded me of the church service we went to while I was in Paris, Sainte-Chapelle! Even though that whole service was in French, it was still a cool experience, and I kinda understood the flow! Being at the Notre Dame Basilica made me want to come back for a service!
After the Basilica, we walked to the waterfront on the St. Lawrence River. As we were there, we pondered what it was like for the explorers to circumvent this area. The explorers made it all the way from Quebec to Duluth through the Great Lakes, and it probably took them months to do so! Just incredible!
Making our way back inland, we stopped for some delicious Gelato! Even though it was chilly out, I couldn't pass up a mid-day snack!
I'm really glad we made it downtown, if only just for a few hours; it was definitely worth it! We soon switched gears to baseball mode, and off we went to Olympic Stadium for Game 2! The pre-game ceremonies were much like Day 1, introducing former ballplayers, then the game was underway! For this game we were in one of the original classroom seats! Even though these seats were much smaller, they were still really comfortable. As I was sitting there, I thought about who had sat in my exact seat during the Olympics, what event(s) they were watching, and where they are today! Pretty crazy when you actually think about things like that!
This game was all about the players staying healthy in preparation for the regular season that started in 2 days! To give you an idea, Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain (left and center fielders for the Brewers) had opportunities to make diving catches in the outfield over the 2 games, but they let the ball drop in front of them instead. Also, the artificial turf had no give to it! This game ended with a score of 2-0 in favor of the Jays, and it was one of the quickest games I think I've ever been to!
NOT Manny Pina...
Below are a few ads that they had scattered around the stadium in French!
During the game I took some pictures of pitching sequences. Pitchers and batters are one of my favorite things to take pictures of at ballgames!
While we were in Montreal, we had dinner at the same place 3 days in a row! It may sound crazy, but it was the only restaurant near our hotel and Olympic Stadium. The restaurant is called Madison's, and it was great every single time! We had the same waitress each time we were there, and the last day, she put us in the VIP area! She had our drink order down by the second day, and she was super friendly! I know Montreal isn't a huge tourist spot, but I would recommend the crap out of this restaurant to anyone who goes! And, ask for Vanessa! Madison's was also right across the street from the Olympic Village!
Sadly, our time in Montreal had to come to an end. We had a 10:55 am flight out on Wednesday, and on a suggestion from the hotel front desk guy, we left at 7 because he said rush hour could set us back. Turns out we got to the airport and to our gate by a little after 8! Even after going through Customs again! There was no line at Customs, or TSA. We got right through and had bunches of time at our gate! It was the first time I fell asleep at the airport on those super comfy chairs! Haha!
We had a connection through New York Laguardia, and Robbie asked the flight attendant if we would be able to see Manhattan. After consulting with the pilot, she came to our seat and said that we would be taking her favorite route into Laguardia, coming from the north, going down the Hudson River, and then circling back around to the airport. Manhattan would be visible the whole while out the left side of the plane, and guess where we were sitting.....the left side of the plane! I was super excited! Outside of my first flight ever, I had never had a connection at any of the New York airports, and neither had Robbie. We both knew we were in for a real treat! We had never really seen New York from this vantage point before.
And it turns out, as we took off from Laguardia, we got to see Manhattan again, along with both baseball stadiums, the U.S. Open grounds, and the giant globe! It was a great ending to a great trip to Canada!
The Globe is on the very middle left, U.S. Open grounds to the very right of that, Citi Field (where the New York Mets play baseball) to the right of that, and Laguardia airport in the upper right!
Yankee Stadium at the bottom of this picture
On our last trip to Victoria 4 years ago, I had been in 3 different countries by air, land, and sea. Now my goal is to get to Canada by those 3 modes of transportation! Air, check! Sea, check! Next up, land!
"God Save The MVP." "Christian Yelich for Prime Minister." -our ideas for signs for the game, until we found out that we couldn't bring signs in
