We spent three days in a mostly but not entirely overcast Montreal. We stayed in the elegant Hotel Bonaparte in Vieux 
Montreal, just a short walk from La Place des Armes, where we saw the statue of the chevalier and Notre Dame. That night we had a wonderful dinner at the posh hotel restaurant. On 
Saturday we did a Viator van tour of the city, catching the view from the top of Mount Royal; 
St. Joseph’s Oratorio (which I visited in 1964 with my parents and brother), where we saw one of the replicas of “Angels Unaware,” a statue honoring immigration by Canadian 
sculptor Timothy Schmalz. 
That afternoon we ate poutine and watched the Ranger game at a funky dive in Old Montreal that was decorated with Yankees jerseys and a 
wall full of Playboy 
magazine covers from the 1970s. In the evening, we went to the Bell Center, where we saw the Montreal Canadiens beat 
the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2. It was impressive to see how the team honored its incredible history, with an outdoor plaza, and the indoor championship banners and retired jerseys. Ginny called it the second religious experience of the day. The crowd was friendly and spirited; I loved the power with which they chanted “Bleu! Blanc! Rouge!” Both teams can be fairly described as up-and-coming, but we saw some excellent players, including Flyer Matvei Michkov (39), and Canadians Cole Caufied (13), Kurt Suzuki (14), and Lane Hutson (48), who after an incredible end-to-end rush scored with an amazing sharp-angle shot. AND. . .they put us on the Jumbotron!
