2024.Montreal

Good morning Montreal! So nice to be SO FOGGED in! I hope this fog does not last! We had a great QUIET night at the YUL Marriott hotel and are ready to face the day! First stop – breakfast! Second stop – the 747 (aptly named) bus into the city! Third stop – Gluten Free Heaven!

Now we have found, taken and gotten off the 747 bus to downtown Montreal – quite an experience! Where we happened to get off was actually Chinatown, which lasted 2 blocks – so we saw the gate going in and out! Beautiful murals on buildings too! We were walking towards Old Montreal however there was a LOT of construction to get past! All of a sudden the bells started ringing on a church nearby which I saw was Notre Dame so we went over to see what was going on – it was a wedding! Then we arrived at the piece de resistance! Le Marquis Bakery – a gluten free bakery that I have heard a TON about and it did not disappoint! Only issue? 3 stairs out front. Well, I was desperate for some GF goodness so up we went! The chef in the bakery took one look at me and said “you must be celiac as we do not see many people with (french for wheelchairs) in here”! I agreed with him! He made me a spinach crepe – best I have ever had and I bought some goodies to take on the trip with me. Then, due to time, we caught a taxi back to the airport.

Now we got back to the airport all safe and sound, and we packed, I sent a care package of my summer type clothes to my parents to lessen the load going to Ireland (read: so Lynda can buy wool) and we went and checked in! The Montreal Airport is not as big as the Vancouver Airport when it comes to gate areas, however it still is spread out – similar to YVR. The only difference is they do Transborder/USA check-in at one end of the airport and then Domestic/International at the other end. Then once we went through the Domestic/International security, we walked along the Domestic (very busy) part of the terminal and then had to show our boarding cards to get into the International part of the terminal. I noticed that people could go back and forth though, where they cannot at YVR. We ended up in the Air Canada Lounge, which was nice – there were about 50 people in line for the lounge at that time, however they let people with disabilities jump the queue it seems (or that is what I was told). Nice lounge – we got to relax for about 90 minutes prior to boarding our flight to Dublin. As it was night, I do not have many pictures from that period of time, it was pitch black outside! My dinner meal was beef (first time in decades I have gotten beef instead of chicken) and then for the GFML for dessert it is always fruit, so I pulled out my bakery items and ate my fruit first and then placed the raspberry/strawberry galette dessert in my bowl and enjoyed my “meal”!

Now it is time to get flat on the flight! See you in a couple of hours! This is only a 6 hour flight to Dublin!

Holy cow! Six AM comes early! All packed and ready to go and the hotel called an accessible taxi for us (they would not book one in advance) and it is an hour wait! So I had to get onto the Hotel Shuttle to the airport instead – not happy! Now I see why a taxi did not want to come to the hotel – we could have walked the 1-2 km to the airport so why would a taxi want that kind of fare? Not really however the hotel did not provide accessible transportation so that is an issue.

Moving on, we got to Dulles Airport and got checked in quite fast. The gate was actually quite close (for those who know Dulles – it was a Z gate so next to the terminal) however we were there in really good time so they suggested we visit the lounge which is in Terminal B. Now, Dulles, since I last flew into it, now has a train system instead of those airline like busses that shuttle you from terminal to terminal. It looks like the busses are still in effect for some gates however the trains are used to get between the 3 terminals. So they called a wheelchair for me and off we went to the lounge – Turkish Airlines! It was the Star Alliance Lounge that was open at this time in the morning – it was also VERY busy! We lucked out and quickly found a seat on the 1st floor (there were only stairs to 2nd floor) and then checked out the buffet – which was a middle eastern type offering of food – very cool! They had cheesy grits and I was happy! Also some fruit and yogurt and I was set! The coffee machine poured a combo of thick chocolate and milk when a hot chocolate was ordered and that was a devine drink!

We boarded the CRJ with no issues – they took my walker from me, I velcro’d it closed as I normally do so it will not open in flight and get damaged and off we got into the plane! Off we taxi’s to YUL!

Got off the plane onto the tarmac and what do I see at the end of the ramp? One sad looking walker that is damaged AGAIN! This is the fourth time that on a CRJ flight without much turbulence my walker has sustained damage – twice the frame has been bent, once the seat damaged and now the back strap severed! I guess I get to talk to ScootAround, Air Canada’s mobility aid fix it company again and guess what! I am right! They are currently looking to see if they can get my walker repaired overnight (and a loaner to me). After spending an hour at the baggage department, with a very nice Air Canada attendant assisting us with our luggage and me in a wheelchair, we were done and we were off to the Marriott hotel, which was in the airport, conveniently! Only issue getting to the hotel? The Air Canada attendant did not like glass elevators!

Now in our hotel room, here is our view for the afternoon/evening! After chatting with Air Canada several times in the afternoon, they finally realized they cannot fix my walker so I then went downstairs at the Marriott hotel and asked them if they can bolt my walker back together. So while I sat for an hour in the business centre, a very french canadian man from the engineering department who only spoke Quebecois, the front desk clerk and I communicated on how best to fix it and he had it done fairly fast! When I get back to Vancouver Air Canada is providing a new walker.

Tomorrow we are going into Montreal on a gluten free mission! Got to get some sleep! Good night!