I would agree that there is quite a bit of travel to Montreal this year but this trip in mid July was different.

Nina Conti

I am a great fan of the English comedienne and ventriloquist Nina Conti. I cancelled a trip to New York in February to see her so I was delighted to hear that she was scheduled to perform at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal.

Plan to Fly in the Cessna Skylane

I originally planned a flying expedition to Montreal but there was a failure of the air speed indicator on take off; definitely a no go issue.

Road Trip to Montreal

I tried to fly commercially but seats were hard to come by and there was no time saving so I chose to drive to Montreal. Mumtaz agreed to jump into the car with under 20 minutes preparation and we were on our way.

Doubletree Hilton Downtown

Downtown Montreal hotels are usually difficult for me to book, so I was pleasantly surprised to get the Doubletree. It was exquisitely close to the venue for the Nina Conti performance and, to my surprise was a hotel that I knew very well indeed. It was formerly the Meridien Montreal and I did their back office system installation decades ago when I was working at Meridien Vancouver. The hotel was in very good condition, it is quite a quirky place and we had a great stay.

Nina Conti’s Performance was Spectacular

What more is there to say, the audience was very enthusiastic, I sat with a couple that travelled from Toronto.

Staying on in Montreal for a Couple of Extra Days

The original arrangements were for me to stay the night and leave immediately the next morning. No need for this level of rush now so we stayed on which gave us time to tour Old Montreal and to meet Naeem, Rehana and kids who had just arrived from a spectacular vacation to the Netherlands and Greece.

Click on the photo below for the album or click here for the slide show.