Day 12 - Canadian Football

Fr, 08/03/18

Today we continue east from Ottawa to Montréal and thus into the French part of Canada. The approximately 200km journey can be almost entirely done on the highway. On the way, we also see the first speed control. A police officer is sitting in the car and aims his laser measuring device at you. The lights stay off. We continue driving without a companion ;)

To pass the time, we often play 'Who am I?' on the way. Morgan Freeman, Megan Markle, Bertrand Piccad, Lara Croft, Thor, Tut-ench-Amun, Ueli Kestenholz, George Bregy are some of the participants in today's round.

After some searching, we finally find the Candlewood Suites, our accommodation for the next three days. We settle into our quarters on the 11th floor. Positive: we have a small kitchen and can finally cook for ourselves. Because you can notice that even Canadians in restaurants do without vegetables and prefer to prepare the food in the deep fryer.

To get an overview, we take a first walk through Montréal. It turns out that the city is always up and down. So no flat streets. There is also a Chinatown, Little Italy, and other different neighborhoods here. Certainly noteworthy is the harbor area, where cruise ships and giant yachts are anchored. But you can also find other attractions there, such as a ferris wheel, its own city beach, and the Orientalys Festival.

We retreat to our quarters to cook and prepare for the football game of the Montréal Alouettes. Yesterday evening, we organized tickets for today's game at 7:30 p.m.

With around 15,000 other spectators, we finally arrive at the outdoor stadium and wait for the kickoff. Matchup: Montreal vs Hamilton Tigers. The biggest difference to American football: the teams only have 3 attempts to reach a new first down.

It quickly becomes clear which team is favored. Hamilton scores two touchdowns in its first two attacks and leads 14-0. In addition, Montréal's quarterback does not perform well. Even their punter fails, resulting in an unsuccessful kick that ends in an opponent's touchdown. After the first quarter, the score is already 28-0. It is needless to say who won, but rather how much. Final result: 50-11. At least the backup QB scored a touchdown ;)

And so after a high-scoring game, we head home.