Montreal – Getting There #worldcon

I was too tired last night to do a proper post, so here’s a quick recap of the arrival at Montreal.

Firstly I was very impressed with Air Canada. Their flights from the UK are very conveniently timed, their have the best in-flight entertainment system I have yet seen, and the food was edible. Of course despite there being 20+ movies available there still wasn’t much I wanted to watch. The categorization was a bit odd too. Why is Citizen Kane “contemporary” rather than “classic”? Why is a TV documentary about Jean d’Arc “nature/science” rather than “history”? And with echoes of AmazonFail, Milk was hidden away in “avant garde” (which appeared to be a category for any movie with explicit sexual themes – Doubt was there too).

In addition to having edible food, quite a rarity for airlines, Air Canada served us a snack dish was was essentially a lamb pasty. It was a more convenient shape for packing than the Cornish thing, and the packaging claimed it was traditional Savoyard food. It was a good idea for serving on a plane.

Customs and immigration at Montreal were very easy. There is a little form to fill in, but there are no silly questions about genocide and you don’t need a visa if you are coming from the EU or USA. Montreal is clearly a busy tourist city as the baggage area had plenty of guide pamphlets available (Quoi faire en Montreal?) Apparently it is the 40th anniversary of John & Yoko’s sleep-in, which took place here. I am tempted to try to emulate them, but the food is very good so I think we’ll go out.

The taxi to our hotel was CA$38, so quite reasonable if there is more than one of you. However, there are apparently buses that are cheaper. Robbie Bourget and John Harrold were on the flight with me and they took the bus in to get to meetings while I hung around waiting for Kevin’s flight to arrive.

The Holiday Inn Select appears to be very nice. We have a fabulous room thanks to Kevin being a platinum member of their loyalty program. I shall take some pictures later, but Kevin has just woken up so it is time to check out the shower and get breakfast.

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