Arrived in Montreal!

We arrived in Montreal yesterday just in time for lunch! :)

On first arrival it reminds us alot of Nottingham, England. The space is small, lots of people walking on the streets, not much room for automobiles.

It was great seeing Fernando, Claudinha & family after four years. It has been a great reunion.

Then there was the time to unload the van and walk uphill a ways to the aparment and then up a flight of steep stairs. We all then decided we packed way too much stuff. So rule #1 - when traveling (no matter the weather) only one bag per person and one carry bag.

Then to sort out where to put the bags in order to get to them was a whole another story / event. We figured it out and we'll make it work over the next couple of weeks.

Typical Brazilian welcome yesterday. Claudinha's sister and husband came to visit and then another Brazilian couple came to visit. My older kids were thrilled with speaking only Portuguese and Victoria is coping very well. She is speaking a little more and Samuel is just going along for the ride. It has just been wonderful.

The other problem is that it is cold outside, but inside the apartment it is like tropical weather. The radiator heat is controlled by the building, not individual settings per apartment. It is 24C inside the house!!!! We opened a window last night just to get fresh air. So when you dress to go out, you need to dress and go. Now this is almost impossible with two two years old, one five year old and one six year old, and not to mention two teenagers!

Today we needed to get some Candian money, metro tickets and do some food shopping to stock the house. Tomorrow we'll begin our adventure on traveling through the city doing tourist things.