Travelling To Montreal.

Today we prepared to leave our comfy, homely, warm home in Quebec and start a new adventure in Montreal. We also learned of a new weather phenomenon...freezing rain. My brain was telling me that it was rain that was really cold. Heather had read the dire warnings from the weather people but its true meaning was lost on us.
After the heavy snow of yesterday it had started to lightly rain as we returned home. We noted that the layers of snow were now really shiny and smoothed out. When you stepped into a pile, the shiny layer cracked and broke like stepping onto a window pane. Oh! we thought. How odd.

Our 3 hour train to Montreal left at 1pm and we ordered a taxi for 11.30. Decided to walk to our local café for a drink at 10.15. Wooaaa! Glistening ice over everything. Thankfully our host had cleared our stairs, and added salt and grit, but we were still hanging on to the rail.
The cleared footpath from yesterday was now like a skating rink. So... freezing rain means that the rain freezes everything. Tree and small bush branches looked like they were made of glass. At times that ice would fall, so that the footpath was littered with ice shards. With the tiniest of footsteps we reached the café. Our walk back was actually on the road where car traffic made the ice slushy, which was better than icy.
So our departure from Quebec was timely. We have since seen reports that the city is suffering a weather event and even the locals are slipping and sliding.

Very little snow in Montreal as we arrived about 4.30. Taxi drove us to a suburb where the residential duplexes meet inner city apartment blocks. We are in another duplex-type building, but while those in Que tended to be stand-alone, the ones here in Mont. are like terraces, all join together. Our neighbourhood has multi-cultural eating places, food shops and the best local market in the city. Somewhere we plan to explore tomorrow. The underground rail line is also just around the corner.

Heather had Googled a local pub which turned out to be an excellent choice. The waitress had spent time in Oz. Milk purchased at the closest shop and time to retreat for the night.

The station at Quebec was a grand example of the heyday of rail. 

Not a great photo but typical of the view from the train. The countryside was "flat as" and most agricultural. The farms did not appear to be very big and the paddocks/fields were mainly long rather than wide.