Day 190 - Saturday, July 9th, 2011

After a leisurely lie in, I used Google maps to seek out the nearest Chez Cora for brunch (as it had been highly recommended by Austin and Joanne), and it was just about a 20 minute walk away. After a brief wait for a table (due to it being packed, always a good sign), my order was taken and soon I was enjoying Omelette Theo (with cheese, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, onions, carrot, cauliflower and spinach, so that instatly took care of the 5-a-day requirement, with something to spare), home fries, fruit, malt toast, fresh orange juice and decaff coffee - cracking!

What better way to work part of that off than with a trek up the Mont Royal, reachable from the city centre by foot and hundreds of steps, making for a very decent work-out especially given the 28 Celsius sun. The reward atop was a fantastic view of the city and the Saint Laurence river, and a delightfully easy descent, sniggering (inwardly) at the dozens of panting ascendant individuals.

I then met up with Mark and we headed out by Metro to the Hippodrome, a specially constructed 80,000 capacity stadium for U2's concerts here, the other of which was last night. After meeting the chappie who sold us tickets at face value ($70/€52) for tonight's sold-out show, we settled into the fan area outside, enjoying a few beers in the hot summer sun. We headed in at about 7.30pm and caught the end of Interpol who were pretty poor if truth be told - one of these bands who are too cool for school to interact with the crowd, so their set was tame and lifeless, and the crowd barely knew they were there. At 9.15pm, the crowd go wild as the quartet emerge to deliver a brilliant 2-hour show featuring hits from all their albums (even Zooropa). As ever, Bono knew how to please the crowd, by delivering some chat in the language of the overwhelmingly francophone crowd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inrGpwwVmMQ

The stage (called The Claw) was impressive, spawning the name of this tour : 360 degrees as was the lighting. Incredibly it is nearly 24 years since I first saw them live - in Cork's Pairc Ui Chaoimh (with UB40 as the brilliant support) - I'm still grateful to my parents for trusting me to go there, on my own, aged 15. A quarter century later, U2 are impressively as enjoyable as ever. The public transport worked very well afterwards, and we were back Downtown well within an hour, and having eaten nothing since Chez Cora, an emergency visit to McDonald's was required, where a Big Mac Meal and a McFlurry were wolfed down.

Chez Cora, for the best breakfast in Montreal



Intrepid mountaineer Damo atop the summit of challenging Mont Royal 

The Claw By Day

The Claw By Night

Contentment : 19 / 25

Excitement :    4.5 / 10

Memorability : 6.5 / 15

Overall : 60% (3rd out of 190)