Montreal

Last weekend we went to Montreal.  It's only 2 hours and a bit from here, but in many respects it's a world away (half a world really).


We took the quickest route, which is not necessarily the most scenic, but it does have it's own attraction: Herb's. 


I'd read about Herb's a few months ago and immediately filed it as a must-see destination while we were here. It's about half way between Montreal and Ottawa and a popular stopping place for travellers. It's in Vankleek Hill, which a web search just told me is the Gingerbread Capital of Ontario - bugger, we gave the main part of town a miss, but now I'm regretting it!  Who knows what I missed?  Actually, I just read further and it's not the little candy houses that are springing up everywhere for Christmas, but real surviving examples of Victorian gingerbread architecture.  I really will have to go back.  


Anyway, I digress.  Herb's full name is "Herb's Service Centre and Travel Plaza".  We didn't really need the service centre bit, although the light planes "parked" in the field and the many big trucks around proved that many others do.  We were there to experience the travel plaza:

Yes, that's correct - hair salon, laundry, and restaurant, which was pretty good. This was for Cluny from the kid's menu:

Pancakes presented a la Mickey Mouse

Sadly, I was unable to convince any of my travelling companions to take advantage of the on-site hairdresser and I'd done all the washing, but who knows next time....


We waved Herb's a fond farewell and continued on to Montreal. It's a noticeably "European" city.  It's not just the french signage everywhere (and only french, mind you!), but the look and style of most of the streets and shops.  A noticeable lack of popular fast food franchises too. I was reminded of Melbourne a bit, because of the mix of North American and European styles.


First stop to familiarise ourselves with the city was a drive to the Olympic stadium and the Botanic Gardens, which are over the road. The gardens are the 3rd largest in the world, and despite most of the plants being cut back or dying back for the onset of winter, it was still a lovely place to visit.

By then it was late afternoon, and some of us were getting hungry. Time for food, or to be more specific, poutine:

Mine was traditional, but the others opted for variations on the theme, like the T-Rex or the Mexican. Note too the hot chocolate served in a bowl. If you're interested, here's a site devoted to Montreal and poutine: http://www.montrealpoutine.com/


The next day was spent walking around Old Montreal and the old port area. Montreal dates back to the early 17th century, and you could walk around the old city for days.

Adjacent to Old Montreal is the old port, also an interesting place to walk around. Views across to Habitat 67, built for the World Expo in 1967, and apparently still a great place to live:

Next stop in the old port area was lunch at a special place:

(named after one of the owner's pug dog!)  Very good lunch too.


Continuing with the food theme, dinner that night was at a Montreal institution - Schwartz's Hebrew Deli.  Don't get the wrong impression from the inclusion of the word "deli" though, it was really huge slabs of smoked meat (a bit like corned beef to our tastes) in a sandwich with a pickle and some coleslaw on the side.  The best coleslaw I've ever had, made without that gluggy creamy "mayo" so beloved of every North American and which accompanies just about every salad I've ever had here.


The place was packed, as it is every night and probably largely unchanged since it opened over 80 years ago. http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/index2.html  (If you visit the website you'll notice that they haven't yet updated the list of celebrities to include our names.)

Does anyone detect a theme here????


The next day included a visit to the largest market in Montreal (and the largest in North America too, I think) in the Italian neighborhood, Marche Jean-Talon:

 A quick stop to pick up some macarons on the way:

Lest you think we did nothing but eat, here are some pictures of Montreal's streetscapes and it's unique housing style, with external staircases:

We spent the afternoon with a colleague of John's who has just moved to Montreal with her family on secondment with an organisation associated with the UN.  (Did you know that Quebec has it's own seat at UNESCO?)


Dinner was at "home" in our apartment.  BUT, we had pies, from this place:

ta=tourtiere australienne


Heard about it here in Ottawa, and a couple of our group (can you guess?) very eagerly sought it out.  The pies were pretty good too, but we didn't buy any of the other goodies on offer, like Cherry Ripes (but I've been thinking of them ever since!).


Our last day started with bagel breakfast. From wikipedia: 
The Montreal bagel, is a distinctive variety of hand-made and wood-fired baked bagel. In contrast to the New York-style bagel,^[1] the Montreal bagel is smaller, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood-fired oven. It contains malt, egg, and no salt and is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked in a wood-fired oven, whose irregular flames give it a dappled light-and-dark surface colour.

Then we visited the Lachine canal and Ile Sainte-Helene (site of Expo 67)

Our last stop before heading home was Mont Royal (aka Mont Real).  

What a fabulous city.