Hi Adventurers!
I meant to post again before I left for this trip, but with the holidays, work, etc I got a bit sidetracked. So tomorrow I hope to work on my quilt post I promised. But today I wanted to share the first couple of days in Montreal.
Dec 26, 2017 we flew out of San Francisco on Air Canada. Not a bad airline but not my favorite. They charge for everything even the booking of your seat is seperate from the purchase of your ticket. Experienced this with Austrialian airlines as well. Interesting practice to say the least. This particular flight was very uneventful (yea!) so far as no flight issues or much help from the stewardesses either. We landed ON TIME in Montreal. Customs was relatively easy and quick here in Montreal. Our adventure began as I could not rent a car, so I had to take either a taxi or uber. So…I tried UBER for the first time. I downloaded the app while in baggage claim and got my first ride. Only challenge was trying to figure out where door 6 (UBER door) was. I guess if I would have take a moment to actually read the signs posted, it would not have been so challenging. Being the typical human, I think I know more than the signs (haha!). So it took us a good 10 minutes to find the uber driver. Luckily I had saved to my iphone wallet my AIRBNB information. This has turned out to be handy new feature with AIRBNB, It had all the pertient info at my fingertips. Sweet! Address, house rules, wifi, parking, etc. Very nice new feature with the app. Loving it. We safely made it to our AIRBNB. I spent the next 15 minutes in 20F/-6C weather trying to figure out how to get into the building. The info wasn’t matching what I was seeing. So I called my host who was awesome!. In just a couple of minutes we were in. Due to Christmas, I brought 3 suitcases to haul up 2 flights of stairs. My grandson took his and I hauled my two up and up. Great little apartment in downtown Montreal near the Snowden Metro stop. After Caitlin, my daughter arrived (and she figured out where to park), we ordered dinner from a little greek resturant Yia Sou! A block down. Yum. I would recommend eating there for sure. We got pita plates – chicken & lamb- which came with rice and potatoes (plenty of starch!). We decided to order zucchini chips and lentil soup also. Delicious! By the time we fell asleep it was 6F/-14C.
Dec 27, 2017 came bright early for us Californians. When we work up it was -6F/-21C. Can you say burrrr? So as we researched things to do for the day we checked several options. We seemed to arrive between all the cool events like Igloofest which begins mid January. We took a break and walked down to Starbucks which happened to be next to the Greek resturant from last night. So convenient for a Starbucks addict. Caitlin had some shopping she wanted to do and she made an appointment for her car at Canadian Tire Store since she had a error message on her way into Montreal from Halifax (13 hours #ouch drive). So we jumped on the Metro after buying our Opus cards for the week. We got off at Lucien L’Allier stop to hit up the North Face store for warm undergarments and Nepresso store. It had warmed up to 1F/-17C by the time we did lunch at Dundees. It is very challenging finding food place for a 10 year old. The food was good. Shaun had a chicken quesdilla. Let’s just say that it isn’t California style and leave it at that. Plus he likes everything very plain. #plainasincheeseonly. I had the sandwich of the day which turned out to be a “grilled cheese” with bacon and carmelized onions. Can’t remember what Caitlin had. We had leftovers. Pictures have been hard to come by because it is so cold out that I can barely move my fingers without gloves so trying to take pics has been a no. We took metro back to the apartment and the kids took the car in and hit up the grocery store for dinner which is our typical food so not really going to go into that.
Dec 28, 2017 we originally planned on going to the Montreal Science museum but since we were having parking issues we decided to go rock climbing at Allez Up gym. It was very big with a lot of routes and a great staff. Not much to recommend for us non-climbers but they kids loved it. They boulder and climbed. They even had a few auto belay routes, but not a lot. Afterwards we found this little crepe place called Spanel Crepes. #crepesweretodiefor. It was delicious. Shaun had a nutella/banana/strawberry crepe (hey! I am grandma. I don’t have to make him eat healthy.). Caitlin had a smoked salmon and avocado crepe. I had ham, cheese, egg crepe with delicious english breakfast tea. Caitlin had a cappuccino that she said was awesome. So if you get a chance to eat there, do! We hit up the grocery store again before going home. Caitlin made shrimp and lambchops for dinner while we watched Captain America on Netflix. It was freezing by the time we made it home. It was -17F/-27C. Thank goodness we were bundled up.
Today Dec 29, 2017 we finally went to Montreal Science Centre located King Edward Pier in Old Port of Montreal. We did the museum in about 2 hours. I enjoyed the Innuit exhibit. The other two zoomed through everything. It is very interactive and you could potentially be there for more hours. They have a number of IMAX movies but we opted for lunch versus a movie. It looked like they had some good ones though. A great place to take kids or anyone who loves science. We found this great place called Chez Suzette for lunch. They serve crepes and fondue. Caitlin and Shaun each had crepes (primavera and shrimp). I had a blt and french onion soup. All very good. But of course dessert is the highlight. We had chocolate fondue #yum #darkchocolate served with banans, strawberries, pineapple, marshmallows, honeydew, grapes, and crepes. Everything was awesome. Another gem discovered. We took the metro back to our apartment. It ended up being an early day so we watched the Sharks hockey game until dinner. Tonight was leftovers and another Captain America movie (Winter Soldier). It has been flurrying all day and just now stopped. It is -3F/-17C here at 10:30pm. Tomorrow is suppose to be warmer. We shall see.
Hope you are enjoying the travel diary and find it useful. If I can figure out how to load pictures, I will load the few I have taken.
A le prochaine!
Peggy