Anyone else planning to visit should know that -12°C is not considered particularly cold as it's around average for Québec City in December/January. It's coldest winter nights typically have lows in the minus-twenties °C. Temperatures below -30 °C occur occasionally. A wind chill factor will lower the effective temperature below that, so beware. A great time to visit in winter if you can is mid-February when Carnavale de Québec is on - this is the second largest winter festival in the world (Harbin, China is first)
Ohhhh, Canadaaaaa
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Anyone else planning to visit should know that -12°C is not considered particularly cold as it's around average for Québec City in December/January. It's coldest winter nights typically have lows in the minus-twenties °C. Temperatures below -30 °C occur occasionally. A wind chill factor will lower the effective temperature below that, so beware. A great time to visit in winter if you can is mid-February when Carnavale de Québec is on - this is the second largest winter festival in the world (Harbin, China is first)
Matt_01
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We were planning to go to the Carnaval de Québec in Feb 19 however MrsM pulled the pin on the trip stating it would be to cold. So in Feb 19 we ended up going to the Harbin Ice Festival and Sapporo Snow Festival instead, I will never understand her decision making process.
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If you get a chance to tell us about these that would be super interesting. By the way sorry I mispelled Carnaval de Québec.We were planning to go to the Carnavale de Québec in Feb 19 however MrsM pulled the pin on the trip stating it would be to cold. So in Feb 19 we ended up going to the Harbin Ice Festival and Sapporo Snow Festival instead, I will never understand her decision making process.
Katie
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Thurs 12 Dec
On Weds night, after Mr Katie hurt himself, we decided to book a two hour city/old city tour. The HOHO bus only operates for the peak summer season, but there were still a few tours on offer. Had we been better organised, I would have booked one of the tours to Ile d'Orleans, but now that I think about it, I think they weren't running, either. The trips to the snow fields and an ice hotel only start up in January. I guess one day I'll get my family organised and we'll think of these things before we arrive - or maybe by now we won't change our ways! (I just don't want to have to make every darn decision).
We mentioned the tour to Martin in the lounge, and he called the company and arranged for them to pick up, so we didn't have to walk to Chateau Frontenac. Not a long walk, but with Mr Katie's right arm not able to move, we didn't want to risk him hurting himself. The tour company picked us up - well, it was our tour guide in our tour bus! There were already a couple of other tourists from the Hilton going on the tour. Perfect.
We enjoyed the tour, saw some different vantage points of the city. We were given ~20 mins to wander around the bottom of Petit Champlain and the Notre Dame Victoires area; that at least gave us the opportunity to get some coffee from a cafe near the church. There was a French (France not Quebec) guy on the tour, he got into a bit of trouble with the driver for coming back 10+ mins after we were meant to be leaving that stop.
We went along the river, then up through the suburbs outside the old city. Along Rue Maguire - took a few pics as a dear friend has the surname Maguire. Then it seemed we mostly looked at the streets, schools, and apartments where our driver had spent time while growing up!
One of the most interesting sights along the tour was the temporary garages at some of the houses - mostly houses old enough to not have a built-in garage. Keeps the snow off! One of the fancy houses near where a French diplomat (???) lives even had this kind of covering along the path to the door. We saw a few of these in Montreal as well, including on the accessibility ramp to one house.
The next most curious thing was some of the external staircases to the second or third level of some buildings. This pic isn't so bad, but some of them really looked like the external stairs were added 100 years after the building was constructed and were very much an afterthought.
After the tour, we visited the Dufferin Terasse to check out the slides, which were unfortunately closed. As posted in real time for @drron. They seemed icy enough, but I guess it just wasn't enough.
From Dufferin Terasse, we walked along the Governor's walk, built for the 350th anniversary of Canada or Quebec. This took us all the way to the Plains of Abraham. We did not realise it was basically a one way trip - well, two ways is walking back the exact same way that you came! We did get to see some sights along the river, play with some snow on the handrails, and see someone's discarded Starbucks drink that had frozen while sitting there.
One of the two ice breakers used to keep the river clear as needed.
Walking along the Plains of Abraham was NOT FUN. No clear paths, snow, and icy conditions, and us all desperate to not hurt ourselves. And it felt about -20C as the wind whistled along the open plains.
To the left above is the Hilton with the crane on top of it - I think the room windows that are kind of all solid white were already being renovated.
When we finally made it to Rue Saint Louis, we headed to Le Chic Shack for some poutine and lunch.
Along the way we went past a tree grown around a cannon ball - Mr Katie had heard of this in his research.
Some kind of alcoholic lemonade as my lunch drink.
Bun-free burger for me.
It seems I didn't take a pic of the poutine - this location was rated well for its poutine, but Mr Katie decided it wasn't authentic as they used hand cut and then "smashed" potatoes for their chips, not shoestring fries. Sheesh. We enhoyed the warmth of the restaurant, but by the time we left our toes still weren't defrosted!
On Weds night, after Mr Katie hurt himself, we decided to book a two hour city/old city tour. The HOHO bus only operates for the peak summer season, but there were still a few tours on offer. Had we been better organised, I would have booked one of the tours to Ile d'Orleans, but now that I think about it, I think they weren't running, either. The trips to the snow fields and an ice hotel only start up in January. I guess one day I'll get my family organised and we'll think of these things before we arrive - or maybe by now we won't change our ways! (I just don't want to have to make every darn decision).
We mentioned the tour to Martin in the lounge, and he called the company and arranged for them to pick up, so we didn't have to walk to Chateau Frontenac. Not a long walk, but with Mr Katie's right arm not able to move, we didn't want to risk him hurting himself. The tour company picked us up - well, it was our tour guide in our tour bus! There were already a couple of other tourists from the Hilton going on the tour. Perfect.
We enjoyed the tour, saw some different vantage points of the city. We were given ~20 mins to wander around the bottom of Petit Champlain and the Notre Dame Victoires area; that at least gave us the opportunity to get some coffee from a cafe near the church. There was a French (France not Quebec) guy on the tour, he got into a bit of trouble with the driver for coming back 10+ mins after we were meant to be leaving that stop.
We went along the river, then up through the suburbs outside the old city. Along Rue Maguire - took a few pics as a dear friend has the surname Maguire. Then it seemed we mostly looked at the streets, schools, and apartments where our driver had spent time while growing up!
One of the most interesting sights along the tour was the temporary garages at some of the houses - mostly houses old enough to not have a built-in garage. Keeps the snow off! One of the fancy houses near where a French diplomat (???) lives even had this kind of covering along the path to the door. We saw a few of these in Montreal as well, including on the accessibility ramp to one house.
The next most curious thing was some of the external staircases to the second or third level of some buildings. This pic isn't so bad, but some of them really looked like the external stairs were added 100 years after the building was constructed and were very much an afterthought.After the tour, we visited the Dufferin Terasse to check out the slides, which were unfortunately closed. As posted in real time for @drron. They seemed icy enough, but I guess it just wasn't enough.
From Dufferin Terasse, we walked along the Governor's walk, built for the 350th anniversary of Canada or Quebec. This took us all the way to the Plains of Abraham. We did not realise it was basically a one way trip - well, two ways is walking back the exact same way that you came! We did get to see some sights along the river, play with some snow on the handrails, and see someone's discarded Starbucks drink that had frozen while sitting there.
One of the two ice breakers used to keep the river clear as needed.
Walking along the Plains of Abraham was NOT FUN. No clear paths, snow, and icy conditions, and us all desperate to not hurt ourselves. And it felt about -20C as the wind whistled along the open plains.
To the left above is the Hilton with the crane on top of it - I think the room windows that are kind of all solid white were already being renovated.
When we finally made it to Rue Saint Louis, we headed to Le Chic Shack for some poutine and lunch.
Along the way we went past a tree grown around a cannon ball - Mr Katie had heard of this in his research.
Some kind of alcoholic lemonade as my lunch drink.
Bun-free burger for me.
It seems I didn't take a pic of the poutine - this location was rated well for its poutine, but Mr Katie decided it wasn't authentic as they used hand cut and then "smashed" potatoes for their chips, not shoestring fries. Sheesh. We enhoyed the warmth of the restaurant, but by the time we left our toes still weren't defrosted!
OZDUCK
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We tried poutine twice and I am afraid I am still not a real convert. Beavertails I also had twice, the first was horrible and the second was a lot better but still very "fried".
It was interesting to see the sights of Quebec City in the snow compared to how they looked in summer. We picked up our hire car to drive to "The Maritimes" from under 'your' Hilton Hotel.
It was interesting to see the sights of Quebec City in the snow compared to how they looked in summer. We picked up our hire car to drive to "The Maritimes" from under 'your' Hilton Hotel.
Katie
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We are committed to trying to deep-fried dough delicacies of any cuisine.
Even if it's only once.
Katie
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Thurs 12 Dec part 2
After almost defrosting during our lunch, though there were reports that not all toes could be felt yet, we popped into the Fort museum upstairs for Mr Katie to purchase a book he didn't purchase the day before. Then we walked around to La Boutique de Noel de Quebec. We loved looking at all the trees decorate, and the wide variety of decorations available. Our little geek found a Tardis ornament; there were also many Moose and Mountie Canadian ornaments that you could get personalised. I bought one, but didn't ask about personalisation and it was quickly wrapped up. By personalisation, I mean having something like our names written on them, or Canada 2019 or the like.
Along one edge of the Christmas Market - Not sure what these yellow and black pieces of metal were, but I decided to believe they were where you have to put your skis after skiing along to the markets. I'm sure I'm not at all right, and I only had one of those alcoholic lemonades at lunch …
Then - the German Christmas Market was open near the city hall. It was a nice little market to visit, and indeed reminded me of the Christmas markets in Germany. There was a large wooden Advent calendar with boxes for each day:
After wandering through the market, we decided to head back to the hotel and sit in our room or the Exec lounge and read for a while. It was just too cold outside.
Arriving back at the hotel, I finally took a pic of their Christmas decos in main foyer:
As @fn0 has mentioned, these temperatures are not at all unusual for Quebec at this time of year, and it's often colder. We're also not the best at ensuring we get some down time (apart from the train rides and car rides), so spending some time just reading was a treat. It also gave Mr Katie the opportunity to put some more ice on his shoulder. I dozed for a bit in our room, then some construction noise made us want to escape. Miss 13 wasn't perturbed, so the adults went down to the Exec Lounge for a drink and more reading. I think I started working on my TR as well.
By dinner time, we didn't want to leave the hotel. So we didn't. We went to the ground floor restaurant. Miss 13 was being particularly fussy/refusing some meals, and I was trying to be patient, not try to force her to eat when she doesn't feel like it, but it was slightly aggravating. Anyway.
Paillard is a famous bakery in the Rue St Jean of the old city, and we were given some bread while we waited for our meals. I had to do the cutting for Mr Katie.
Our meals - for me, salmon with corn and the tomato sauce on the bottom was quite tasty, even though it looks quite horrid. Miss 13 had nachos, we asked to remove all of the spicy/objectionable contents (thereby almost turning it into corn chips with cheese and guac, or trying to). She was not a fan, but I'm sure it was fine. Mr Katie had steak (or some kind of meat hidden by that bowl of salad), along with four different kinds of chips - curly, straight, etc.
My dessert was a highlight - the Creme Brulee's flavour for that day was maple syrup. It was delicious, not overly sweet, with a lovely taste of maple syrup through it. Served with blueberries adn those white sticks are meringue.
After almost defrosting during our lunch, though there were reports that not all toes could be felt yet, we popped into the Fort museum upstairs for Mr Katie to purchase a book he didn't purchase the day before. Then we walked around to La Boutique de Noel de Quebec. We loved looking at all the trees decorate, and the wide variety of decorations available. Our little geek found a Tardis ornament; there were also many Moose and Mountie Canadian ornaments that you could get personalised. I bought one, but didn't ask about personalisation and it was quickly wrapped up. By personalisation, I mean having something like our names written on them, or Canada 2019 or the like.
Along one edge of the Christmas Market - Not sure what these yellow and black pieces of metal were, but I decided to believe they were where you have to put your skis after skiing along to the markets. I'm sure I'm not at all right, and I only had one of those alcoholic lemonades at lunch …
Then - the German Christmas Market was open near the city hall. It was a nice little market to visit, and indeed reminded me of the Christmas markets in Germany. There was a large wooden Advent calendar with boxes for each day:
After wandering through the market, we decided to head back to the hotel and sit in our room or the Exec lounge and read for a while. It was just too cold outside.
Arriving back at the hotel, I finally took a pic of their Christmas decos in main foyer:
As @fn0 has mentioned, these temperatures are not at all unusual for Quebec at this time of year, and it's often colder. We're also not the best at ensuring we get some down time (apart from the train rides and car rides), so spending some time just reading was a treat. It also gave Mr Katie the opportunity to put some more ice on his shoulder. I dozed for a bit in our room, then some construction noise made us want to escape. Miss 13 wasn't perturbed, so the adults went down to the Exec Lounge for a drink and more reading. I think I started working on my TR as well.
By dinner time, we didn't want to leave the hotel. So we didn't. We went to the ground floor restaurant. Miss 13 was being particularly fussy/refusing some meals, and I was trying to be patient, not try to force her to eat when she doesn't feel like it, but it was slightly aggravating. Anyway.
Paillard is a famous bakery in the Rue St Jean of the old city, and we were given some bread while we waited for our meals. I had to do the cutting for Mr Katie.
Our meals - for me, salmon with corn and the tomato sauce on the bottom was quite tasty, even though it looks quite horrid. Miss 13 had nachos, we asked to remove all of the spicy/objectionable contents (thereby almost turning it into corn chips with cheese and guac, or trying to). She was not a fan, but I'm sure it was fine. Mr Katie had steak (or some kind of meat hidden by that bowl of salad), along with four different kinds of chips - curly, straight, etc.
My dessert was a highlight - the Creme Brulee's flavour for that day was maple syrup. It was delicious, not overly sweet, with a lovely taste of maple syrup through it. Served with blueberries adn those white sticks are meringue.
Katie
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Fri 13 Dec
Unlucky for some! But we'd had our worst luck on Weds 11, so in comparison, this day was fine. After being in touch with a physio friend at home, I went out first thing to get Mr Katie a sling. I popped into the exec lounge to check that the nearest pharmac_ would be open, and the lovely, helpful Martin called them to check that they had a sling. I decided to try wearing my sneakers as my two pairs of boots were hurting my weird, large feet, but quickly discovered the sneakers were not a good idea. Back to the suitcase for them for the rest of the trip.
We decided to go further afield for brekky, and went to Paillard in Rue St Jean - the famous bakery that our tour guide had mentioned, and we'd also had the small loaf at dinner the night before. Croissants for Mr Katie, a savoury cheese and ham bun for Miss 13, and an apple turnover and an almond croissant for me.
We had a couple of hours to kill, and wandered through a bookstore across the road. We were all very entertained by it for over 30 mins, even though probably 80% of the books were in French.
We pondered the possibility of a cook book to recreate the banquets of the Asterix comics, but thought our non-existent French wouldn't be up to it. There was also a Snoop Dogg cookbook, didn't check to see if the main ingredient was weed, and a Pokemon cookbook! Fascinating!
Up the road to a pharmac_, where Mr Katie asked the pharmacist if they had a product like one he uses at home - Voltaren gel.
The pharmacist presented him with a tube of - Voltaren gel.
Sometimes there isn't much translation required.
After that, back to the hotel to check out at 12 and grab a cab to the Via Rail station. There's pretty much only one train out of Quebec - and it's either arriving from or going to Montreal. We checked in for our train, and this time our luggage was not only weighed, but taken from us and loaded on to the train by staff. We left it at the checkin counter, and didn't see it again until we arrived in Montreal. We had maybe 20 minutes in the Via Rail Business lounge - some seating, water and juices available, as well as tea and coffee. Our train was at about 12:30, and arrived in to Montreal at 4:30pm.
The train was an older style than the one we'd travelled on up to Quebec city.
We were again assigned seats around a table. There were power points availble. The window shades were hard to adjust. There were wee nooks and crannies above our seats, under our seats, all over for storing bags. Most of which would fit a standard hand bag, but nothing much larger. There was a larger storage area where we put our hand luggage behind our seat. We were in a mini-cabin at one end of the train car, just like Emerald city.
I tried a Bloody Caesar - quite spicy - as I'd heard this was a must have drink in Canada. We enjoyed some views of the river at stages of this journey. By the time we reached Montreal, our mini cabin was quite full. A couple boarded at some point,with seats across the aisle from us. A stop or two later, their child + in-law (not sure if the woman or the man was their child) and two grandkids boarded. It was lovely seeing the ~3yo sit with her grandfather or grandmother, chat, play. The other child was a baby. I thought that was a fun way to catch up and get together to travel - meet on the train!
These were our lunch options. As I'm taking so long to do this TR, I can't remember what the pasta was filled with - I had the pasta, Mr Katie had the beef? salad.
When we arrived in Montreal, we collected our suitcases from a luggage carousel on the main level of the station, then grabbed a cab to our hotel. As we exited the train station, I spotted the Hotel Bonaventure across the road - I'd stayed there three years earlier for a conference. I'd thought about booking the hotel just for their outdoor heated pool, but decided against it.
Unlucky for some! But we'd had our worst luck on Weds 11, so in comparison, this day was fine. After being in touch with a physio friend at home, I went out first thing to get Mr Katie a sling. I popped into the exec lounge to check that the nearest pharmac_ would be open, and the lovely, helpful Martin called them to check that they had a sling. I decided to try wearing my sneakers as my two pairs of boots were hurting my weird, large feet, but quickly discovered the sneakers were not a good idea. Back to the suitcase for them for the rest of the trip.
We decided to go further afield for brekky, and went to Paillard in Rue St Jean - the famous bakery that our tour guide had mentioned, and we'd also had the small loaf at dinner the night before. Croissants for Mr Katie, a savoury cheese and ham bun for Miss 13, and an apple turnover and an almond croissant for me.
We had a couple of hours to kill, and wandered through a bookstore across the road. We were all very entertained by it for over 30 mins, even though probably 80% of the books were in French.
We pondered the possibility of a cook book to recreate the banquets of the Asterix comics, but thought our non-existent French wouldn't be up to it.
There was also a Snoop Dogg cookbook, didn't check to see if the main ingredient was weed, and a Pokemon cookbook! Fascinating! Up the road to a pharmac_, where Mr Katie asked the pharmacist if they had a product like one he uses at home - Voltaren gel.
The pharmacist presented him with a tube of - Voltaren gel.
Sometimes there isn't much translation required.After that, back to the hotel to check out at 12 and grab a cab to the Via Rail station. There's pretty much only one train out of Quebec - and it's either arriving from or going to Montreal. We checked in for our train, and this time our luggage was not only weighed, but taken from us and loaded on to the train by staff. We left it at the checkin counter, and didn't see it again until we arrived in Montreal. We had maybe 20 minutes in the Via Rail Business lounge - some seating, water and juices available, as well as tea and coffee. Our train was at about 12:30, and arrived in to Montreal at 4:30pm.
The train was an older style than the one we'd travelled on up to Quebec city.
We were again assigned seats around a table. There were power points availble. The window shades were hard to adjust. There were wee nooks and crannies above our seats, under our seats, all over for storing bags. Most of which would fit a standard hand bag, but nothing much larger. There was a larger storage area where we put our hand luggage behind our seat. We were in a mini-cabin at one end of the train car, just like Emerald city.
I tried a Bloody Caesar - quite spicy - as I'd heard this was a must have drink in Canada. We enjoyed some views of the river at stages of this journey. By the time we reached Montreal, our mini cabin was quite full. A couple boarded at some point,with seats across the aisle from us. A stop or two later, their child + in-law (not sure if the woman or the man was their child) and two grandkids boarded. It was lovely seeing the ~3yo sit with her grandfather or grandmother, chat, play. The other child was a baby. I thought that was a fun way to catch up and get together to travel - meet on the train!
These were our lunch options. As I'm taking so long to do this TR, I can't remember what the pasta was filled with - I had the pasta, Mr Katie had the beef? salad.
When we arrived in Montreal, we collected our suitcases from a luggage carousel on the main level of the station, then grabbed a cab to our hotel. As we exited the train station, I spotted the Hotel Bonaventure across the road - I'd stayed there three years earlier for a conference. I'd thought about booking the hotel just for their outdoor heated pool, but decided against it.
Katie
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Fri 13 Dec part 2
In Montreal, we stayed at the Doubletree. The Doubletree is in a great location, atop the Complexe Desjardins. It's right near one of the main locations for the Montreal Jazz festival. Given its location, you catch an elevator up to level 6 to find the reception. It was pretty busy with people checking it at 5/5:30 on a Friday evening. The hotel overall was quite busy on the Friday and Saturday night - I understood why I got a deal for a discounted rate on Sunday night when you stay on Fri and Sat. Their Exec lounge is undergoing renos, so we were given drink and snack vouchers to use in the bar. The usual cookies on checkin, which were ignored by my family. Miss 13 got indignant later when I told her we'd gotten choc chip cookies and she hadn't realised! (they were both sitting down waiting while I checked in).
Elska water in the room, empty mini bar fridge, and we were told if we wanted more water to just call reception. I got a room upgrade to the Executive floor - top floor of the hotel. There was a massive room on our floor closer to the lifts.
The room felt modern, spacious and well designed. The mini bar was on Mr Katie's side of the bed, so he had that as a decent side table replacement.
As well as two voucher per night, each of which could be used for two drinks or two snacks/appetisers, we were given two chits for breakfast each day. I was informed we would have to pay for Miss 13, and we were only entitled to two free breakfasts as a Diamond. Sorry for the upside down photo.
We only used one voucher per night of our stay; for a drink. On the Friday and Saturday night, the bar was fairly full. Friday night we were asked to move as there was a group booking for where we'd been seated, and one of the staff didn't know about it when they'd said we could sit anywhere. We were leaving shortly, so that was not a problem. We had felt the stares of the group before we were informed of their booking, so at least we understood why we were being stared at.
We met up with a friend of mine and his husband for dinner. The Doubletree is also on the edge of Montreal's Chinatown, so they took us to their favourite Chinese restaurant. It's one that seems somewhat hidden on the first floor of an apartment building, surrounded by offices. We ordered far too much food, enjoyed it all, and loved having some company and different people to talk to.
After dinner, we wandered around a little, my friend mentioned sights of interest and stores along Rue St Catherine. Inside the Complexe Desjardins it was still pumping at after 8pm at night. I think the stores closed at about 9pm. It's a handy shopping centre to be attached to - there was an IGA supermarket and a SAQ bottle store there, as well as many other shops.
In Montreal, we stayed at the Doubletree. The Doubletree is in a great location, atop the Complexe Desjardins. It's right near one of the main locations for the Montreal Jazz festival. Given its location, you catch an elevator up to level 6 to find the reception. It was pretty busy with people checking it at 5/5:30 on a Friday evening. The hotel overall was quite busy on the Friday and Saturday night - I understood why I got a deal for a discounted rate on Sunday night when you stay on Fri and Sat. Their Exec lounge is undergoing renos, so we were given drink and snack vouchers to use in the bar. The usual cookies on checkin, which were ignored by my family. Miss 13 got indignant later when I told her we'd gotten choc chip cookies and she hadn't realised! (they were both sitting down waiting while I checked in).
Elska water in the room, empty mini bar fridge, and we were told if we wanted more water to just call reception. I got a room upgrade to the Executive floor - top floor of the hotel. There was a massive room on our floor closer to the lifts.
The room felt modern, spacious and well designed. The mini bar was on Mr Katie's side of the bed, so he had that as a decent side table replacement.
As well as two voucher per night, each of which could be used for two drinks or two snacks/appetisers, we were given two chits for breakfast each day. I was informed we would have to pay for Miss 13, and we were only entitled to two free breakfasts as a Diamond. Sorry for the upside down photo.
We only used one voucher per night of our stay; for a drink. On the Friday and Saturday night, the bar was fairly full. Friday night we were asked to move as there was a group booking for where we'd been seated, and one of the staff didn't know about it when they'd said we could sit anywhere. We were leaving shortly, so that was not a problem. We had felt the stares of the group before we were informed of their booking, so at least we understood why we were being stared at.
We met up with a friend of mine and his husband for dinner. The Doubletree is also on the edge of Montreal's Chinatown, so they took us to their favourite Chinese restaurant. It's one that seems somewhat hidden on the first floor of an apartment building, surrounded by offices. We ordered far too much food, enjoyed it all, and loved having some company and different people to talk to.
After dinner, we wandered around a little, my friend mentioned sights of interest and stores along Rue St Catherine. Inside the Complexe Desjardins it was still pumping at after 8pm at night. I think the stores closed at about 9pm. It's a handy shopping centre to be attached to - there was an IGA supermarket and a SAQ bottle store there, as well as many other shops.
Katie
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Sat 14 Dec
Rather than use our free Doubletree brekky (only for two! not three!), we decided to see what was interesting nearby. First, we walked to the subway station under Place des Arts to get public transport tickets. The unlimited weekend ticket L'Ocasionelle was great value at $CAD14 pp. There seemed to be a chip in it, but it was fairly thin cardboard. We decided on waffles for breakfast, searched Google, and walked along Rue St Catherine to Gauffre Mignonne. The cafe showed the international nature of Montreal residents, with menus available in and staff speaking English, French, and I think Chinese.
Miss 13 was very tired. Apparently four hours sitting on a train on her devices the day before really wore her out.
Plain waffles with maple syrup for Miss 13, savoury waffles with bacon for me (the bacon was actually mixed into the waffle mixture!), and a breakfast skillet for Mr Katie.
We then took a bus to Ville Marie with some intention to visit the Montreal Archaeology Museum. We found it really interesting - parts of the museum are in the main building, but most of the exhibits are underground, below the main building and other building nearby. On the walk to one building, you walk through a former sewer tunnel!
Playing silly buggers with our family selfie. I think we were grumping about waiting for the overview video.
One of the many exhibits covered the Great Peace of Montreal. Underneath this sign showing the 39 signatures of the Indigenous representatives, you could put your hand under a light and have one of the signatures shone on your hand, almost like a really temporary tattoo.
Museums teach you so much! Perfume used by wealthy people to mask their body odour. Well, I hoped Miss 13 was learning some useful tidbits like this.
A temporary exhibit at the moment, until Jan 2021, is a Wonder Room. Many interesting displays in there, including some stuffed Aussie animals. A very intersting museum, and nice to be inside from the sub-zero weather!
We sought some lunch by walking along de la Commune - and quickly discovered most of the piers across the road had few food options open. The Science Centre was open, but that was about all we could see. Overall, this area is rather touristy; we ended up in a street parallel to de laCommune, full of restaurants, bars, and tourist shops. And unable to make a decision about food.
We landed at Smoking Meat Vieux Montreal for smoked meat sandwiches, as we figured we wouldn't last a trip to Schwartz's (at least 30 mins). We've discovered it's best if we don't let ourselves get hangry. We were fascinated to see the meat portioned out in sous vide bags, and warmed on request.
Miss 13 rated their hot dogs highly.
Further down the street, we noticed the Beaver Tail outlet was open. So, we went inside and grabbed a plain beaver tail. Miss 13 refused to try it as she wasn't hungry. We weren't very hungry either, but knew this might be our only chance for a genuine beaver tail! So we grabbed it, and shared a plain one. One of the nutella or lolly covered ones would have made our stomachs explode for sure.
A beaver tail is pretty much a variant of a donut - some fried dough. This one has cinnamon on it. As they're flat, you can also get them piled with toppings, ice cream, lollies, etc.
Rather than use our free Doubletree brekky (only for two! not three!), we decided to see what was interesting nearby. First, we walked to the subway station under Place des Arts to get public transport tickets. The unlimited weekend ticket L'Ocasionelle was great value at $CAD14 pp. There seemed to be a chip in it, but it was fairly thin cardboard. We decided on waffles for breakfast, searched Google, and walked along Rue St Catherine to Gauffre Mignonne. The cafe showed the international nature of Montreal residents, with menus available in and staff speaking English, French, and I think Chinese.
Miss 13 was very tired. Apparently four hours sitting on a train on her devices the day before really wore her out.
Plain waffles with maple syrup for Miss 13, savoury waffles with bacon for me (the bacon was actually mixed into the waffle mixture!), and a breakfast skillet for Mr Katie.
We then took a bus to Ville Marie with some intention to visit the Montreal Archaeology Museum. We found it really interesting - parts of the museum are in the main building, but most of the exhibits are underground, below the main building and other building nearby. On the walk to one building, you walk through a former sewer tunnel!
Playing silly buggers with our family selfie. I think we were grumping about waiting for the overview video.
One of the many exhibits covered the Great Peace of Montreal. Underneath this sign showing the 39 signatures of the Indigenous representatives, you could put your hand under a light and have one of the signatures shone on your hand, almost like a really temporary tattoo.
Museums teach you so much! Perfume used by wealthy people to mask their body odour. Well, I hoped Miss 13 was learning some useful tidbits like this.
A temporary exhibit at the moment, until Jan 2021, is a Wonder Room. Many interesting displays in there, including some stuffed Aussie animals. A very intersting museum, and nice to be inside from the sub-zero weather!
We sought some lunch by walking along de la Commune - and quickly discovered most of the piers across the road had few food options open. The Science Centre was open, but that was about all we could see. Overall, this area is rather touristy; we ended up in a street parallel to de laCommune, full of restaurants, bars, and tourist shops. And unable to make a decision about food.
We landed at Smoking Meat Vieux Montreal for smoked meat sandwiches, as we figured we wouldn't last a trip to Schwartz's (at least 30 mins). We've discovered it's best if we don't let ourselves get hangry. We were fascinated to see the meat portioned out in sous vide bags, and warmed on request.
Miss 13 rated their hot dogs highly.
Further down the street, we noticed the Beaver Tail outlet was open. So, we went inside and grabbed a plain beaver tail. Miss 13 refused to try it as she wasn't hungry. We weren't very hungry either, but knew this might be our only chance for a genuine beaver tail! So we grabbed it, and shared a plain one. One of the nutella or lolly covered ones would have made our stomachs explode for sure.
A beaver tail is pretty much a variant of a donut - some fried dough. This one has cinnamon on it. As they're flat, you can also get them piled with toppings, ice cream, lollies, etc.
Katie
Established Member
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2009
- Posts
- 1,911
Sat 14 Dec - part 2
I forgot to mention that on our walk up Rue St Catherine to our breakfast venue, we went past an adult store or two. Miss 13 raised her eyebrows at some of the pictures on the outside, but as she was so tired, didn't ask us any questions. Looking at Google maps, it suggested we were on the edge of the Red Light District.
Back to our post-beavertail perambulation.
We didn't have enough time to visit the McCord museum (my friends had recommended it at dinner the night before), so it was my turn to cross something off my list. We went to Champ de Mars and caught a train to Laurier station so that I could visit La Maison Tricotee.
As I was buying some yarn, the lady serving me recognised my scarf/shawl - she said it was always nice to see people wearing London Calling. I told her I was wearing it because I'd bought the yarn and pattern as a kit from this store three years earlier!
The store was a hive of activity, with people working on their yarn projects as well as shopping. It was cold and drizzly, and dark by this stage, so nice to be inside. Mr Katie saw a food market/fancy looking food store across the road and he went wandering through it for a while. Miss 13 decided she wanted to learn how to knit, and started picking up $CAD35-40 skeins of wool for her first project!!
I told her we had plenty of wool at home for her learn on, and we didn't need to buy any hand spun, hand dyed wool from a fancy sheep for her to start on (OK, maybe I didn't quite use those words).
We then caught a bus to the edge of Mile End to visit a book store I'd read about. I'd read that they had lots of graphic novels, which I thought Mr Katie and Miss 13 would enjoy. The shop was called Librarie Drawn and Quarterly. We had a bit of a walk from the bus stop to the shop; it was interesting walking along the residential street, looking at the three or so storey apartment buildings. Some had covers over their walkway like we'd seen in Quebec, including one covering an accessibility ramp for the ground level entrance. We also noticed many buildings with external stairs up to the apartments on the first and second level.
We whiled away at least 30 mins at the bookstore; there were many interesting indie books there, it wasn't that devoted to graphic novels after all. We were only a couple of blocks away from Park Ave, so we walked there and looked through some stores. Mr Katie wanted to look in a HH - a kind of hardware store. They were closing at 5pm, and one of the staff came up asking if they could help us find what we needed as they were closing soon. Well, I assumed that's what he asked us, as they were preparing to close and I heard the word "ferme" (plus accents). Mr Katie went blank, had a deer in the headlights look on his face, which he seemed to do whenever anyone spoke to him in French, and couldn't recognise any words they said. I said what I thought had been said, and the man switched over to English for us. Very kind. But, we had no need for ice melt or a Christmas tree or anything in the store, so we left.
I believe Mile End has a number of Jewish residents; I walked around this area on a Saturday last time I was in Montreal, and came across many Orthodox men walking to/from schul or the synagogue (I guess). We saw just a couple of orthodox men walking along the street that night, and only went past the various Jewish stores on the bus back into town. It was really interesting to me on my last trip walking past the Jewish stores, with signs in Hebrew, and them being closed on Saturday.
So, we caught the bus back to near the hotel. It was quite busy. We wandered through the IGA in shopping complex and noted some Aussie wine - not the usual Yellow Tail!
For dinner we went to Pizza Il Focolaio, near Hudson Bay department store and just a few blocks from our hotel. It was quite wet as we walked to the restaurant. It was VERY busy.
I had a gluten-free veggie pizza. The base wasn't as tasty as the GF base in the pizza restaurant in Toronto!
Here's my stash of yarn from La Maison Tricotee - the two on the left were given to my Mum for Christmas, the three on the right have been added to my personal stash ...
I forgot to mention that on our walk up Rue St Catherine to our breakfast venue, we went past an adult store or two. Miss 13 raised her eyebrows at some of the pictures on the outside, but as she was so tired, didn't ask us any questions. Looking at Google maps, it suggested we were on the edge of the Red Light District.
Back to our post-beavertail perambulation.
We didn't have enough time to visit the McCord museum (my friends had recommended it at dinner the night before), so it was my turn to cross something off my list. We went to Champ de Mars and caught a train to Laurier station so that I could visit La Maison Tricotee.
As I was buying some yarn, the lady serving me recognised my scarf/shawl - she said it was always nice to see people wearing London Calling. I told her I was wearing it because I'd bought the yarn and pattern as a kit from this store three years earlier!
The store was a hive of activity, with people working on their yarn projects as well as shopping. It was cold and drizzly, and dark by this stage, so nice to be inside. Mr Katie saw a food market/fancy looking food store across the road and he went wandering through it for a while. Miss 13 decided she wanted to learn how to knit, and started picking up $CAD35-40 skeins of wool for her first project!!
I told her we had plenty of wool at home for her learn on, and we didn't need to buy any hand spun, hand dyed wool from a fancy sheep for her to start on (OK, maybe I didn't quite use those words).
We then caught a bus to the edge of Mile End to visit a book store I'd read about. I'd read that they had lots of graphic novels, which I thought Mr Katie and Miss 13 would enjoy. The shop was called Librarie Drawn and Quarterly. We had a bit of a walk from the bus stop to the shop; it was interesting walking along the residential street, looking at the three or so storey apartment buildings. Some had covers over their walkway like we'd seen in Quebec, including one covering an accessibility ramp for the ground level entrance. We also noticed many buildings with external stairs up to the apartments on the first and second level.
We whiled away at least 30 mins at the bookstore; there were many interesting indie books there, it wasn't that devoted to graphic novels after all. We were only a couple of blocks away from Park Ave, so we walked there and looked through some stores. Mr Katie wanted to look in a HH - a kind of hardware store. They were closing at 5pm, and one of the staff came up asking if they could help us find what we needed as they were closing soon. Well, I assumed that's what he asked us, as they were preparing to close and I heard the word "ferme" (plus accents). Mr Katie went blank, had a deer in the headlights look on his face, which he seemed to do whenever anyone spoke to him in French, and couldn't recognise any words they said. I said what I thought had been said, and the man switched over to English for us. Very kind. But, we had no need for ice melt or a Christmas tree or anything in the store, so we left.
I believe Mile End has a number of Jewish residents; I walked around this area on a Saturday last time I was in Montreal, and came across many Orthodox men walking to/from schul or the synagogue (I guess). We saw just a couple of orthodox men walking along the street that night, and only went past the various Jewish stores on the bus back into town. It was really interesting to me on my last trip walking past the Jewish stores, with signs in Hebrew, and them being closed on Saturday.
So, we caught the bus back to near the hotel. It was quite busy. We wandered through the IGA in shopping complex and noted some Aussie wine - not the usual Yellow Tail!
For dinner we went to Pizza Il Focolaio, near Hudson Bay department store and just a few blocks from our hotel. It was quite wet as we walked to the restaurant. It was VERY busy.
I had a gluten-free veggie pizza. The base wasn't as tasty as the GF base in the pizza restaurant in Toronto!
Here's my stash of yarn from La Maison Tricotee - the two on the left were given to my Mum for Christmas, the three on the right have been added to my personal stash ...
craven morehead
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Sat 14 Dec
Rather than use our free Doubletree brekky (only for two! not three!), we decided to see what was interesting nearby. First, we walked to the subway station under Place des Arts to get public transport tickets. The unlimited weekend ticket L'Ocasionelle was great value at $CAD14 pp. There seemed to be a chip in it, but it was fairly thin cardboard. We decided on waffles for breakfast, searched Google, and walked along Rue St Catherine to Gauffre Mignonne. The cafe showed the international nature of Montreal residents, with menus available in and staff speaking English, French, and I think Chinese.
View attachment 203476
Miss 13 was very tired. Apparently four hours sitting on a train on her devices the day before really wore her out.
View attachment 203477View attachment 203478View attachment 203479
Plain waffles with maple syrup for Miss 13, savoury waffles with bacon for me (the bacon was actually mixed into the waffle mixture!), and a breakfast skillet for Mr Katie.
We then took a bus to Ville Marie with some intention to visit the Montreal Archaeology Museum. We found it really interesting - parts of the museum are in the main building, but most of the exhibits are underground, below the main building and other building nearby. On the walk to one building, you walk through a former sewer tunnel!
View attachment 203480
Playing silly buggers with our family selfie. I think we were grumping about waiting for the overview video.
View attachment 203481
One of the many exhibits covered the Great Peace of Montreal. Underneath this sign showing the 39 signatures of the Indigenous representatives, you could put your hand under a light and have one of the signatures shone on your hand, almost like a really temporary tattoo.
View attachment 203482
Museums teach you so much! Perfume used by wealthy people to mask their body odour. Well, I hoped Miss 13 was learning some useful tidbits like this.
A temporary exhibit at the moment, until Jan 2021, is a Wonder Room. Many interesting displays in there, including some stuffed Aussie animals. A very intersting museum, and nice to be inside from the sub-zero weather!
We sought some lunch by walking along de la Commune - and quickly discovered most of the piers across the road had few food options open. The Science Centre was open, but that was about all we could see. Overall, this area is rather touristy; we ended up in a street parallel to de laCommune, full of restaurants, bars, and tourist shops. And unable to make a decision about food.
We landed at Smoking Meat Vieux Montreal for smoked meat sandwiches, as we figured we wouldn't last a trip to Schwartz's (at least 30 mins). We've discovered it's best if we don't let ourselves get hangry. We were fascinated to see the meat portioned out in sous vide bags, and warmed on request.
Miss 13 rated their hot dogs highly.
View attachment 203488View attachment 203489
Further down the street, we noticed the Beaver Tail outlet was open. So, we went inside and grabbed a plain beaver tail. Miss 13 refused to try it as she wasn't hungry. We weren't very hungry either, but knew this might be our only chance for a genuine beaver tail! So we grabbed it, and shared a plain one. One of the nutella or lolly covered ones would have made our stomachs explode for sure.
View attachment 203490
A beaver tail is pretty much a variant of a donut - some fried dough. This one has cinnamon on it. As they're flat, you can also get them piled with toppings, ice cream, lollies, etc.
And here I was thinking you were going to hook in to a fair dinkum Beaver tail
silly me !!
Katie
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- Sep 21, 2009
- Posts
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Sun 15 Dec
We caught the bus to Mile End to have brunch at Beautys Luncheonette; the friends we had dinner with on Friday night had strongly recommended it.
Fun ready the history of the diner on the back of the menu - their history goes back to 1942 as a diner for the local Jewish garment industry. Their customers wanted to enjoy Beauty's food on the weekend, so they started opening on Sundays. And that is the short history of the Montreal Brunch.
It was the last full day of holidays, and even though I really needed a coffee, I splurged on a mimosa. I thought the way it was delivered - mix yourself, with the mini bottle of bubbles in its own ice bucket - was quite cute.
Maple syrup was on the menu for CAD$3. This is what we received. I noticed later that another family had a regular syrup bottle on their table; I guess we could have received "maple flavoured syrup" or "breakfast syrup" had we not ordered the maple syrup specifically.
I had the bagel with lox, cream cheese and onions; Miss 13 had pancakes with bacon; Mr Katie had the Challah French Toast with bacon.
After breakfast we walked over the street to Provigo, a large supermarket. It wasn't quite as "healthy" as Whole Foods, but there were certainly lots of heathy-ish products there. Such as these parsnip and beetroot chips. Their store brand seemed to be President's Choice - we thought it was funny that they had "fancy" molasses.
We bought some cans of maple syrup, some maple syrup sugar, and some other odds and sods here as we expected the prices would be a bit cheaper than the IGA in the shopping complex below the Doubletree or at the airport. They were. Not that much cheaper than the IGA, but definitely cheaper than the airport.
Even though we were stuffed, we walked to Schwartz's, just so Mr Katie could wander around. He bought some spices, and Miss 13 bought an ice cream in the (open!) ice cream store nearby. One of hte only things she spent her allowance on while travelling, which is quite unusual for her.
Schwartz's wasn't far from the Jewish Museum of Montreal. Which isn't really a museum (no exhibits), but is about Jewish life and history in Montreal. They have some walking tours throughout the week (not too many during winter), and a bookstore and a cafe. We spent a little bit of time there, they were having a market day. Miss 13 learned about a board game from its creator - based on the construction industry in Montreal, forever building, and you use bribes to get your buildings worked on!
We caught a bus back to the Doubletree to drop off the shopping.
We caught the bus to Mile End to have brunch at Beautys Luncheonette; the friends we had dinner with on Friday night had strongly recommended it.
Fun ready the history of the diner on the back of the menu - their history goes back to 1942 as a diner for the local Jewish garment industry. Their customers wanted to enjoy Beauty's food on the weekend, so they started opening on Sundays. And that is the short history of the Montreal Brunch.
It was the last full day of holidays, and even though I really needed a coffee, I splurged on a mimosa. I thought the way it was delivered - mix yourself, with the mini bottle of bubbles in its own ice bucket - was quite cute.
Maple syrup was on the menu for CAD$3. This is what we received. I noticed later that another family had a regular syrup bottle on their table; I guess we could have received "maple flavoured syrup" or "breakfast syrup" had we not ordered the maple syrup specifically.
I had the bagel with lox, cream cheese and onions; Miss 13 had pancakes with bacon; Mr Katie had the Challah French Toast with bacon.
After breakfast we walked over the street to Provigo, a large supermarket. It wasn't quite as "healthy" as Whole Foods, but there were certainly lots of heathy-ish products there. Such as these parsnip and beetroot chips. Their store brand seemed to be President's Choice - we thought it was funny that they had "fancy" molasses.
We bought some cans of maple syrup, some maple syrup sugar, and some other odds and sods here as we expected the prices would be a bit cheaper than the IGA in the shopping complex below the Doubletree or at the airport. They were. Not that much cheaper than the IGA, but definitely cheaper than the airport.
Even though we were stuffed, we walked to Schwartz's, just so Mr Katie could wander around. He bought some spices, and Miss 13 bought an ice cream in the (open!) ice cream store nearby. One of hte only things she spent her allowance on while travelling, which is quite unusual for her.
Schwartz's wasn't far from the Jewish Museum of Montreal. Which isn't really a museum (no exhibits), but is about Jewish life and history in Montreal. They have some walking tours throughout the week (not too many during winter), and a bookstore and a cafe. We spent a little bit of time there, they were having a market day. Miss 13 learned about a board game from its creator - based on the construction industry in Montreal, forever building, and you use bribes to get your buildings worked on!
We caught a bus back to the Doubletree to drop off the shopping.
Katie
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- Sep 21, 2009
- Posts
- 1,911
Sun 15 Dec - part 2
After lightening the backpack, we decided to forego the McCord Museum and instead visit the Atwater market. There was a Christmas market next door to it, which we thought would be interesting.
We caught the airport bus to get to Atwater market:
Love that the airport bus route number is 747!
Outside the Atwater market, there was a HUGE stall with live Christmas trees, wreaths, and various hand-made wooden decorations. So different to home (well, I don't often see live Christmas trees in Brisbane, but I know you can get them). We wandered through the market - a mixture of traditional style food market stalls - think butchers, fruit and veggies, specialty cheeses - as well as a bakery/cafe and a few stalls where you could buy food to eat there and then. It's not super large, but always interesting to see what's being sold.
We went to the Christmas market next door, which had German-style wooden huts - and happily given the cold weather, a couple of stalls with mulled wine!
Mr Katie though the wine was too orangey, given there was a good wedge of orange in each cup, the orange flavour overwhelming wasn't too surprising. The stall also had a deposit (pfand, but we're in Quebec, so they weren't using the German word) system for the cups. We chose not to keep ours/get them replaced with unused cups; we already have more drinking containers than we could possibly need.
There were a couple of maple taffy stalls, fun seeing it made live. Warming heaters seemed to be brought to us thanks to the efforts of beavers. The wood was quite smoky, so it wasn't entirely pleasant to stand around these fires for too long. I loved the colours and items in the wreath that was for sale at one of the stalls.
We walked to a nearby Timmy's to warm up.
As it turned out, Miss 13's last Chocolat Chaud Blanc of the trip (not available at the Tim's at the airport at YUL the next morning). We stayed inside for a bit before walking up the street for Mr Katie to pay homage outside Joe Beef. In the continuing saga of "Why don't we plan things before we go on a trip?", Mr Katie had not made a reservation for us to dine there. We didn't try for any of the chef's other enterprises.
We had been planning to visit La Banquise for "real" poutine - Mr Katie was insistent the poutine we had in Quebec City wasn't real, because it was made with hand cut , smashed chunky chips. They apparently had to be fries for Mr Katie to deem it real poutine. The things we do for love ... as in not arguing with one's spouse when they're determined to be right about the size of fried potatoes in what is really not that compelling a dish.
In googling for excellent sources of dining recommendations, lists such as "Montreal's top 12 Poutine restaurants", I discovered we were quite close to The Green Spot, which seemed to be rated highly for its poutine. As we hadn't had lunch after our brunch, we decided for an afternoon snack. Miss 13 had eaten a snag in bread from the Christmas market, and wasn't hungry.
On the walk from Joe Beef to The Green Spot, we saw Restaurant Foiegwa (say it out loud/in your head):
It made me think immediately of @Keith009. Foie gras was in many of their dishes, or could be added. We were not deterred by the foie gras offering; we had to have poutine.
The Green Spot is diner-style. We chose a small bowl of traditional poutine and a small bowl of smoked meat poutine:
It was tasty enough, and the portions were just right for a late lunch. There seemed to be a few locals dining there, so it didn't strike us as a super touristy, which I think La Banquise is a bit these days. One gent was chatting to the lady at the register while I was waiting to pay, asking her how her exam study was going, etc. So he seemed to visit often.
We were sitting at a window booth, and had a great view of the electric car charger on the footpath. We saw a group of people struggle to find the socket in their car (I'm guessing it was a rental or loaner of some kind) for a while before plugging it in and going somewhere.
Next: train to La Baie d'Hudson.
After lightening the backpack, we decided to forego the McCord Museum and instead visit the Atwater market. There was a Christmas market next door to it, which we thought would be interesting.
We caught the airport bus to get to Atwater market:
Love that the airport bus route number is 747!
Outside the Atwater market, there was a HUGE stall with live Christmas trees, wreaths, and various hand-made wooden decorations. So different to home (well, I don't often see live Christmas trees in Brisbane, but I know you can get them). We wandered through the market - a mixture of traditional style food market stalls - think butchers, fruit and veggies, specialty cheeses - as well as a bakery/cafe and a few stalls where you could buy food to eat there and then. It's not super large, but always interesting to see what's being sold.
We went to the Christmas market next door, which had German-style wooden huts - and happily given the cold weather, a couple of stalls with mulled wine!
Mr Katie though the wine was too orangey, given there was a good wedge of orange in each cup, the orange flavour overwhelming wasn't too surprising. The stall also had a deposit (pfand, but we're in Quebec, so they weren't using the German word) system for the cups. We chose not to keep ours/get them replaced with unused cups; we already have more drinking containers than we could possibly need.
There were a couple of maple taffy stalls, fun seeing it made live. Warming heaters seemed to be brought to us thanks to the efforts of beavers. The wood was quite smoky, so it wasn't entirely pleasant to stand around these fires for too long. I loved the colours and items in the wreath that was for sale at one of the stalls.
We walked to a nearby Timmy's to warm up.
As it turned out, Miss 13's last Chocolat Chaud Blanc of the trip (not available at the Tim's at the airport at YUL the next morning). We stayed inside for a bit before walking up the street for Mr Katie to pay homage outside Joe Beef. In the continuing saga of "Why don't we plan things before we go on a trip?", Mr Katie had not made a reservation for us to dine there. We didn't try for any of the chef's other enterprises.
We had been planning to visit La Banquise for "real" poutine - Mr Katie was insistent the poutine we had in Quebec City wasn't real, because it was made with hand cut , smashed chunky chips. They apparently had to be fries for Mr Katie to deem it real poutine. The things we do for love ... as in not arguing with one's spouse when they're determined to be right about the size of fried potatoes in what is really not that compelling a dish.
In googling for excellent sources of dining recommendations, lists such as "Montreal's top 12 Poutine restaurants", I discovered we were quite close to The Green Spot, which seemed to be rated highly for its poutine. As we hadn't had lunch after our brunch, we decided for an afternoon snack. Miss 13 had eaten a snag in bread from the Christmas market, and wasn't hungry.
On the walk from Joe Beef to The Green Spot, we saw Restaurant Foiegwa (say it out loud/in your head):
It made me think immediately of @Keith009. Foie gras was in many of their dishes, or could be added. We were not deterred by the foie gras offering; we had to have poutine.
The Green Spot is diner-style. We chose a small bowl of traditional poutine and a small bowl of smoked meat poutine:
It was tasty enough, and the portions were just right for a late lunch. There seemed to be a few locals dining there, so it didn't strike us as a super touristy, which I think La Banquise is a bit these days. One gent was chatting to the lady at the register while I was waiting to pay, asking her how her exam study was going, etc. So he seemed to visit often.
We were sitting at a window booth, and had a great view of the electric car charger on the footpath. We saw a group of people struggle to find the socket in their car (I'm guessing it was a rental or loaner of some kind) for a while before plugging it in and going somewhere.
Next: train to La Baie d'Hudson.
Katie
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- Sep 21, 2009
- Posts
- 1,911
Sun 15 Dec - part 3
We got off the train at Hudson Bay/La Baie d'Hudson department store. We spent some time wandering through, including thinking that'd we'd lost Miss 13. Somehow we couldn't find her in the toy section - at 175cm tall, we don't often lose her. All OK in the end, but a bit frustrating.
This is a lovely, old department store, and Hudson Bay retail company is the oldest ongoing retail operation in North America, dating back to selling animal pelts alond Hudson Bay. I mostly know of Hudson Bay for mining customers, but I heartily endorse a visit to this store if you like shopping.
We didn't notice many Bored Blokes seats around the store, though.
There was an FAO Schwarz popup with lots of toys on the ground floor.
These fluffy Ugg sandals confused me - are they for menopause when you're hot, then not? Maybe to be worn with socks?
We walked back to the Doubletree and Complexe Desjardins. Wandering through IGA by myself, I marvelled at milk being sold in bags:
And even in bags with two bags inside!
Back to the room, three suitcases for me to pack.
Of course, I kept checking EF in the hope our Y+ to J upgrade the next day on QF11 would come through. I had cancelled theoriginal request from Miss 13's account (SG) and replaced it with a request from my account (WP), but even with six extra J seats, the upgrade didn't come through.
We didn't want to venture far for dinner, but also didn't want to dine at the Doubletree. Luckily, being on top the Complexe Desjardins gave us some extra choices without going outside. We ate at Baton Rouge - a steakhouse. Mr Katie had been lured in by seeing a number of steakhouses in Quebec City and Montreal.
Miss 13 didn't eat, so Mr KAtie and I both ordered appetisier to try to entice her to eat them for us. This tactic did not work. We did not try to entice Miss 13 with the wine.
I had a Thai style salad and Mr Katie had the steak frites.
We had a lovely booth, good service, and enjoyed our meal.
Where our room was on the Executive Floor (top floor) of the hotel. That big room near the elevators was huge! We tried to get glimpses inside each time we saw housekeeping was servicing the room. We also marvelled at the collection of wine glasses outside one of its doors ...
Temp after dinner, compared to home.
Our last night in Montreal. I think we all slept well, and were somewhat ready to start heading home. We only scratched the surface of these cities, but we knew we couldn't possibly get everything done in barely two weeks. Definitely enjoyed experiencing both English and Francophone parts of Canada, as well as seeing many of my friends.
We got off the train at Hudson Bay/La Baie d'Hudson department store. We spent some time wandering through, including thinking that'd we'd lost Miss 13. Somehow we couldn't find her in the toy section - at 175cm tall, we don't often lose her. All OK in the end, but a bit frustrating.
This is a lovely, old department store, and Hudson Bay retail company is the oldest ongoing retail operation in North America, dating back to selling animal pelts alond Hudson Bay. I mostly know of Hudson Bay for mining customers, but I heartily endorse a visit to this store if you like shopping.
We didn't notice many Bored Blokes seats around the store, though.
There was an FAO Schwarz popup with lots of toys on the ground floor.
These fluffy Ugg sandals confused me - are they for menopause when you're hot, then not? Maybe to be worn with socks?
We walked back to the Doubletree and Complexe Desjardins. Wandering through IGA by myself, I marvelled at milk being sold in bags:
And even in bags with two bags inside!
Back to the room, three suitcases for me to pack.
Of course, I kept checking EF in the hope our Y+ to J upgrade the next day on QF11 would come through. I had cancelled theoriginal request from Miss 13's account (SG) and replaced it with a request from my account (WP), but even with six extra J seats, the upgrade didn't come through.
We didn't want to venture far for dinner, but also didn't want to dine at the Doubletree. Luckily, being on top the Complexe Desjardins gave us some extra choices without going outside. We ate at Baton Rouge - a steakhouse. Mr Katie had been lured in by seeing a number of steakhouses in Quebec City and Montreal.
Miss 13 didn't eat, so Mr KAtie and I both ordered appetisier to try to entice her to eat them for us. This tactic did not work. We did not try to entice Miss 13 with the wine.
I had a Thai style salad and Mr Katie had the steak frites.
We had a lovely booth, good service, and enjoyed our meal.
Where our room was on the Executive Floor (top floor) of the hotel. That big room near the elevators was huge! We tried to get glimpses inside each time we saw housekeeping was servicing the room. We also marvelled at the collection of wine glasses outside one of its doors ...
Temp after dinner, compared to home.
Our last night in Montreal. I think we all slept well, and were somewhat ready to start heading home. We only scratched the surface of these cities, but we knew we couldn't possibly get everything done in barely two weeks. Definitely enjoyed experiencing both English and Francophone parts of Canada, as well as seeing many of my friends.
Katie
Established Member
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2009
- Posts
- 1,911
Mon 16 Dec
We were flying YUL-ORD-LAX-SYD-BNE today. The first leg left YUL at 12:27; well, it was meant to. More on that later.
There was light snow when we got up. Lovely to view out the window. We were also glad we were staying at the hotel over the weekend, as there's construction going on across the street. We caught a cab to the airport (didn't want to do the bus as I wouldn't let Mr Katie handle the luggage too much, and was insisting on carrying his laptop bag for him). Checkin was OK, but YUL airport is one of those "fun" ones where you check in, then schlep your bag to a baggage receiving machine behind the checkin counters. We did this, and there was an airport employee helping everyone load their bags, one by one, correctly into the machine. The luggage sticker had to be just so for the machine to accept the bag; your BP also needed to be scanned in order to receive the bag.
We smiled at the large signs before entering immigration and security to deposit your Cannabis here. While Cannabis may be legal in whatever forms and amounts in Canada (not sure if federally OK or only some provinces?) and various US states, it would still be a federal offence to travel with cannabis over international borders. As we saw on a Canadian Border Patrol show before we went to Canada when residents of Washington state went down the wrong road and entered British Columbia with their stash of medicinal weed.
Through security, a few older people in wheelchairs were being recognised by the first security agent. IIRC, there was a direct flight to somewhere in Florida that morning as well. No issues entering the US, and curiously no stamp in our passports for this entry.
We wandered the terminal, discovering while there were two Starbucks, there was only one Tim Horton's. That Tim Horton's did not have White Hot Chocolate. Miss 13 was disappointed. I enjoyed a St Viateur bagel with egg and ham on it from the bagel place near our gate.
At some point, TripIt alterted me to a 30 min delay in our flight departure. The incoming aircraft was late. We were called to the gate desk to discuss being put on the next flight out of ORD to LAX - as we had only a 45 min connection in ORD. I knew this was tight, but I've also managed to make a connection like this in ORD. In the end, Mr Katie and I decided to take the risk of making our connection, as this YUL-ORD flight in recent days had made up for any delays/arrived on time.
Well, that was monumentally stupid of us. We were on a little Candair jet, and Miss 13 and I both needed to valet check our rollaboards. I'm still kicking myself for not realising the delay we'd have at ORD waiting for our bags. Long story short - her bag came out in the first lot and my bag came out in the second lot of bags. And we arrived at Gate G11 and had to get to H12, which was quite a walk. We tried, and I was hoping to luck upon one of the wee cars that helps people around when they have mobility issues (that helped me in PHX with a tight connection earlier this year). But we did not. We arrived at the gate puffed to the doors closed.
Off to the service centre to make new arrangements. Luckily our original routing allowed for about 6 hours at LAX, so we had plenty of time to eat into. The AAgent could only get us standby seats on the next ORD-LAX flight, and gave us confirmed seats for the next one again, which would still arrive in time for QF12.
We went to the lounge, met up with another FFer from another travel forum, who was on the ORD-LAX flight we were on standby for. Off to gate for the standby flight, and as we were approaching, I heard our surnames being called. They squeezes us on! Sure, we were in row 79 in the toilets but we'd get to LAX with a decent amount of time to spare. We were split across two rows - Miss 13 and Mr Katie in front of me in EF seats, and I was behind them in F. As tends to happen when seats are assigned automatically, they are sat together because they have the same surname/that's how our names work alphabetically.
Fine flight, even though we lost our nice MCE seats; we were on our way to LAX. We boarded with group 5 or 6; on the aerobridge I could hear someone behind me commenting about the luggage I was carrying - laptop backpack, tote bag and wheelie bag. I could hear them saying that they'd told everyone in group whatever to gate check their bags, blah blah. Mr Katie had ended up a few people in front of me, so it wasn't obvious I was carrying his luggage with his arm in a sling. I found the encounter curious, I certainly wasn't going to argue or attempt to defend myself to a solid American man wearing some kind of sports team shirt. I don't know if he was trying to shame me, or just one of those people who can't keep quiet and let the words that should stay in their head fall out of their mouth.
We arrived at the end of T4, and walked over to the QF FLounge. Dined with the other FFer, who was on QF56 and had received a Y to J points upgrade (made me think we should have flown on QF16 or 56 instead of 12! Oh well, that's the points UG lottery). Then we had showers, and waited for the call to board QF12.
Mr Katie's chipotle steak
I noted in the QF app that Miss 13 was moved from 33D to 32F since we'd checked in at YUL. I stalked EF to check if she was sitting next to someone ... In the end, she had 32DEF to herself and Mr Katie and I had 33DEF to ourselves. By my reckoning, the extra Y+ seats of the refurbed plane were not being used on this flight. On boarding we were told Miss 13 was moved due to the screen not working; when we got to the seat it actually looked like the tray table in 32D was taped down.
I had this dessert in the FLounge, some kind of flan. It didn't look appetising, and didn't taste very appetising.
After boarding QF12, I discovered Miss 13 had been given TSA Precheck on her BPs. She is SG.
Taped down tray table on 32D, and me using the empty seat to my advantage.
Dinner. The crew seemed to be operating their first flight in refurbished Y+; the carts and layout of the top of the cart must be slightly different. I noticed on the flight over, the crew also struggled get into their groove with where to put the various bottles in their tray on the cart.
Menu for the flight home
Miss 13 trying to find a way to somewhat lie down in a Y+ seat. The extra pillows and blankets helped her endeavour. She hates me taking photos of her sleeping, but at least this one I didn't capture her face.
Brekky
We were flying YUL-ORD-LAX-SYD-BNE today. The first leg left YUL at 12:27; well, it was meant to. More on that later.
There was light snow when we got up. Lovely to view out the window. We were also glad we were staying at the hotel over the weekend, as there's construction going on across the street. We caught a cab to the airport (didn't want to do the bus as I wouldn't let Mr Katie handle the luggage too much, and was insisting on carrying his laptop bag for him). Checkin was OK, but YUL airport is one of those "fun" ones where you check in, then schlep your bag to a baggage receiving machine behind the checkin counters. We did this, and there was an airport employee helping everyone load their bags, one by one, correctly into the machine. The luggage sticker had to be just so for the machine to accept the bag; your BP also needed to be scanned in order to receive the bag.
We smiled at the large signs before entering immigration and security to deposit your Cannabis here.
While Cannabis may be legal in whatever forms and amounts in Canada (not sure if federally OK or only some provinces?) and various US states, it would still be a federal offence to travel with cannabis over international borders. As we saw on a Canadian Border Patrol show before we went to Canada when residents of Washington state went down the wrong road and entered British Columbia with their stash of medicinal weed. Through security, a few older people in wheelchairs were being recognised by the first security agent. IIRC, there was a direct flight to somewhere in Florida that morning as well. No issues entering the US, and curiously no stamp in our passports for this entry.
We wandered the terminal, discovering while there were two Starbucks, there was only one Tim Horton's. That Tim Horton's did not have White Hot Chocolate. Miss 13 was disappointed. I enjoyed a St Viateur bagel with egg and ham on it from the bagel place near our gate.
At some point, TripIt alterted me to a 30 min delay in our flight departure. The incoming aircraft was late. We were called to the gate desk to discuss being put on the next flight out of ORD to LAX - as we had only a 45 min connection in ORD. I knew this was tight, but I've also managed to make a connection like this in ORD. In the end, Mr Katie and I decided to take the risk of making our connection, as this YUL-ORD flight in recent days had made up for any delays/arrived on time.
Well, that was monumentally stupid of us. We were on a little Candair jet, and Miss 13 and I both needed to valet check our rollaboards. I'm still kicking myself for not realising the delay we'd have at ORD waiting for our bags. Long story short - her bag came out in the first lot and my bag came out in the second lot of bags. And we arrived at Gate G11 and had to get to H12, which was quite a walk. We tried, and I was hoping to luck upon one of the wee cars that helps people around when they have mobility issues (that helped me in PHX with a tight connection earlier this year). But we did not. We arrived at the gate puffed to the doors closed.
Off to the service centre to make new arrangements. Luckily our original routing allowed for about 6 hours at LAX, so we had plenty of time to eat into. The AAgent could only get us standby seats on the next ORD-LAX flight, and gave us confirmed seats for the next one again, which would still arrive in time for QF12.
We went to the lounge, met up with another FFer from another travel forum, who was on the ORD-LAX flight we were on standby for. Off to gate for the standby flight, and as we were approaching, I heard our surnames being called. They squeezes us on! Sure, we were in row 79 in the toilets
but we'd get to LAX with a decent amount of time to spare. We were split across two rows - Miss 13 and Mr Katie in front of me in EF seats, and I was behind them in F. As tends to happen when seats are assigned automatically, they are sat together because they have the same surname/that's how our names work alphabetically. Fine flight, even though we lost our nice MCE seats; we were on our way to LAX. We boarded with group 5 or 6; on the aerobridge I could hear someone behind me commenting about the luggage I was carrying - laptop backpack, tote bag and wheelie bag. I could hear them saying that they'd told everyone in group whatever to gate check their bags, blah blah. Mr Katie had ended up a few people in front of me, so it wasn't obvious I was carrying his luggage with his arm in a sling. I found the encounter curious, I certainly wasn't going to argue or attempt to defend myself to a solid American man wearing some kind of sports team shirt. I don't know if he was trying to shame me, or just one of those people who can't keep quiet and let the words that should stay in their head fall out of their mouth.
We arrived at the end of T4, and walked over to the QF FLounge. Dined with the other FFer, who was on QF56 and had received a Y to J points upgrade (made me think we should have flown on QF16 or 56 instead of 12! Oh well, that's the points UG lottery). Then we had showers, and waited for the call to board QF12.
Mr Katie's chipotle steak
I noted in the QF app that Miss 13 was moved from 33D to 32F since we'd checked in at YUL. I stalked EF to check if she was sitting next to someone ... In the end, she had 32DEF to herself and Mr Katie and I had 33DEF to ourselves. By my reckoning, the extra Y+ seats of the refurbed plane were not being used on this flight. On boarding we were told Miss 13 was moved due to the screen not working; when we got to the seat it actually looked like the tray table in 32D was taped down.
I had this dessert in the FLounge, some kind of flan. It didn't look appetising, and didn't taste very appetising.
After boarding QF12, I discovered Miss 13 had been given TSA Precheck on her BPs. She is SG.
Taped down tray table on 32D, and me using the empty seat to my advantage.
Dinner. The crew seemed to be operating their first flight in refurbished Y+; the carts and layout of the top of the cart must be slightly different. I noticed on the flight over, the crew also struggled get into their groove with where to put the various bottles in their tray on the cart.
Menu for the flight home
Miss 13 trying to find a way to somewhat lie down in a Y+ seat. The extra pillows and blankets helped her endeavour. She hates me taking photos of her sleeping, but at least this one I didn't capture her face.
Brekky
Katie
Established Member
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2009
- Posts
- 1,911
Weds 18 Dec
The friends with the log cabin gave us some Christmas ornaments which seemed to contain wood, so we declared them. One of the ornaments was a mini log cabin! So cute! It was fine, but these snow shoes were a problem:
They had mini pine cones on them (not pictured), and the customs staff weren't sure about the red balls. We surrendered the ornament rather than pay $100 to get it treated. Mr Katie was bummed because he quite liked it. So he went back to the customs staff - I thought he was going to take a photo, but he was asking if we could keep the ornament if the pine cones were removed. Customs had removed one of the red balls/berries, and discovered it was just painted styrofoam. So the pine cones were removed, and we got to keep our ornament.
We made our way to SYD dom for the flight up to BNE. Definitely needed coffee!
There was quite a bit of visible smoke on the flight up to BNE, not the worst certainly.
Taxi home. I was delighted to see my little flower in the middle of the back yard blooming as there'd been rain the weekend before.
This one just blooms in the middle of the grass when there's been good rain at the right kind of time.
After showering, etc, I took Mr Katie to Brisbane Northside Emergency to look at his arm. We thought that would be a better option than the GP, given access to XRrays, etc. All the staff were very concerned about his pain, and kept offering him drugs. He wasn't in pain, so refused them. He had an Xray which showed no fractures, and the doctor referred him to an MRI as an outpatient. Next MRI appt near us was on Friday morning. The dr also suggested Physio, so we booked him in with the physio (had already booked him in for the day we arrived, but we chose to go to the doctors first). The physio on Friday afternoon told Mr Katie what the MRI results were - he'd done an impressive job with basically severing one rotator cuff tendon and partially tearing another. He said it would depend on the orthopod whether they'd operate. I started calling orthopods later that afternoon (20/12) and discovered most of them would be closed for the next two weeks. Boy, were we glad we weren't hosting anyone for Christmas at ours! Mr Katie finally saw a specialist on 8 Jan, 4 weeks after his fall, and will be having surgery next Fri, 31st. I think I've mentioned all of that in this thread, but that's the condensed version. Maybe we should have gone to a doctor in Quebec, but we didn't. And as we didn't, we can't claim against travel insurance, so we will be glad for Mr Katie's great health care coverage from his employer.
The new Y+ seats
I was worried about the pitch of these seats after reading the Executive Traveller and other reviews. I'm 6' tall, so pitch is important to me, and I buy Y+ for the extra legroom. I found the new seats to be comfy, I loved the IFE screens - they were really impressive! I'm on the fence about the foot rest, but I think it did help me legs feel a little less sore. We did notice the overhead storage bins over rows 32/33 seem to make a horrible mechanical noise when they are opened.
Miss 13 appreciated being able to create her own playlist of songs on the IFE, and listen to them to get herself to sleep. Overall, a thumbs up from us. The A and K seats also have the side storage bins, which would be nice when travelling in a pair/having one of those window seats.
Oh - I almost forgot - saw the most impressive sight on QF12. A couple across from us had a production line going with their Christmas/holiday cards. Writing them, signing them, envelopes, addresses, stamps. It was impressive to watch and the first time I've seen passengers use a long flight in such a constructive way.
<End of TR>
The friends with the log cabin gave us some Christmas ornaments which seemed to contain wood, so we declared them. One of the ornaments was a mini log cabin! So cute! It was fine, but these snow shoes were a problem:
They had mini pine cones on them (not pictured), and the customs staff weren't sure about the red balls. We surrendered the ornament rather than pay $100 to get it treated. Mr Katie was bummed because he quite liked it. So he went back to the customs staff - I thought he was going to take a photo, but he was asking if we could keep the ornament if the pine cones were removed. Customs had removed one of the red balls/berries, and discovered it was just painted styrofoam. So the pine cones were removed, and we got to keep our ornament.
We made our way to SYD dom for the flight up to BNE. Definitely needed coffee!
There was quite a bit of visible smoke on the flight up to BNE, not the worst certainly.
Taxi home. I was delighted to see my little flower in the middle of the back yard blooming as there'd been rain the weekend before.
This one just blooms in the middle of the grass when there's been good rain at the right kind of time.
After showering, etc, I took Mr Katie to Brisbane Northside Emergency to look at his arm. We thought that would be a better option than the GP, given access to XRrays, etc. All the staff were very concerned about his pain, and kept offering him drugs. He wasn't in pain, so refused them. He had an Xray which showed no fractures, and the doctor referred him to an MRI as an outpatient. Next MRI appt near us was on Friday morning. The dr also suggested Physio, so we booked him in with the physio (had already booked him in for the day we arrived, but we chose to go to the doctors first). The physio on Friday afternoon told Mr Katie what the MRI results were - he'd done an impressive job with basically severing one rotator cuff tendon and partially tearing another. He said it would depend on the orthopod whether they'd operate. I started calling orthopods later that afternoon (20/12) and discovered most of them would be closed for the next two weeks. Boy, were we glad we weren't hosting anyone for Christmas at ours! Mr Katie finally saw a specialist on 8 Jan, 4 weeks after his fall, and will be having surgery next Fri, 31st. I think I've mentioned all of that in this thread, but that's the condensed version. Maybe we should have gone to a doctor in Quebec, but we didn't. And as we didn't, we can't claim against travel insurance, so we will be glad for Mr Katie's great health care coverage from his employer.
The new Y+ seats
I was worried about the pitch of these seats after reading the Executive Traveller and other reviews. I'm 6' tall, so pitch is important to me, and I buy Y+ for the extra legroom. I found the new seats to be comfy, I loved the IFE screens - they were really impressive! I'm on the fence about the foot rest, but I think it did help me legs feel a little less sore. We did notice the overhead storage bins over rows 32/33 seem to make a horrible mechanical noise when they are opened.
Miss 13 appreciated being able to create her own playlist of songs on the IFE, and listen to them to get herself to sleep. Overall, a thumbs up from us. The A and K seats also have the side storage bins, which would be nice when travelling in a pair/having one of those window seats.
Oh - I almost forgot - saw the most impressive sight on QF12. A couple across from us had a production line going with their Christmas/holiday cards. Writing them, signing them, envelopes, addresses, stamps. It was impressive to watch and the first time I've seen passengers use a long flight in such a constructive way.
<End of TR>
craven morehead
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- Aug 1, 2008
- Posts
- 2,656
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Fanatstic TR really enjoyed following along. Hopefully will be in Tronno in June. Cheers 
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