The Ratcliffes in North America

We've made this blog so you can see where we are, where we've been and what we've been up to whilst we're away. Let the adventure begin!

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Montréal

For Thanksgiving, we took a trip to Montréal.  If you look at a map of Canada, Montréal looks quite close to Toronto - that is until you check out the scale!  It's actually about 350 miles away and it took about 8hrs on the Greyhound!

We set off early Saturday morning and were at our hotel at the foot of Mont Royal by mid-afternoon.  Our stay was short but we packed a lot in.  

We had dinner the first night in Old Montréal - the reason I'm wearing a sleeveless top is that we were experiencing an Indian Summer - it was about 25 degrees during the day!
Tasting the local beer in Old Montréal
 The next day we got up early ready for a full day of exploring.  With the Frommers guide downloaded to David's Kobo eReader (shameless plug), we hit the streets of Old Montréal on a walking tour.  

We wandered through the cobbled streets taking in some of the oldest architecture in Canada.  Here are the highlights of the morning:
Place d'Armes

La Maison Pierre du Calvet

View from the top of Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours
Place Jacques-Cartier with Nelson's Column at the top. 



Old Fire Station - now the Centre d'histoire de Montréal
 After our walking tour we headed down to the water and saw this sight - yes this is housing!  Built as a housing complex to show off for the World's fair in 1967.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67
Habitat 67
 As the light dwindled we headed towards Mont Royal - the hill that overlooks the city, and where Montréal gets its name.  We started off at Lac aux Castors and waked through the park to the top of the hill.
Lac aux Castors as the sun began to set

View from the top of Mont Royal
 As we descended the hill, we started to get hungry, so went for some Poutine at PatatiPatata (recommended by a Montréal colleague of David's).  Poutine is basically fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.  Omnomnom!

For dinner (yes, we now call it dinner, not tea...) we dined at Schwarz's Hebrew Delicatessen renound for its Montréal smoked meat. Needless to say, we loved the food and David bought yet another T-Shirt for his collection! 

And that was our wee trip to Montréal.  More updates to come soon.