Montreal

After all the packing, cleaning and farewell partying in the US we were pretty tired so it was good to have a couple of days just chilling in Montreal before the drive west. We had a hotel fairly close to Old Montreal but its still a big city and took some time to get oriented. First order of the day was to sample the famous french cuisine. In Quebec this can mean only Poutine and smoked ham.



So what is Poutine ?



"Ravaging arteries across Quebec since 1957, poutine is more than just a culinary staple in Montreal. From analyzing critical factors such as does-the-cheese-squeak to assessing gravy thickness and color, finding -- and more often, arguing over what is -- the ultimate poutine is a proud citywide obsession. Best known as a dish combining fries, cheese curds and gravy, there are enough variants on the basic recipe to rival pizza or even sushi -- kamikaze poutine anyone ?" "

When in Rome ..

Eating the basic variety - actually pretty tasty and probably a good staple for the weekend warrior wannabee.

After this it was time for another nap before exploring some of the city. We chanced on an interesting light show in the cathedral of Notre Dame (Our lady) in old Montreal. Pretty impressive the cathedral was loosely based on the larger version in Paris. Its most famous as the place where Celine Deon got married. The video clip below shows part of the cathedral post show.

Yeah pretty shaky but first attempt at video. Hopefully this will improve.

Next it was onto Le Vieux Dublin ...french sounding but Irish pub nonetheless for a pint of Smithwick's and Irish folk music which was pretty good. Not exactly the french jazz cafe we were hoping for but we looked around for a long time trying to find some place open for food after 9 pm. I'm sure they exist but just wandering we couldn't find much and the Canadian spring was starting to take its toll on moral.

Next day with some better weather we decided to break out the bikes and head out in the city to explore. Montreal is pretty well set up for cyclists and we saw plenty of people out on bikes and good cycling lanes around the city. With thoughts of the tour de France in mind we set out up Mont Royal which is the "mountain" (hill) overlooking Montreal. Although not exactly Alpe d'Huez it was enough to shake up the king of the mountain hopefuls. Long way to go fitnesswise before July.

Kim on the ascent.

Kim on top overlooking Montreal

Refueling French style.

Montreal History trivia :

Mont Royal, which we had just climbed is the mountain which gave the name to Montreal (try saying Mont Royal really fast with a french accent and you'll see why). Note: this information was obtained from a guy chatting up Kim at the top so this could be nonesense.

For more pics of Montreal check out:

<<http://picasaweb.google.com/philip.story/Montreal02?authkey=Gv1sRgCMnJvumk6YLeNQ#>>