No coat today!

What a difference a day makes. Sunday we explored the Lachine Canal and





walked through old Montreal. And the sun shone. Beautiful day. Home to Ineke's for a delicious home cooked roast pork dinner with red cabbage. Norm was in heaven.
Today we discovered some new "wrinkles" in our holiday plans. Some may remember when Norm couldn't remember our hotel when we were Napa valley last year, well today we discovered that our train trip to New York is not quite as simple as we first planned. You've got to love booking things online. Norm had hoped to get Ineke and Lynn to go on a road trip to Vermont and drop us off in Burlington. That turns out not to be possible. No sweat, we will just head south on our own. But we found out today that Norm has booked us on one train going south and a different one coming back to Montreal. So now we have to find a way to get to Essex Junction in Vermont. Not exactly a well known destination. I love traveling with Norm because we always end up seeing places we just hadn't planned to. We'll keep you posted on our solution that Norm is working on tomorrow!

Today we had a wonderful lunch with David Koch. It was great listening to him explain the student protests. I understand much better.



Don't they look like a couple of young university students? This is at the Jean-Talon market. So different from when we were there on Saturday. It was empty today! We had lunch at a delicious bakery that was busy. Fed David lots of desserts too.
After lunch we walked all the way from Jean-Talon to Westmont. A good hike! Norm and I split up part way and he went to David at the radio station at McGill. Norm was quite impressed. He will have to give details later.
The weather was so nice, we had no coats on! Love the sun. Tonight a quiet dinner with Ineke and tomorrow we will figure out how to head south and have a few days exploring Vermont. I hear there are lots of rug hooking stores to explore:))

Sunny Montreal

Saturday we took the metro to Jean Talon market and had lunch with Leanne. Awesome market and nice to see Leanne.




Victoria should have such a delicious place. We snacked on maple syrup strawberries, tire-pulled maple taffy, cheese samples, fresh pears slices, then we actually sat down and ate lunch, walked around more and then had coffee and ate more - macaroons and vanilla slice, so yummy and so French! We left that market and took the metro to the Atwater market. What fun! Sampled more cheese. We bought wine, flowers and cheese (the staples of life) and walked home to Ineke's. That night we went our friend Lynn's for dinner. It was outstanding! What a meal. Started with Cosmopolitans, olives, chips, then for dinner, Chicken Tagine, fresh mint with carrots, dill and corn (right off the cob) salad, mashed potatoes, oranges and fig salad, and for dessert, chocolate ganache sauce on a ground almond and chocolate delicate cupcake! And of course fresh strawberries to be dipped in the ganache. OMG! What a meal! Thank you Lynn.




More details to come. Today, Sunday we are walking off our last night's dinner :)

Montreal and winter?

Bonjour! We have arrived in Montreal. Easy trip from Victoria, Lucy got us to the airport early, on to Vancouver and a direct flight to Montreal. I had enough food with me to keep Norm totally satisfied - everything from ham and cheese sandwiches to cheezies and smarties (so Canadian). Got to Ineke's about 8.30 and visited till midnight.
This morning as we headed out to explore, you would not believe the weather.....SNOW! It is freezing here. So off we headed down St.Catherine's street to Simons looking for some toques, gloves, scarf???? All the stores are showing bikinis and sun wear. You'll see from the photo that I did manage to bundle up. We still had fun walking from Westmont to the Plateau where we had Fairmount Bagels. And the all the way back to Westmount. Good thing I was bundled up:)) Photos to come as soon as I figure out how. Norman here: you've read about the student demos in Montreal, and our first night had a hovering police helicopter near Ineke's apartment, but no nastiness. Students are into week 11 of their protest against tuition fee hikes, and there's no sign of either side changing course. If we see any action we'll take photos.