(Temporary Backup) Back to Montreal

Must be time to head home, the clouds are rolling in. We had our final breakfast in Vermont  at Henry’s Diner in downtown Burlington,  packed our bags and headed to the bus stop.

It has been a really good holiday. We lucked in with warm weather and sunny days. Fortunately we stayed healthy in the USA since we had no medical insurance for the 3 days. Now back in Canada it feels good to be heading home. Bye Burlington. 

Off the beaten track

I decided to plan the day. I booked a tour of the Magic Hat Brewery in south Burlington, only $3 each so we weren’t expecting too much. 

After a healthy breakfast we started walking south. I lined up as many thrift and antique stores I could find along the way. Here is our home for the past two days and off we walked.

We are just behind the front door, with two small bedrooms, a living room, efficiency kitchen, bathroom-cum-laundry, and there are two other apartments in the building. Not fancy but it served our needs.

First stop the Barge Canal Market on Pine Street. . Interesting way to use an old fridge.

Lots to see but nothing to buy. Norm looking at ......postcards! 

The book store called Speaking Volumes had  TOO much “stuff”. But fun to look.

Next we came to an art innovation centre, a “hive” of studios for artists. 

Nice artistic photo??? 

The whole building was really creative. 

The train must have run through here in the past and in some spots the tracks have been left. 

We are really into the artistic photography today! 
We gave ourselves a couple of hours to explore and walk the 3.5 miles to the Magic Brewer.  So we took a few detours. First to the St. Anthony church basement thrift store. Norm got a brand new book for .50 but paid $1, good cause.

In the distance we saw what I thought might be an art project, and it was! Here is the world’s tallest filing cabinet. 

Closer look.

We then came upon Vintage Inspired Market. 

As you can see the day was brilliant, no clouds and so warm. Perfect for walking and made us ready for beer. 

Welcome to the Magic Hat Brewing Company.

Ahh that beer (a cool Pilot Pilsner) before the tour of the brewery started in 1994 by two guys retiring from their previous Vermont business venture, Seventh Generation cleaning products. (Now part  of Unilever) It was the second modern microbrewery in the state.

Artifactory is how they describe their beer business space, in a warehouse on the southern edge of Burlington. There is art and decorations everywhere, lots for Halloween. 
The tour was about 20 minutes with a less than enthusiastic tour guide. He tried to get a coworker to take the six waiting customers but he lost. It was interesting how beer is made, lots of funky art work and three samples of beer at the end.

The beer was pretty good, award winning.

Time to catch a bus home but it is still sunny out so why not walk! We were able to visit some local art shops we missed on our way. Once home (about seven miles) it felt good to put our feet up. 
Now for our final meal in Burlington. Tomorrow we catch the bus back to Montreal. 

By chance we came upon American Flatbread, pizza to us. It was excellent, wood fired and thin crust.

A perfect way to end our holiday in Burlington. 

Exploring Burlington

The Quality Inn was not quality! The room was not really clean and I took pictures to send to the manager, suggesting they hire more help. Unfortunately everywhere you look in Burlington there are help wanted signs. 

We headed back to Burlington, 3 miles, no cab this time! A nice walk to start our day.

Sort of Norman street. 

Winooski means onion! 

We cross the the Winooski river where since the 1700’s mills were making textiles. 

Mills now turned into stores and offices. 

Our walk took us through the University of Vermont.

Lots of old houses that are home to the university students. Some have five or six apartments.

By 11 we found our new Airbnb for the next two days and only blocks from the centre of town, not 3 miles. 

The eating nook.

Where to relax with Yellow Bunny. 

The view from the kitchen to the street. 

Much better than the “Quality Inn”.

We spent the afternoon checking the Church Street pedestrian free market (shopping) and the amazing Onion River Co-op store 

More kinds of apples that we have never heard of . 

The waterfront walk

Looking for perfect maple leaves, across Lake Champlain towards New York State. 

Lunch at Ben and Jerry’s. I had coconut, walnuts, chocolate chunks, caramel swirl, graham wafer all I one cone! So good. Norm had caramel crisp with chocolate. 

Shopped at the Co-op for dinner snacks and headed home.

Today was our first day of rain. It poured at times and we took cover. But made it “home” fairly dry. 

(Temporary Backup) Burlington, Vermont

We decided to go for it and head to Vermont. Caught the bus in Montreal at 10:45 and should be in Burlington in 3 hours. Well ....  the US border security decided to detain a family of 6 from China- mom, dad, 2 children and grandparents for 45 minutes. We arrived by 3:00. 

Beautiful hills of yellows, red and orange leaves along the way. Hard to tell from a moving bus but trust me, it looked really good.

Even caught the occasional steeple along the way. This is Pikeville, a quaint village.

In Burlington, we decided to get a bite to eat since it had been a long time since breakfast. The Church Street  pedestrian mall downtown main was bursting with people, crowds everywhere. We finally found a place to eat off the main drag, at Henry’s Diner, a throwback to the 60’s. 

Used to be a train car and turned it into a counter plus more booths and tables. 

Big servings but we handled it. Now to find accommodation for the next three nights. Guess what it is a holiday here too! Who knew? Columbus Day! Did we book ahead, no. After even looking at $400 a night rooms, which fortunately were booked, we headed 3-4 kms out of town to Colchester/Winooski. Found the Quality Inn for only $200, however we arrived at 5:30 and it now 7 and we are still waiting for a room. We are both learning patience! 

To get here we took a taxi. The driver was a cross between Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future and a rough looking cowboy, scary. And maybe Travis Bickle, the murderous cabbie Robert DeNiro played in Taxi Driver. He asked, who are your favourite Canadian singers?? I was afraid to answer wrong. He named Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young. He then told us how he almost beat up Justin Bieber during the singer’s Vermont appearance. 

After our 2 hour wait for our room we need something to eat. Guess what is next door? Burger King and McDonalds. 

Wait till you see what I’ve found for tomorrow night. 

(Temporary Backup) Planning...

The weather in Montreal has been exceptional! We’ve walked and walked for 3 days making up for the train ride. Yellow Bunny has enjoyed the sun bathing. 

 Our plan for this 2 week holiday is to rent a car now and tour around the Eastern Townships. Guess what? It is Thanksgiving and no cars are available. Stay tuned for new plan....

Yesterday we walked old Montreal. 

Queen Victoria watching over us as we walked. 

Road side beauties. 

Even our lunch in the old town was good.

The fries in Montreal look well done but taste delicious. For dinner we went out for burgers, at Burger de Ville with Ineke, Norm’s cousin and  our friend Lynn. We ate the juicy burgers so fast, no photos. 

Today, Saturday we off for breakfast and then Jean Talon market with Ineke and Lynn. 

Breakfast was outstanding! We went to Larry’s up St. Laurent The menu alone was an experience.

Some food just for us and some we shared. Pikelets were little pancakes plus roasted potatoes we shared.

The breakfast sandwich was excellent and Norm raves about his moist scrambled eggs and sausage. 

After breakfast we checked out the butcher shop and bakery that is part of Larrys’s restaurant. These are called bombalina. 

Next Jean Talon market. We almost wished we hadn’t eaten so well because there was so many things here to try. The fruits and vegetables were stunning, especially the peppers.

Wish we could buy food to take home to make dinner but we are off tomorrow. 

Brussel Sprouts by the stalk. 

The music made you feel like you were in Paris or maybe Montreal.

Next stop Caffe Italia for gelato and cappuccino.

Fascinating to watch Italian men gather in the cafe to watch a soccer game, not buying coffee and loudly arguing how to get the right match on the tv. 

This Italian district was such fun. I have never seen so many aisles of pasta and this was just the dried noodles at the grocery store, Milano.

We had one more stop at a book store as we headed home, Drawn and Quarterly, an off beat kind of store.

Here we are, Lynn, our friendly Italian, and Ineke our kind host and cousin of Norm. A great day of fun, eating and shopping.