Montréal - Day Three

Today I explored le Réso and le Vieux Port. Le Réso is the system of underground passages in Montréal -you can be in a mall, as pictured, but you can also be in a plain corridor which nonetheless takes you to another part of the city, all without freezing. There are miles of corridors, and all of them are warm.

I traveled to the old part of town today. There aren't any subway stops that really take you there - a lot of walking was required. There are bus routes, but I didn't bother. It's cold today, really cold. Tomorrow is supposed to be even worse. I have four layers of clothing on, and that's barely sufficient.

I walked through Chinatown to reach the old part of town. It was compact, but still pretty neat.
I reached the old port and I wandered around for quite a bit. I would say that half of the shops are closed this time of year. I was keeping my eye out for a subterranean bar my friends and I visited several years back, off of a small alley, but I couldn't find it.
 
It actually took a while to wander the narrow streets of the Old Town. I stopped for lunch at les 3 Brasseurs, which is a chain of microbreweries. Here's a picture of me reflected from the copper of the bar:
Boy, my nose looks big in the picture!!

I was also able to see the preparations for the New Year in Old Town. Above is a picture of one of the venues. There are other stages being set up in other places, including near city hall. A bartender with whom I spoke indicated that the festivities in the Old Port are really for families, and not for cool guys like me. We'll see - I haven't given up hope yet!!
Many of you are wondering, I'm sure, about what Ken does after dark.  Well, last night I spent an enjoyable evening in a jazz bar not too far from my hotel. Believe it or not, Montréal is a pretty big jazz city. My hotel is in the heart of the Latin Quarter, and there are many, many bars and music venues here. 
Tune in tomorrow for another exciting day in Montréal, including the archaeological museum and New Year's Eve!

Montréal - Day Two

My first real day in Montréal is now over, and I covered a lot of ground. Most of that ground was covered at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts / Musée des Beaux Arts.

The museum's collections are free to peruse.  There was also a special exhibition for a fee, but I didn't partake - there was plenty to see for free, and I tried to see it all!

The collections include a temporary Napoleon exhibit (that's one of his hats, above), decorative arts, fine paintings and sculptures, and contemporary art. Some really cool stuff.  
The museum, like many others, is a collection of buildings. And in this case the buildings are connected underground. It was a constant case of going up or down stairs, or using an elevator. The staircase pictured below reminds me of the staircase at the Kunst Historisches pictured in my Vienna, Day Two post, except that this staircase is unadorned and lacks a giant statue at the top of a naked man wrestling with a lion.

 

I spent most of the day at the museum of fine arts. I had planned on visiting a second museum today, too, but I left the museum at about 3:30 PM and the museums all close at 5:00 PM.
Instead, I decided to have a late lunch/early dinner at Hurley's - an Irish pub I've been to on each of my last two trips to Montréal.

I had a hamburger and fries and I toasted friends who had hoisted a pint or two with me at Hurley's in times of yore.
 
I had taken the subway to the museum, but I decided to walk back to the hotel. Today was cold, but not frigid. Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be clear and cold - with a high of about 10 degrees.  
A couple of fun facts about Montréal's Métro system: first, the subway stations are heated. That's really welcome after a half-hour walking down windswept streets!



The second fun fact? The subway trains have tires and don't ride on traditional rail tracks!! Instead, the cars ride on the ground and are bracketed by side rails to keep the cars in their lane. There is a "third rail" for power, but it's between the two side rails.
The cars are quieter riding on tires, but they seem just as fast as more traditional subway trains. 
Stay tuned for the next installment - the Old Port and more!!!

In Montréal - Day One

So I decided to spend a few days - including New Year's - in Montréal, Canada. It was kind of a last-minute decision, but I have been thinking about it for a while. I'm traveling solo again - I left my Dad at home this time because he's preparing for a Caribbean cruise with my Aunt Wendy and Uncle Ed.


Here's what my hotel's street looked like when I arrived. The temperature was a few degrees above freezing, so there was snow melting all over the place. Of course, this morning, the melted snow refroze and there was ice everywhere. Not a problem, because the denizens of the city quickly spread sand and ice-melt everywhere.


Here's that same street when I woke up Sunday morning. My hotel is located just beyond the parked car on the right - the Hotel Manoir St.-Dénis.
It took me about seven hours in total to make the journey of about 250 miles by car - included in that time is nearly an hour waiting to cross the border into Canada, and a single pit stop for lunch just north of Burlington, Vermont - in Colchester, I think. The Canadian border guard was the first customs official I've encountered since losing weight who questioned me about the fat Ken shown in my passport photo taken in 2009. He still took me at my word, though, that I have lost 100 pounds.
  
Here are exterior and interior pics of the hotel. A very basic place, rustic but clean. It is located in the Quartier Latin, near to the Old Town and very convenient to the subway. Most places are in fairly easy walking distance, though.
 
The hotel isn't the best place I've stayed in, but it's not the worst, either. I can't get over the wood panelling, but I'll learn to live with it for a mere $58 per night, taxes included -- and free continental breakfast!
Speaking of which, I went to the front desk in the morning to ask where the breakfast would be served. The clerk replied (in French), "in your room - I will prepare you a tray." I then watched him microwave a croissant, pour a cup of coffee, and pour a cup of orange juice before he assembled the items on my waiting tray. He did tell me that I could come back for more if I wanted.... 

I could not help but laugh at my breakfast - but I did wait until I returned to my room with it. But again, for $58 per night this basic hotel is clean and very well located. And, there's even a fridge in my room so I can supplement tomorrow's eye-opener!
Breakfast complete, I'm now off to begin my explorations of the city! Come back soon for an update!

Location:St Denis St,Montreal,Canada

Food and Lodging in the U.K.

The long-awaited food and lodging blog entry has arrived!!  Sorry for the substantial delay -- my Dad and I took forever to get together to share photos, and he had many of the food pictures.

Unfortunately, as I went through the pictures, I realized that we never captured a picture of the truly excellent haggis we enjoyed at the Abbey Bar in Edinburgh, the sub-par "food" we ate on the Caledonian Sleeper, or the mixed-bag we consumed at Gordon Ramsay's Maze Grill in London.  I don't have exterior shots of the Panda Villa B&B in Edinburgh or the Drumnadrochit Hotel in Drumnadrochit (Inverness, Scotland), either.

However, that being said, I have plenty of pictures of the best and worst of our food and lodging experiences:  here they are in order of travel:

This is a twilight view of the Bridge Hotel in London.  The Bridge was probably the lowest quality hotel we stayed at, but it was serviceable as a place to sleep and shower, and it was relatively convenient to the Elephant and Castle tube stop (about an eight-minute walk). There were a number of pubs in the area, and several take-out spots.  There was also a supermarket right down the street, which was convenient to allow us to stock the in-room refrigerator which was a welcome bonus at the hotel.

Our first stop, shortly after reaching the London hotel, was the Tower of London.  Being a little peckish, we decided to peruse one of the cafes within the Tower.  My Dad and I split this lovely back currant tart along with cups of tea.

We lunched at a pub near to the Tower, and it turned out to be one of a big chain of pubs in the U.K. - the J.D. Wetherspoons chain.  Each pub has its own name, furnishings and character, but they share the same menu of offerings.  I had the steak, chips and peas shown below, which came with a "free" pint.  I think it was only 7.95.

We enjoyed pub fare each of our evenings in London (except for the night at the Maze), but the food was merely OK.  Better pub fare in other cities, so you get pics of the classics below.  Here, however, are a couple of pics from two of the pubs we "frequented" while in London.

The Albert Arms was conveniently located halfway between the tube stop and the Bridge Hotel.  We stopped there twice for a post-touring pint and to admire the comely Eastern European barmaid.  The pic of my Dad is from within The Ship, a freehouse a few hundred yards from the hotel.  I wrote at least one of my blog posts from this pub, using its free wifi connection.

From London we traveled via the Caledonian Sleeper service to Inverness, Scotland.  We didn't take pictures of the sub-par dinner on the train, or of the decent airplane-style breakfast served in our cabins.

Here are a couple pictures of the interior of the Drumnadrochit Hotel in Drumnadrochit, Scotland.  The hotel was on the same grounds as the Loch Ness Center and Exhibition, one of the two Loch Ness tourist trap museums.  The other was about a quarter-mile away by foot.  The hotel was of better quality than The Bridge Hotel in London, but the interior of the rooms were a bit dated -- the bathroom was a melange of avocado fixtures and natural pine accents.  

The hotel, though mediocre, had a really decent restaurant.  Good thing, since there wasn't another game in town.  (Actually, there was -- I didn't discover the Fiddler pub, just 1500 yards away, until the evening of our last night and after we had already supped -- this was the subject of the postscript in my Inverness post.)

To the right is a picture of bangers and mashed from the hotel's restaurant, complete with two small Yorkshire puddings.  Yum!

We only had a single night in Inverness, and then we were off to Edinburgh for two nights of great sightseeing, fantastic entertainment in the form of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, and some of the best food of our trip.

We stayed two nights at the Panda Villa B&B, on the outskirts of Edinburgh-proper.  It was actually in a decent location -- very convenient to major bus lines, or you could hoof-it to the city centre in about 25 minutes.  No exterior or bedroom pictures, but here is Dad in the breakfast room of the B&B:

We arrived in Edinburgh in the late afternoon on a Sunday, and we were really hungry.  We were also pretty lazy and we stopped for some comfort food.  It was half-way through our trip, and we were a little homesick.

Yup, a pan pizza from Pizza Hut, just a few hundred yards from the Edinburgh Castle.  We could have had KFC, but carbs and pepperoni were calling our names.  We had all of our luggage with us at Pizza Hut, as we had just arrived in Edinburgh by train -- it was a small, narrow restaurant, and the waitstaff had to shimmy to get around our bags.

We checked into the Panda B&B and we trekked up and down Arthur's Seat.  After our hike, we sought relaxation at the Abbey Bar, which was to become our favorite pub and dining spot of all the places we visited on our journeys.

Here are pics of stake and ale pie (left) and cottage pie (right) from the Abbey.  Our first meal at The Abbey was actually haggis with neeps and tatties, but we didn't take a picture for some reason.  The haggis was my favorite dinner of the trip, and I think it was my Dad's, too.  We also discovered our soon-to-be favorite dessert of the trip:  sticky toffee pudding!!

From Edinburgh we made our way to Thirsk -- to our favorite lodging. The Gallery B&B.  Here are exterior and interior pics:

 After checking in at the Gallery, we had lunch in a tea room in the marketplace of the town (I forget the name of the place, but it was about 300 yards from the B&B):

This was our first (and I believe our only) meal that involved a substantial amount of salad.  The pies were pork pies, and were yummy.  The small pickled onions were yummy.  The small cup of a tomato relish was, well, yummy!  This may also have been our only non-breakfast meal of the trip that involved non-alcoholic beverages -- pictured are diet Cokes.

Breakfast at the Gallery B&B in Thirsk was the highlight of the trip for us.  The advertised "DeliciouslYorkshire" breakfast was made using all locally-sourced products and was prepared by host Kathryn's skilled hands.  The sausage and ham (bacon) were made by a local butcher from local swine, the tomatoes and mushrooms were locally produced, and even the eggs didn't have far to go to land on our plates!  Spectacular, and the breakfast at the Gallery was the best of the many "traditional English" breakfasts we enjoyed.

We ate a lot in and around Thirsk, or at least we were really good at taking food pictures there.  Here is a sampling of what we filled our gullets with:  Left: a steak dinner with onion rings, fries, salad, and a beer.  Right: a sausage roll, two pork pies and a Scotch egg for lunch while in Helmsley.

Left:  traditional battered fish and chips with a ladle of tartar sauce and a bowl of mushy peas (made with butter and cream -- kind of like mashed potatoes, but deliberately lumpy).  Note that I had already eaten many of the chips before I remembered to take the picture.)  The steak dinner was at the Black Lion in Thirsk; the fish and chips were found at the Little 3 in Thirsk - lovely!

From Thirsk we moved our base of operations to Llandudno, Wales, on the Irish Sea.  This time our hotel was a small family-run affair, near to the end of the famous seaside promenade.  We had a decent room, ranked solidly in the middle of our various accommodations, but it had the best view:

We had a sea-view room, as you can "sea" in the picture to the left, though the Old Man was looking at his phone rather than out the window.  To the right and above is another shot of the interior of the Grafton Inn.

The breakfast room in the Grafton is located in the bay windows on the first floor, to the left of the entrance.  Our room was above the entrance.  It was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel to the center of the promenade, the Pier, and Mostyn Street -- a cute and pretty well-preserved Victorian boulevard and arcade.  Breakfast at the Grafton, while good, was nothing compared to the Gallery's brand of perfection.  The Grafton's breakfast had canned tomatoes rather than fresh grilled, the mushrooms weren't fresh, and the sausage, though good, was uninspired.

We had dinner our second night at Mama Rosa's, an Italian place that was recommended by our hotel.  The Italian fare we had there was plentiful, delicious, and not too pricey.  The service was arguably the best we encountered (the Abbey Bar in Edinburgh being the only rival).  No pictures, as it was a pretty intimate restaurant -- not a pub.  The only other not-a-pub place we ate at was Gordon Ramsay's Maze Grill in London, and Mama Rosa's has it beat by a mile.

To the right is a hamburger lunch at the Four Alls pub located at 6 Hole in The Wall Street in Caernarfon, Wales.  As you can see, I had already dug-in heartily before remembering my loyal readers and their need for food pictures!  The small bowl to the left, with the fork inside, held veggies, I swear!!

Our final "home" on the trip was at the Diamond Lodge in Manchester, England.  It was more of a traditional motor lodge, on the order of a Days Inn.  It had an OK restaurant and a large lounge -- the front desk staff doubled as publicans.  No photos of the interior or exterior -- don't know why, except we took a lot fewer pictures toward the end of our journey than at its beginning.

Our first food picture from the Manchester area comes from the Horse Shoe Inn in Poynton, where Dad supped on the Sunday special -- roast beef, potatoes (mashed and boiled), a Yorkshire pudding and tons of gravy and vegetables.  I had a fish and chips plate -- unfortunately, the fish was breaded and not battered, hence not worth the space on my camera's memory card, or on this blog.

The other food picture from Manchester comes from the Brew Dog microbrewery in Manchester-proper.  These are smoked spare ribs with a mason jar full of spicy barbecue "burnt" beans.  Really good, and it helped you to drink more of the excellent microbrew.  Dad had the last serving of brisket and he said it was lovely.

I lied in my Manchester, Day 2 post when I said that we didn't have a picture of the beer samplers we enjoyed at the Brew Dog.  In fact, we do have a picture, taken partway through the tasting.  The little blue cards on the extreme right of the photo, on the beer paddle handles, had the names, descriptions and alcohol content for each of the beers featured in the two sampler trays.  After our samplers, we each ordered a full glass of our favorite variety.

Finally, as a stark comparison, here's a picture of the included breakfast I had at the hotel in Rochester, New York, a week after returning from England, while attending my cousin Matthew's wedding reception.

Where to next?  What to eat next?  I honestly don't know.  I'd like to visit the Nordic countries -- Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland.  Maybe even Denmark.  One thing's for sure:  I will keep on truckin' -- it excites and inspires me in so many ways that can't be found consistently in "ordinary" day-to-day life.