Favourite 2016 travel photos. Quebec City, QC. June 2016
Place d’Armes
Quebec
Craft beer sampling in Montreal
Since I moved to Saskatchewan, I have realized that I have moved to a place that is a little behind other parts of Canada in the craft beer revolution. In a couple of months in my new province, I have sampled most of the craft beers available. So, on my recent trips, I’m making sure to get my craft beer experimentation in before stepping on the plane to come back home. In Montreal for a few days back in April, I managed to find a few new favourites.
On an afternoon with a couple of free hours, I made a stop at Dieu du Ciel and fell in love with their bar. It would be a routine hangout location for me if I lived in Montreal. Of my time in the city, two of the best beers I tried were from this sampling selection: the Aphrodisiaque/Aphrodite stout (second from the left) and the Rigor Mortis Blonde (on the far right). Also not too shabby was the Blanche Van de Plateau (second from the right). All in all, a great tasting experience.
Bucket list Montreal meals
There were two restaurants in Montreal I had always wanted to visit for a meal – Joe Beef and Au Pied de Cochon. Feeling like my body was ready for more foie gras in two nights than the previous 41 years of my life put together, I started with dinner at Joe Beef the night I arrived in Montreal.
Sadly, my wife wasn’t able to join me as we had planned as she was tending to our sick dog back on the east coast. With me having already moved out to Saskatoon, this was to be a catch-up weekend of some good meals in a city we both love. Without a dining companion, I saddled up to the bar, still eager to sample a few dishes. And what a selection there was. I stared at the evening’s menu on the chalkboard for some time before finally deciding on a plan.
Montreal murals
Montreal has a vibrancy and energy that is unmistakeable. The city oozes culture from every pore. Animated conversations over a glass of wine rise from sidewalk patios. A world’s worth of music spills into the street from homes and bars. There’s a rich selection of public art – some historic, and some modern, abstract and mind bending. And then there are the murals. Sides of buildings in Little Italy, Little Burgundy and along Saint-Laurent Boulevard make for an open air art gallery and turn even a short stroll for a coffee into a memorable experience. These are a few of my favourite murals from a few days of walks around beautiful Montreal.
From an evening stroll in Little Burgundy near the Marché Atwater before a meal at Joe Beef:
L’Homme
Favourite 2016 travel photos. Montreal, QC. April 2016.
Montreal food favourites
I’ve spent enough time in Montreal to have a few go to food places. A trip to the city isn’t complete without a couple of staples. These are mostly things you already know about Montreal, and I’m not ashamed that my list isn’t one of under the radar places. All of these are wonderful and deserved of the attention they receive (well, maybe all except the last on my list).
First off, every trip to Montreal needs a stop for a Schwartz’s smoked meat sandwich, a dill pickle and a black cherry Cott cola. I’ve sampled some of the world’s great sandwiches and this is one of my all time favourites.
Memories of Montreal
Eleven years was far too long.
I had forgotten how much I love Montreal. It is a city with which I have a thirty five year history, going back to some of my earliest childhood memories. At worst, I’d find myself in Montreal every few years until this recent prolonged absence since the summer of 2005. Since then, I’ve been traveling a lot, but focused on seeing new places. I inadvertently left Montreal behind for more than a decade.
On my long overdue visit, I got a rare opportunity to see Montreal through fresh eyes. Eyes that have seen some of the world’s great cities – Rome, Milan, Zurich, San Fransisco, Stockholm, Paris, Vienna, Prague. Landing in Montreal a more seasoned traveler it immediately hit me – Montreal is a truly great, world class city.
It is said absence makes the heart grow fonder, and of that, I am certain. Absence also makes you reminisce. Over my four days in Montreal, I kept coming back to my memories in the city. Like in the early eighties, me as a child on my first trips with my Dad, and chasing pigeons in Square Dorchester. Standing here on a quiet morning thirty plus years later, I could almost hear my youthful laughter and the sound of pigeons taking flight en masse.
The trip I most want to take
This weekend, Montreal is playing host to a couple of preseason baseball games and more than 90,000 people will show up to watch. They’ll do that not because they’re fans of meaningless Blue Jays exhibition games, but because going to a baseball game in that city means something deeper to them. Although I won’t be there for the games this weekend, I count myself in that group.
The trip I most want to take is to travel to Montreal with my Dad to see the first home opener of our resurrected and beloved Expos. My Dad is turning 76 this year and although there’s renewed interest in Montreal as a possible site for a team, it’s still a long, long way off, if it ever happens at all. So at this point, it’s a bit of a fantasy trip, but the optimist in me holds out hope of living it someday.
My first experiences of traveling were back in the early 1980s when Dad took me to see some Expos games a couple of summers in a row. We had a lot of fun in the city getting away with things Mom would never have allowed at home: eating deep fried food, having ice cream for breakfast, chasing pigeons in city parks (I was only 8 at the time and I had never seen so many pigeons in one place before), Dad partaking in an afternoon beer and passing his bottle of Budweiser beer to me to hold while he took a picture of me. To this day the smell of a Bud takes me back to that very moment. Good times. But most of all from those trips, I remember the baseball. I remember the bright lights and the event of it all.
Château Frontenac
Favourite 2013 travel photos. Quebec City, QC. April 2013.
Vieux-Québec: les rues
My favourite activity during my recent trip to Quebec City was just wandering around inside the walls of the old town. The street scenes in Vieux-Québec are unlike anything else in Canada. You feel transported to Europe if you let your mind wander along with your feet. Here are some of my favourite scenes as I wore down my shoes over five days:
Bluenose Traveler 