Montreal revisited

We made a great breakfast of fried eggs, breakfast sausage, hash-browns and muffins – all made outside on the griddle! We ate plein air at the picnic table. It was a little muggy, but at least it wasn’t raining…yet. Within minutes of cleaning up, the skies opened up and the rain came down like there was no tomorrow! It lasted about an hour, so we waited it out!
We hopped in the car and ventured to down town Montreal, a 30 minute drive. This was Paul and Ts, first time and Bill and Jan’s second time (they were here about 40 or so years ago). As a child, I lived in Montreal in 1967 for a few months when my Dad worked in Expo 67! JT and I have been here many, many times while dating and as a married couple! It’s our little taste of Europe. In Québec, French is their primary language; people do speak English, but everything is French first!
We suggested the gang take a hop on hop off bus tour, which they did; it’s a great way to get an overview of the city. These tours are pretty pricey (~$48 pp) so JT and I opted out. First stop was lunch: http://www.jardinnelson.com/ we stumbled upon a fantastic inner courtyard at Jardin Nelson with a three piece jazz band! What a find. I had a real taste for a crèpe with béchamel sauce! We shared an order of Caprese salad (in season mini tomatoes and fresh bufalo Mozarrela) with a little pesto and balsamic, yum, yum, yum! And a wonderful spinach and ham crèpe. I find crépes are expensive in Canada, and this one was no different, around $16.
Overall rating (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 4/5, food 4/5, Value 3.5/5, Noise: 3/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).
We reunited with the gang for cocktails at our hotel. The Nelligan (highly recommended) has an incredible roof top patio. I had a delicious vodka martini, straight up, very dry, no olives. I prefer mine stirred and not shaken ;-).
Dinner was our plan from the previous evening: Holder http://www.restaurantholder.com/
I had another caprese salad-I couldn’t help myself, and a very traditionally seasoned steak tartar. Very tasty indeed!
Overall rating (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 4/5, food 4/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 2/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).
(I’m posting from my iPhone and the ap doesn’t allow me to re-order my photos, they post where they post!)
I added a few pics of the inside of the rock star bus.

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The adventure continues

We left our campground in east Toronto around 9:30 am, a bit later than expected. Sleeping on the pull-out inflatable is really like camping… Ouch! Although the bus is decked out with the most incredible amenities, there is no where to put anything! Stepping over this and that to squeeze into… But I digress…

We stopped in Kingston for a bite and parked our trucks where we could. The Rock Star bus is towing the SUV, so driving any which way but forward is impossible. We pulled into a lot and the inevitable happened, we couldn’t get out without backing up! So we had to unhitch the truck and back up the bus, and rehitch the truck! Oh well, the one hour lunch turned into two!

Back on the road, we see the end is near… But … Wait for it… The bridge to the campground is out! You can’t get there from here! We had to detour back on the highway, go several Kilometres past the campground and come back on ourselves! We finally pull in, set up, and sit back and enjoy our first martini! Mmmmm! We had reservations in old Montreal which we’ve changed three times; I suggested that we scrounge the cupboards and make dinner on site instead of driving the thirty minutes to Montreal. Everyone jumped on it. We had sausages on the grill and beans (no vegetables!) and wine! We sat out at our camp fire and enjoyed the setting and our friends.

It really was an adventure, and I’m firmly decided that this type if camping (or any type, for that matter) is NOT for me! I am really going to enjoy the four star hotel with the king sized bed tonight in old Montreal!

Our friends are driving us into Montreal and they’ll do a bus tour while JT and I will explore on foot ourselves – maybe a little shopping too! And I need to eat a salad (salsa does not make up a food group!). We’ll meet up for dinner tonight.

The second photo shows the boys ‘pulling’ the truck to line it up with the bus to re-hitch!

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