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Montréal/Toronto, canada
July 2 – August 9, 2023
Montréal, Québec
July 2 – 9, 2023
After a quick but very enjoyable visit with Beth and Jeff at their beautiful lakeside retreat, we continued on our journey three hours north to Montréal, Quebec. Now, we knew they spoke French in Québec, but it was still a bit of a shock to cross the Canadian border to find all the road signs in French! Our Airbnb was small and narrow, but we made it work for the week. We were located in Brossard across the river from the downtown area and it was a nice suburban neighborhood. But we learned while we were here the truth to the statement, “There are two seasons in Montréal, winter and construction.” There was construction going on in multiple places every day.
Unfortunately, we visited during a heat wave with temperatures in the low 90s every day. Our Airbnb had air conditioning (though it was not very efficient) so we could sleep, but most restaurants were not air-conditioned, which made for some uncomfortable meals. It really made me appreciate the luxury of air conditioning!
On July 4, since Mays had the day off for the holiday, we went downtown and took a Hop On/Hop Off bus tour like we did in Boston. And just like in Boston, it rained all morning. We still got a great overview of the different neighborhoods and older sections of the city. After the bus tour, we walked around a little since the rain stopped. However, the heat came roaring back with the return of the sun so we took a break at Victoria Pub, before returning to the car. We saw some beautiful architecture along the way and an interesting pair of climbable sculptures along the Rue Notre Dame. I climbed up one for a picture, but I was a little nervous coming back down since the stairs were see-through.
Eating in Montréal
There were so many restaurants to try and patisseries to visit that we never went to the same place twice. We tried a Mexican restaurant, where I sadly found that the Mojitos do not resemble those in northern Virginia, though I can’t say how they compare to Mojitos in Mexico. Another day we went to an Indian restaurant where we saw live belly-dancing, and to a Moroccan restaurant near our Airbnb where we joined the locals in watching a soccer game while we ate. And of course we tried the favorite food of Québec, poutine, which is cheese curds and brown gravy over French fries. No offense to Québeckers, but we are not fans. Enough said.
Something that did make us chuckle was the ease at how Montréalers switched languages depending on who they were talking too. At every restaurant we visited, the staff would start out by welcoming us fluently in French. When we answered in English, without even blinking their next sentence or question was in flawless English.
On Saturday, we drove an hour northeast to the little town of Sorel-Tracy on the Saint Lawrence River and stumbled on a local festival with live music, craft stalls, food trucks and a lot of bikers! So many that I wondered if the festival was part bike show.
Toronto, ontario
July 9 – August 9, 2023
Sunday, we continued to our next destination, Toronto, where we planned to stay for a month. We were expecting a five-hour drive, but due to heavy traffic along the way it took us an extra two and a half hours. This time we were in a more industrial neighborhood northwest of downtown. The neighborhood was a little run-down, but the Airbnb itself was very nice. One drawback to it was that the fridge didn’t work. We contacted the host multiple times but they never got it fixed. It was mitigated by them providing city parking passes for free, so that we could park nearby on the street. This turned out to be extremely important as there were no garages nearby; the closest ones charges about $30 a day. Multiply that times 30 days and you get “oof!”
Our neighborhood, 3.5 miles from downtown
Our Airbnb on Dupont Street and Landsdowne Avenue
Eating in Toronto
Since the fridge didn’t work, we had the perfect excuse to try all the different restaurants around our neighborhood. Also, since there was nowhere to eat closer than a quarter mile, we did a lot more walking which mitigated any guilt from eating out so much!
So many choices, so little time…
Cool Architecture!
July 9 – 16
Since Mays worked all week as usual, our first day out and about was Saturday, the 15th. We headed to the Royal Ontario Museum, which houses four floors of artifacts from various regions of the world, and different time periods, including a floor dedicated to natural history. As you can imagine, this took us all afternoon even in speed-mode. If I had taken my usual pace through a museum, reading practically everything, it would have taken days!
Sunday, we wandered around and found a street fair featuring live artists, booths with all kinds of merchandise from clothing to handmade jewelry and tons of food stalls of many different ethnicities – Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean to name a few. One of the stall owners told us that the fair was one of many hosted by Toronto in the summer.
We also saw a LOT of cannabis stores all over Toronto!
July 17 – 23
During the week, we stuck pretty close to “home” and just walked out to nearby restaurants for dinner. Our next day to explore Toronto was Saturday the 22nd. We went on a walking tour with the highlights of downtown. One thing that really struck me is that for such and old city there are so few older buildings. This is a big contrast to a lot of older U.S. cities we’ve been to that have historic districts proudly advertised. After walking several hours in the heat, we were pretty tired and so had dinner in nearby Chinatown. We were tempted into a hotpot place, but it was $100 for two, so we decided to pass on that for another time and chose another popular Chinese restaurant instead.
Sunday, we took a day trip to Niagara Falls, which was about two hours away, and of course, we had to take the boat that goes right up to the Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three separate falls in Niagara. Many of you have probably heard of the “Maid of the Mist” boat tour. This apparently is the boat ride on the American side of the falls; on the Canadian side, the tour is called Hornblower’s Niagara City Cruises! The boat was packed and we were very thankful for the parkas they provided as the spray coming off the falls resembled a strong summer rainstorm. Next was a stop to the nearby town of Niagara on the Lake, a quaint little town on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Then it was two and a half hours back to Toronto and a late dinner.
Needing some kitty love…
We have been away from Tribble for over a month now. You may remember from the “Getting Ready” page that she’s staying with our friend Kadira for the year. As expected, it took her some time, but she is adjusting to her new life and kitty companion, Pita and is now making herself right at home.
We were also adjusting to life without a cat for the first time in many moons. Luckily, we saw a couple of cats enjoying the evening air as we passed by on our way home one day. One of them was not very interested in us, but the other was very friendly and I was able to get a little kitty love.
July 24 – 30
We did something very out of character for both of us on the 29th and went to see the local production of Hamilton. While neither of us are fans of rap music, the show was very enjoyable and moving. The actors were all excellent and except for not caring for the interpretation of Thomas Jefferson, we really enjoyed it. Sunday, we took a water taxi over to the Toronto Islands in Lake Ontario. This land used to be joined to Toronto proper but in the 1850s a large storm separated them from the mainland. We enjoyed looking out over the lake from the north this time and I walked out on the pebbly beach and stuck my toes in. The water was cold enough to not tempt me to go in further, and I was surprised to see how many swimmers braved the chilly water. We rode the tram around the island and were lucky to sit in the back close to the tour guide, so we could hear his descriptions of the places we passed on the islands. As his inter com was broken, the people in the other tram cars were not so fortunate.
A New Friend
Toward the end of the month, we stopped at a Korean restaurant, LEEKo Roll & Bowl, right next to the Landsdowne subway station (the closest to us). As we waited for our order, we noticed all the BTS posters and postcards hung around the restaurant. So I asked the Korean lady who was serving us if she was an ARMY (that’s a fan to the uninitiated), and of course the answer was yes. We then spent some time bonding over the group, which led to Korean culture in general, our travels this year including our upcoming Korean trip in October. I wanted to ask so many things, but as usual, I am a little tongue-tied when meeting a new person. She was very easy to talk to and we became friends quickly. Before we left, she presented me with a postcard that had been a CD insert with the picture of my favorite BTS member. I was very touched as she got this at one of their concerts.
We returned to visit Jaime (Lee Ko is her Korean name) at Roll & Bowl several more times throughout our stay and shared our adventures in Toronto and got some good advice about our visit to Korea. She was always so kind to us and treated us like family. We had our final Toronto dinner at her shop and took some pictures, hugging goodbye at the end. I’m sure we will visit Toronto again, and when we do, we will stop by and visit our new friend Jamie.
July 31 – August 6
Working in Toronto
Another workweek rolled by and for a change of pace, Mays commuted into his co-working office this week. He is a member of this co-working company in Tysons, VA, and one of the perks is that he can use their offices in other cities. So I had the apartment to myself to catch up on some personal work and our blog. I am an introvert, and I’m finding that getting alone-time is important for managing my stress levels, even on vacation.
This was our last weekend in Toronto, so we picked out a few things that we had really wanted to do before we left. Saturday, we went to High Park, which is 398 acres and includes gardens, a large pond (more like a lake), a water playground for the kids, soccer fields and a small zoo. Since it was so large and we were there only for the afternoon, we took the 30-minute tram ride all the way around. Even then we still didn’t see all of the park. We stopped off half-way through to see the zoo and were both fascinated by the Barbary sheep, one of whom proudly stood on the top of his rocky hill so still that he could have been a statue, and another lazed on the roof of their enclosure. We still can’t figure out how he got up there.
The park also had a meditation labyrinth, which we both walked and found it very relaxing and soothing. I highly recommend it if you ever come across one.
Sunday, we went up in the CN Towner. Mays was a brave soul and did the EdgeWalk. After being strapped into a harness with two safety ropes, the guide took him and the other four in his group up to the observation deck level at 1,200 feet. They went outside and walked around the edge of the five-foot-wide deck (that did not have handrails). Then they leaned backwards over the edge, being held only by the safety ropes and then leaned out again facing out and down. He really enjoyed the experience, but you will notice I said he did this; I stayed safely inside and waited for him. With my very healthy (or unhealthy) fear of heights, me doing the EdgeWalk would probably result in me passing out. I did walk over the glass floor just under the observation deck which, given that I even avoid walking over grates in the sidewalk, was a huge step for me!
We enjoyed a wonderful, and huge, barbecue lunch at the VUE Bistro on the observation deck, which was very reasonably priced to our surprise. Then back to our apartment to avoid the approaching thunderstorm.
4 Responses
OMG! I’m so grateful that you wrote about me on your precious blog. I was very sick with COVID-19 for a while, so I hadn’t visited your blog in a long time, and there have been many updates since then. I’m so happy that I can reminisce about our memories too. Thank you so much for loving Korea and Korean culture. Every time I wear the bracelet you made, I think of you. When you come to Toronto, let’s definitely meet again. Please give my regards to Mays as well. Thank you!
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