Honeymoon (part 1)
Aug. 4th, 2009 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
figmentI highly recommend visiting Montreal in the summer. We had a wonderful time! (The whole set of photos/video is on flickr.)
We arrived on Monday night. Took two buses and a train to the hotel; although it was reasonably easy, it was probably the most awkward transportation of the whole honeymoon. We lucked into a free upgrade at the St-Sulpice, where we were staying, transforming what would have doubtless been a nice place to stay into a very nice place.
We went to the nearby Jardin Nelson for dinner, a beautiful location in the historic/touristy part of Vieux Montreal. It had cool giant umbrellas, twinkly lights on trees, and a so-so live jazz trio.
I had a mushroom crepe, he had a salmon lasagna, and we celebrated our first honeymoon night with some wine.
The food was pretty good, although very cheesy and heavy. Afterwards, we walked around and enjoyed the sketch artists, fire juggler, and the waterfront. We finished off our night at a bar in a slightly different part of Vieux-Montreal.
On Tuesday we took it slow. We checked out the excellent free hotel breakfast - several steps above the usual, this one had white linens, and fresh croissants & brie & fruit, and waiters who brought you coffee and orange juice. The breakfasts were an excellent feature of our stay. We lounged around in our hotel room for a while and eventually went out for a walk. We ate lunch at the nearby Origine Bistro on the waterfront.
Like many places in Montreal, the food was pretty gourmet, but the atmosphere was very casual. I liked how fresh the sangria I had was - and this is the beginning of many food pictures I took...
We walked on the waterfront for a while, pondered walking out to the Biosphere, and decided it was too far for that day. Instead, we explored our neighborhood a little more, and grocery shopped for champagne and wine and food for a picnic the next day. That night we went to Bonny's for a delicious vegetarian dinner.
We took advantage of the giant tub with a champagne candlelight bubble bath that night.
On Wednesday, after enjoying the hotel breakfast, we walked to the Biosphere. That was a long walk! (A little over 4 miles.) But it was another hot sunny day and we took our time, looking at interesting architecture and other stuff on the way.
One thing we saw - but did not play with as we were enjoying the live string quartet that was playing nearby - was an interesting-looking sonic sculpture. You can play with it from anywhere!
We enjoyed an excellent picnic lunch outside of the biosphere.
...and saw what I think was a groundhog right nearby.
We headed into the Biosphere after finishing our lunch. Just after snapping this photo, it started to rain - we made it into the Biosphere just in time to stay mostly dry.
The Biosphere was awesome. It had really interesting, engaging exhibits about hydrodynamics, Buckminster Fuller, etc. (The dome was built as the American pavilion at the World Expo '67, designed by Bucky. Later, it became an environmental science museum type place, run by Environment Canada.) We got a great view of the river and skyline from the top of the structures inside the Biosphere...
I want to find out more about the World Game designed by Bucky... so far the Web is giving me a few articles, but not much of substance.
Another feature of the Biosphere was the eco-house, just outside the sphere. It was constructed for the 2007 Solar Decathlon, and is entirely solar-powered - it stays warm through the Montreal winter using nothing but solar, and still has energy left to charge an electric car! We were very impressed by it.
That night, we checked out Yuan that night for dinner. The food was vegetarian Taiwanese, and had a really impressive fake meat selection. We went to Gogo Lounge for drinks after dinner. It was quite the experience, with menus composed of stickers stuck to records, giant red hand chairs, and a funky decor.
On Thursday we opted to skip our excellent hotel breakfast, and headed to the Fairmount Bagel Bakery instead. It's true, Montreal bagels are delicious! I like the crunchier outside.
Those + cappuccino + some water kept us going for a hike up Mont Royal after that. Pretty vigorous hike/walk; beautiful view from the top. Very glad we did it!
Montreal kind of centers around the park that is Mont Royal - and it's impressively woodsy, and fun to climb up (if not much of a real mountain).
After that, we had lunch at Crudessence, an amazing raw food vegan place. Also gluten free. (But good luck if you have nut allergies!) Truly remarkable; I would like to learn to "cook" like that sometime.
We spent the afternoon shopping for funky clothing, and found some delicious maple whiskey on the way home to the hotel. We ended up at ChuChai for dinner that night. Oh my wow amazing! The food was so good and fresh and again such a good variety of vegetarian options. The appetizer we had was really cool - I don't even know exactly what it was, but you wrapped the leaf around the rest of the stuff (toasted coconut, cashew, lime, pepper) and popped the whole thing in your mouth. Yum! Montreal is really veg-friendly.
That night we went to the Comedy Nest for our first ever live comedy cabaret experience! Turns out it's in an old hockey stadium...
Comedy was fun - the performers were not all amazing but live is more fun. I laughed until my stomach hurt and it was not expensive and we had a great time.
We arrived on Monday night. Took two buses and a train to the hotel; although it was reasonably easy, it was probably the most awkward transportation of the whole honeymoon. We lucked into a free upgrade at the St-Sulpice, where we were staying, transforming what would have doubtless been a nice place to stay into a very nice place.
We went to the nearby Jardin Nelson for dinner, a beautiful location in the historic/touristy part of Vieux Montreal. It had cool giant umbrellas, twinkly lights on trees, and a so-so live jazz trio.
I had a mushroom crepe, he had a salmon lasagna, and we celebrated our first honeymoon night with some wine.
The food was pretty good, although very cheesy and heavy. Afterwards, we walked around and enjoyed the sketch artists, fire juggler, and the waterfront. We finished off our night at a bar in a slightly different part of Vieux-Montreal.
On Tuesday we took it slow. We checked out the excellent free hotel breakfast - several steps above the usual, this one had white linens, and fresh croissants & brie & fruit, and waiters who brought you coffee and orange juice. The breakfasts were an excellent feature of our stay. We lounged around in our hotel room for a while and eventually went out for a walk. We ate lunch at the nearby Origine Bistro on the waterfront.
Like many places in Montreal, the food was pretty gourmet, but the atmosphere was very casual. I liked how fresh the sangria I had was - and this is the beginning of many food pictures I took...
We walked on the waterfront for a while, pondered walking out to the Biosphere, and decided it was too far for that day. Instead, we explored our neighborhood a little more, and grocery shopped for champagne and wine and food for a picnic the next day. That night we went to Bonny's for a delicious vegetarian dinner.
We took advantage of the giant tub with a champagne candlelight bubble bath that night.
On Wednesday, after enjoying the hotel breakfast, we walked to the Biosphere. That was a long walk! (A little over 4 miles.) But it was another hot sunny day and we took our time, looking at interesting architecture and other stuff on the way.
One thing we saw - but did not play with as we were enjoying the live string quartet that was playing nearby - was an interesting-looking sonic sculpture. You can play with it from anywhere!
We enjoyed an excellent picnic lunch outside of the biosphere.
...and saw what I think was a groundhog right nearby.
We headed into the Biosphere after finishing our lunch. Just after snapping this photo, it started to rain - we made it into the Biosphere just in time to stay mostly dry.
The Biosphere was awesome. It had really interesting, engaging exhibits about hydrodynamics, Buckminster Fuller, etc. (The dome was built as the American pavilion at the World Expo '67, designed by Bucky. Later, it became an environmental science museum type place, run by Environment Canada.) We got a great view of the river and skyline from the top of the structures inside the Biosphere...
I want to find out more about the World Game designed by Bucky... so far the Web is giving me a few articles, but not much of substance.
Another feature of the Biosphere was the eco-house, just outside the sphere. It was constructed for the 2007 Solar Decathlon, and is entirely solar-powered - it stays warm through the Montreal winter using nothing but solar, and still has energy left to charge an electric car! We were very impressed by it.
That night, we checked out Yuan that night for dinner. The food was vegetarian Taiwanese, and had a really impressive fake meat selection. We went to Gogo Lounge for drinks after dinner. It was quite the experience, with menus composed of stickers stuck to records, giant red hand chairs, and a funky decor.
On Thursday we opted to skip our excellent hotel breakfast, and headed to the Fairmount Bagel Bakery instead. It's true, Montreal bagels are delicious! I like the crunchier outside.
Those + cappuccino + some water kept us going for a hike up Mont Royal after that. Pretty vigorous hike/walk; beautiful view from the top. Very glad we did it!
Montreal kind of centers around the park that is Mont Royal - and it's impressively woodsy, and fun to climb up (if not much of a real mountain).
After that, we had lunch at Crudessence, an amazing raw food vegan place. Also gluten free. (But good luck if you have nut allergies!) Truly remarkable; I would like to learn to "cook" like that sometime.
We spent the afternoon shopping for funky clothing, and found some delicious maple whiskey on the way home to the hotel. We ended up at ChuChai for dinner that night. Oh my wow amazing! The food was so good and fresh and again such a good variety of vegetarian options. The appetizer we had was really cool - I don't even know exactly what it was, but you wrapped the leaf around the rest of the stuff (toasted coconut, cashew, lime, pepper) and popped the whole thing in your mouth. Yum! Montreal is really veg-friendly.
That night we went to the Comedy Nest for our first ever live comedy cabaret experience! Turns out it's in an old hockey stadium...
Comedy was fun - the performers were not all amazing but live is more fun. I laughed until my stomach hurt and it was not expensive and we had a great time.