After a night of ok enough sleep, we got up and started getting ready for the day. Once we were ready for breakfast, we headed out to the car, which needed defrost time, because the temperature had dropped dramatically overnight. When we could see out the windshield, we headed kind of across the street to Burlington Bagel for breakfast. Nick had a breakfast sandwich on an asiago pepper bagel and a dirty chai (that he tricked me into trying even though I HATE espresso), and I had…a bagel with cream cheese. Burlington Bagel has some of the best bagels in New England, so it was a great breakfast and we loved that there was a location right by our hotel. Well worth skipping the free hotel breakfast for!
After breakfast we headed back to the hotel, where we finished packing and checked out around 9. We made a quick stop for fuel, because even though Vermont gas is more expensive than NH gas, it’s a LOT cheaper than Canadian gas, and by filling up here, we would make it back into the States before we needed to fill up again, and then we hopped back onto I-89.
Less than an hour later, and straight up I-89, we were at Canadian customs, answering rapid fire questions as to why we were going to Canada. But, we passed the quiz, and were on our way again, driving through farm land, and expressing embarrassment that this was our first trip to Montreal, when Canada really was so close. About an hour (and really just a few roads) later, we were pulling up to our hotel, the Courtyard Montreal Downtown. Yeah, we live 4 hours from Montreal and have never been.
I left Nick in the car and headed inside to ask about parking and luggage storage since we were very early for check-in (it wasn’t even 11:00 am yet). I was greeted enthusiastically and told that I was not too early and they would find us a ready room. And they sure did. Keys in hand, and directions on how to enter their parking garage, I headed back out to the car to tell Nick the good news that we were already checked in. We both were pleasantly surprised.
We parked in the underground garage easily, and then found our way to our room, 712. We were immediately impressed with the room. It was immaculate and absolutely huge for a city (or, honestly, any standard hotel room).
We settled in a bit, put on all the warm gear, and then headed out to explore Old Montreal. Our hotel was a couple blocks from the “start” of Old Montreal, so while we took a more circuitous route initially than we later discovered was necessary, it wasn’t a bad walk. We spent some time just walking around, taking in all the sites. We certainly have old cities in the States (Boston…), but this really was unique compared to what we’re used to.
Eventually we decided it was time for lunch, and by some miracle, since offline Google Maps was not working as I had hoped, and public wifi is not nearly as prevalent in Old Montreal as it is in Ireland, we found the Pinnacle Wagyu Deli, which is exactly where I’d been hoping we would be able to have lunch. This is a small order at the counter place, known for their steak and their smash burgers. I got the smashburger and Nick got the steak frites. Both were amazing. You could cut the steak with the disposable wooden fork and knife we were given. Seriously, this was a great lunch stop. Prices were fair too, especially once the Canadian dollar was converted to American!
After lunch, we worked our way to the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History. This museum had a lot to offer in terms of history but had the most confusing layout I’ve experienced in any museum. So…mixed feelings about this museum, but it did provide us the opportunity to warm up, some wifi, and because of where in Old Montreal it is, allowed us to figure out the most direct route between the hotel and Old Montreal.
Museum explored we headed back to the hotel room to warm up, take a break from miles of walking uphill on cobblestones, and figure out where we wanted to have dinner.
In the end, we chose the nearby food hall for dinner, so when we were ready, we walked a few blocks over to Le Central. Here we both decided on pasta dishes. Nick had carbonara. I had bolognese. Nick also found us some cocktails while I watched them cook our pasta from our seats. I think my cocktail was a strawberry shortcake cocktail and his was something tropical with beer in it. Both cocktails were very good, and both pasta dishes were some of the best we’ve had. Le Central was very loud and chaotic, but I’d happily go back.
Dinner eaten, we walked back to the hotel, where we took in the nighttime view and crashed early.
