Montreal recap... A little late but better than never!!!

Joon and I love love loved Montreal.  It was a first for us, but definitely will not be our last!  We did so many things while we were there, and the weather was fantastic... Not too hot, not too cold.  Just right!!!

We met up with Tony and Amy, Johnny's parents, as well as Jinny and Johnny before they left Montreal to drive back to Toronto.  We went to this really neat place called Dejeuner Jardin, which was an open air restaruant that plays live jazz on Sundays for brunch.  They have these huge umbreallas to protect everyone in case of rain, and it is very european feeling with flowers and bricks everywhere... It was fantastic... it was basically a creperie, and did all kinds of breakfasts as a crepe... It was very delicious, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture before everything got eaten... We were hungry, what can I say???

Tony and Amy, Johnny's parents
 

Jinny and Johnny... they were great tour guides while in the city... thanks guys!!!

View of the table from one of the balconies... did I say this place was HUGE???

After breakfast, Jinny and Johnny hit the road back to TO, and Tony and Amy headed home... Joon and I were left to our own devices in Old Montreal.  Our first stop was Notre Dame.  It was beautiful!!!

The entrance... the cathedral was beautiful, but I was not impressed with the $5.00 cover charge that we had to pay... what happened to church being free???

The front... the detailing was amazing... it took 10 years to build the cathedral, and another 10 years to finish the inside detailing... crazy!!!

The organ... I think the tour guide said there was 800 pipes in this organ, and the organist had been playing for 60 years... It must be a beast to train someone to play this sucker... which is probably why the same person had been doing it for 60 YEARS!!!

On Wednesday (Aug 26.) we met up with Johnny's parents Tony and Amy, Tony's brother and sister in-law Frank and Gloria, and Johnny's brother and his wife, Mike and Norma for dinner. After dinner, Frank and Gloria invited us back to their house to check out their very own winery!!!  Johnny comes from an Italien family, and his family has been making wine for the last 20 years.  None of that wine in a box kit for them...  They buy the grapes, have actual grapes crushers (there is one just to the left of Tony's elbow), and buy actual barrels to store the wine in...

The vintages of wine and the bar...

The bottles the wine is stored in until it goes in the barrels, a wine crusher, and boxes holding the wine

More wine in the baskets... some empty bottles, some full...

Frank, our gracious host opening some wine for us to taste... Tony and Amy hand carried this back from Italy when they were there in May... this is only available in Italy!

Thank you Tony and Amy, and Frank and Gloria for everything!!! It was very neat to see the family winery and get a peek into Johnny's youth!

On Thursday, we decided to venture out into the city by "Bixi".  This is a revolutionary method of getting around in the city!  A Bixi is a bike station with bicycles for rent, and are located on just about every corner. You pay a 24 hour access fee of $5.00, and then you pull out your pedal bike. If your trip is 30 minutes or less, the trip is free.  If you go over, it is $1.50 per 30 minutes. So, we just made sure our trips were 30 minutes or less... if we got tight on time, we returned the bike, walked a block, and pulled out another bike!  This system is fantastic!!!  There are also separate paths created on the road so that you are not travelling right with traffic... Before we realized there were paths, we did ride with the traffic without a helmet... I felt like we were taking our lives in our hands!  Montreal drivers are CRAZY!!!

This system really only works were helmets are not mandatory - in Montreal, they are not mandatory.

Joon, paying our access fees for the day...

Pulling out and getting on his bike

Me on my bike.... they even have a little basket to hold your bags, or purse!!!  Perfect!!!

A park we bixied by...

We loved Montreal (I think I said that already), and we were very sad to see it come to an end...

We found this fantastic sushi restaurant just off the metro station... this was our second last night... Tri-express is delicious... if you end up in Montreal, we definitely recommend it!!!  Although, it is a tiny little restaurant... the walk aisle has only room for one person to walk through at a time!!!

The last supper!!!  And here we are getting on the plane leaving Montreal... sad to go, but excited to finally get settled... We had eaten out and lived in hotels and out of a suitcase for the last 2 1/2 weeks...

DC here we come!!!  Stay tuned for all our travels and visitors over the next few months...

xoxo

L&J