you knew it was coming... bagels!

And what final entry about Montreal would be complete without mention of bagels? Every tour book lays it out for you - the choice between Fairmount or St. Viateur. And what a struggle it is.

First we stumbled upon Fairmount just by strolling around. So I stopped in for a chocolate bagel. This bagel had a dried fruit and nut flavour to it which I wasn't expecting. There was a lot of variety here so if you're into interesting bagel variations this would be your stop.

The very last thing we did in Montreal was trek out to St. Viateur just hours before hopping on our plane back home. 

That was so we could take our 4 dozen bagels and freeze them hours later. This plan seemed fool-proof, that was before Porter left our luggage behind in Montreal. Luckily it was only 12 hours later our baggage arrived at our doorstep and the bagels were no worse for wear. And with all the effort we went to, one bite and it's so worth it!

What a trip, what a city, what an experience! And we're going back next year!

the beer rule

While on vacation I make certain exceptions. One of which is that it’s perfectly OK to have a beer at noon. So I might sound slightly dipsomaniac, but when you are in a city with so many different beers (most of which aren't available in Ontario), you need to spread the love throughout the day. My sister hipped me to the standard beer, Boreale. This blond is light and refreshing in the summer heat and can be found in almost all restaurants in Montreal. 

We sought out a couple different brewpubs & brasseries for tastings of their craft beer selections. The first one is Vices and Versa located on boul Saint-Laurent just south of Little Italy. 

This place is a beautiful spot with a lush and green patio. Because the weather was so gorgeous we couldn't help but spend couple hours just relaxing on their patio.

Here Nuno enjoyed a Rye IPA and I had Routes des Epices. All the beers available here are brewed in Quebec and their food is also local to Montreal. 

This was probably our favourite hangout spot our entire trip.

The other great beer spot in Montreal is Dieu du Ciel located in the Mile End on rue Laurier Ouest.

Nuno’s brother recommended this spot and a great one it is! All beers served here are brewed by the pub themselves. 

As you can tell by their chalkboard list, there is a ton of variety and we tried samples of at least half of them. 

My absolute favourite was Rosee d’Hibiscus. It was so unique and unlike anything I've had before. It was slightly pink with a very nice herbal flavour. Yes, very girly - but it very tasty.

viva montreal!

It's been a long time since Nuno and I went on a trip to a major city. It was pretty much a yearly trend for us to decide on a city and spend our vacation exploring it. We usually visit galleries & museums, walk through neighbourhoods, eating local food, drinking the beers & tour breweries and see our favourite bands play. 

Naturally, now that Owen is in the picture we aren't taking trips for beer tastings or late night shows. But lucky for us those days aren't quite behind us. Because of our amazing network of family and friends we were able to take in the gorgeous city of Montreal over the past half a week. Owen stayed with my parents while we got away to celebrate our anniversary. A couple special things about celebrating in Montreal was our stay at the Embassy Suites and our dinner at celebrity chef, Chuck Hughes' restaurant Garde-Manger. 

Just about the only possible way I'd eat poutine is if it was Lobster Poutine. Our dinner at Garde-Manger was great.

Old Montreal is so romantic! It was so much larger than I had ever imagined. We also lucked out because we had the most perfect weather our entire trip. 
I'm just starting to organize everything while sitting waiting for our delayed flight back to Ontario so I'll hopefully continue blogging about this trip soon. So check back shortly for more trip details!