Sortie.
This weekend was goldenphoenix's birthday celebration, which saw us taking a vacation together to Montreal. It went very well due to our high level of planning and our determination to have ourselves some serious fun, and also thanks to the many people who contributed to or aided in preparations for the trip.
We set out Thursday when I picked up the birthday girl, who had just turned 21 the day before. Our drive north to Vermont, our first destination was smooth and speedy. We arrived at thyrsomaniac and halftroll's place ahead of schedule that evening and got to see the mighty belly at long last! The four of us watched the classic film The Wicker Man together which was great fun. goldenphoenix had never seen it before and it had been a long while since my single viewing.
The next morning, after a lovely breakfast prepared by halftroll we set out for the next stage of our journey. Again fortune favored us with a quick and easy drive (and no delay at the Canadian border). We drove into Old Montreal at about 3pm and checked into Casa de Mateo, our lovely accomodation for the two nights of our stay. Our room was quite nice and overlooked Rue Saint Francois-Xavier. At night we would hear horse-drawn carts clopping down the narrow street and in the morning the bells of Notre-Dame Basilica chiming the hour.
After settling in and parking the car (I wish I had a link to the parking deck, it was also well-situated and quite inexpensive at about $10 US per 24 hours, on Rue Saint-Jacques near the Place d'Armes Metro), we were ready to hit the town and get some dinner. goldenphoenix had made reservations for us at Chu Chai on the Plateau, so we hit the Metro and arrived in short order at a superlative vegetarian dinner. We had an appetizer of small pastries stuffed with vegetables, hot and sour soup with lemongrass, a Thai "chicken" salad, and for the main course vegetarian chicken in peanut sauce with crispy spinach followed by a dessert of lychees.
Yum. Fully sated we returned to our room and decided to explore the nightlife of Old Montreal a bit as it was still quite early. At it happens, Halloween seems to be a big event in Montreal, particularly Old Montreal. We didn't hit up any of the ghostly tours going on but the street entertainment was plentiful. We saw adults and children alike in costume, buildings decorated for the holiday, one of the main streets closed to autos with a live goth band down at the waterfront - all this and far more, culminating in a breathtaking fireworks display over the St. Lawrence river. We particularly noted that intentionally scary costumes and activities seemed more acceptable in Montreal than we suspected would be the case back in the US, especially the duo we saw in costume as some sort of military or paramilitary with realistic weapons - out of the question in post-9/11 America I would suspect.
We went to bed happy with the perfection of the evening and of the trip so far.
Saturday morning we awoke to rain. We'd prepared for this eventuality but were slightly dispirited at first. Nonetheless, we enjoyed a lovely breakfast (included with our room) of croissants, fresh muffins and fruit, juice, coffee, and a light Mexican omelette that was just slightly spicy. While goldenphoenix and myself are both vegans, we occasionally are willing to make exceptions usually for reasons of hospitality or firm knowledge of the sources and conditions of the foods. In this case it was the former and we enjoyed the homey morning in the quiet company of a few other guests of the auberge.
Fortified for the day ahead we struck out into the rain and visited Pointe-a-Calliere, the Montreal Museum of History and Archaeology. After an interesting multimedia presentation on the history of the site, we descended into the lower level to explore the strata of Montreal's history. As it turned out, this was no mere museum but in fact housed archaeological excavation of the site. On its location had once been a Catholic cemetary for settlers and native converts alike in the mission of Ville Marie, most of those buried there having been killed in raids by the Iroquois who were hostile to the French-allied Hurons of the time. Numerous other interesting buildings spanning most of the history of Montreal had been built over the centuries on the Pointe's site.
goldenphoenix and I bought each other small gifts at the museum shop - a citrine pendant for me and a pair of feathery earrings for her.
Back at our room (it was easy to stop there between activities given its excellent location in Old Montreal) we decided to brave the elements and head for the Montreal Botanical Gardens. Despite the winds and rain we would not have our plans be thwarted! It was a wise decision as our afternoon and evening in the Gardens were lovely. We had a bite to eat in their Garden Restaurant (just some organic chips, salsa, and juice plus some peanuts, really) before strolling through the Alpine Garden with its hardy mountain-dwelling plants to our true destination and focal point of our visit to the Gardens.
The Chinese Garden really in our opinion is a must-see when visiting Montreal. We throroughly enjoyed it even in the poor weather conditions, especially given that the annual Magic of Lanterns festival was in its final weekend of the 2006 season. In addition to the lanterns themselves, many traditional musical instruments used in Chinese celebrations were on display and a demonstration of Chinese drumming gave the event its own score. Along with the fireworks display in the Old City our first night, the Lantern festival was a high point of our vacation. After exploring it in the waning daylight we took some time and visited the Insectarium as admission was included in our Gardens pass. It was fun though rather more insects than I usually enjoy seeing at a time. The tarantulas, scarabeus beetles, and leaf-cutter ants were all very nice to see though, each in their own particular ways. I'm just not a big fan of the six-legged, personally. Oddly, arachnids bother me far less.
In any case, we still had time to take in the greenhouses before returning for the full effect of the Lanterns in the darkness of the late evening. Having not had the chance to return to Longwood Gardens this year I was glad for this opportunity. I'd not read much about the Montreal Gardens beforehand - just enough to know we'd definitely want to go - so they were a pleasant surprise. Oh, I'm forgetting to mention the hundreds of decorated pumpkins on display! Some were very clever, and all decorated rather than carved. Regarding the Chinese Lanterns by night I'm not sure my summary here would suffice. The Chinese Garden, central pond and most likely approaches from elsewhere in the Gardens were lined with hanging lanterns and further decorated with larger more ornate lanterns shaped as dragon boats, swordsmen, birds of all kinds including the phoenix, kites and myriad others all lit from within. Hopefully goldenphoenix will either post some of her excellent photos of the trip or share them with me so I may.
In the end, very tired from our hiking through the elements of air and water, we returned to our home base, showered, dressed up and headed downstairs for a dinner of chips, homemade salsa, the freshest-tasting guacamole I've ever eaten, delicious vegetarian enchiladas and in honor of the birthday girl matching shots of tequila. A warm end to a cold but satisfying day. We were well pleased.
Sunday morning we breakfasted again and packed up to vacate our room. Our hostess, Fanny, was very happy with our praise and wished us well. We'd definitely stay again. We then decided to linger in Montreal a while as there were several things we still wanted to do. First, off to the Basilica! We were literally staying around the corner from this landmark, had heard its bells and walked by several times. We couldn't justify leaving Montreal without having yet been inside, so while we didn't see their show or take the guided tour we were happy to wander the building and admire the stained glass and many shrines. Afterwards we rode the Metro to Le Valet d'Coeur, Montreal's largest gaming store and browsed for a while. It was quite busy due to a D&D Miniatures Blood War prerelease tourney going on but nonetheless quite fun. It was rather entertaining to hear gamers arguing about initiative and such in French, to be sure.
We wandered on down to Chu Chai and ate at their next-door neighbor and sister restaurant, Chuch, which is counter-service with their own readily available vegetarian/vegan entrees as well as access to the full Chu Chai menu (sadly there is a dearth of good links for Chuch but it's also quite nice). On the way we'd stopped in at Excalibor, a fun medieval clothing and accessories shop for reenactors and Ren faire enthusiasts. We picked up a gift here for my roommate Paladin who'd helped us prepare for the trip. His cousin happens to be on the Montreal Tourism board and suggested many of the places we visited to us.
After lunch we set out to return to New Jersey. The weather was again quite windy and rainy for the first leg of the drive but eventually smoothed out and we arrived home safely, happy with the degree of success we'd had in creating a romantic and fun vacation together in celebration of our 21st and 30th birthdays. My thanks to all those who had a hand in making it all that it was. My account of the trip may be somewhat laconic but I had a wholly excellent experience travelling to Montreal and am already considering when we might do so again - there is much we researched or discovered in our planning and during the trip itself that could not fit into a weekend excursion.
Au revoir!
We set out Thursday when I picked up the birthday girl, who had just turned 21 the day before. Our drive north to Vermont, our first destination was smooth and speedy. We arrived at thyrsomaniac and halftroll's place ahead of schedule that evening and got to see the mighty belly at long last! The four of us watched the classic film The Wicker Man together which was great fun. goldenphoenix had never seen it before and it had been a long while since my single viewing.
The next morning, after a lovely breakfast prepared by halftroll we set out for the next stage of our journey. Again fortune favored us with a quick and easy drive (and no delay at the Canadian border). We drove into Old Montreal at about 3pm and checked into Casa de Mateo, our lovely accomodation for the two nights of our stay. Our room was quite nice and overlooked Rue Saint Francois-Xavier. At night we would hear horse-drawn carts clopping down the narrow street and in the morning the bells of Notre-Dame Basilica chiming the hour.
After settling in and parking the car (I wish I had a link to the parking deck, it was also well-situated and quite inexpensive at about $10 US per 24 hours, on Rue Saint-Jacques near the Place d'Armes Metro), we were ready to hit the town and get some dinner. goldenphoenix had made reservations for us at Chu Chai on the Plateau, so we hit the Metro and arrived in short order at a superlative vegetarian dinner. We had an appetizer of small pastries stuffed with vegetables, hot and sour soup with lemongrass, a Thai "chicken" salad, and for the main course vegetarian chicken in peanut sauce with crispy spinach followed by a dessert of lychees.
Yum. Fully sated we returned to our room and decided to explore the nightlife of Old Montreal a bit as it was still quite early. At it happens, Halloween seems to be a big event in Montreal, particularly Old Montreal. We didn't hit up any of the ghostly tours going on but the street entertainment was plentiful. We saw adults and children alike in costume, buildings decorated for the holiday, one of the main streets closed to autos with a live goth band down at the waterfront - all this and far more, culminating in a breathtaking fireworks display over the St. Lawrence river. We particularly noted that intentionally scary costumes and activities seemed more acceptable in Montreal than we suspected would be the case back in the US, especially the duo we saw in costume as some sort of military or paramilitary with realistic weapons - out of the question in post-9/11 America I would suspect.
We went to bed happy with the perfection of the evening and of the trip so far.
Saturday morning we awoke to rain. We'd prepared for this eventuality but were slightly dispirited at first. Nonetheless, we enjoyed a lovely breakfast (included with our room) of croissants, fresh muffins and fruit, juice, coffee, and a light Mexican omelette that was just slightly spicy. While goldenphoenix and myself are both vegans, we occasionally are willing to make exceptions usually for reasons of hospitality or firm knowledge of the sources and conditions of the foods. In this case it was the former and we enjoyed the homey morning in the quiet company of a few other guests of the auberge.
Fortified for the day ahead we struck out into the rain and visited Pointe-a-Calliere, the Montreal Museum of History and Archaeology. After an interesting multimedia presentation on the history of the site, we descended into the lower level to explore the strata of Montreal's history. As it turned out, this was no mere museum but in fact housed archaeological excavation of the site. On its location had once been a Catholic cemetary for settlers and native converts alike in the mission of Ville Marie, most of those buried there having been killed in raids by the Iroquois who were hostile to the French-allied Hurons of the time. Numerous other interesting buildings spanning most of the history of Montreal had been built over the centuries on the Pointe's site.
goldenphoenix and I bought each other small gifts at the museum shop - a citrine pendant for me and a pair of feathery earrings for her.
Back at our room (it was easy to stop there between activities given its excellent location in Old Montreal) we decided to brave the elements and head for the Montreal Botanical Gardens. Despite the winds and rain we would not have our plans be thwarted! It was a wise decision as our afternoon and evening in the Gardens were lovely. We had a bite to eat in their Garden Restaurant (just some organic chips, salsa, and juice plus some peanuts, really) before strolling through the Alpine Garden with its hardy mountain-dwelling plants to our true destination and focal point of our visit to the Gardens.
The Chinese Garden really in our opinion is a must-see when visiting Montreal. We throroughly enjoyed it even in the poor weather conditions, especially given that the annual Magic of Lanterns festival was in its final weekend of the 2006 season. In addition to the lanterns themselves, many traditional musical instruments used in Chinese celebrations were on display and a demonstration of Chinese drumming gave the event its own score. Along with the fireworks display in the Old City our first night, the Lantern festival was a high point of our vacation. After exploring it in the waning daylight we took some time and visited the Insectarium as admission was included in our Gardens pass. It was fun though rather more insects than I usually enjoy seeing at a time. The tarantulas, scarabeus beetles, and leaf-cutter ants were all very nice to see though, each in their own particular ways. I'm just not a big fan of the six-legged, personally. Oddly, arachnids bother me far less.
In any case, we still had time to take in the greenhouses before returning for the full effect of the Lanterns in the darkness of the late evening. Having not had the chance to return to Longwood Gardens this year I was glad for this opportunity. I'd not read much about the Montreal Gardens beforehand - just enough to know we'd definitely want to go - so they were a pleasant surprise. Oh, I'm forgetting to mention the hundreds of decorated pumpkins on display! Some were very clever, and all decorated rather than carved. Regarding the Chinese Lanterns by night I'm not sure my summary here would suffice. The Chinese Garden, central pond and most likely approaches from elsewhere in the Gardens were lined with hanging lanterns and further decorated with larger more ornate lanterns shaped as dragon boats, swordsmen, birds of all kinds including the phoenix, kites and myriad others all lit from within. Hopefully goldenphoenix will either post some of her excellent photos of the trip or share them with me so I may.
In the end, very tired from our hiking through the elements of air and water, we returned to our home base, showered, dressed up and headed downstairs for a dinner of chips, homemade salsa, the freshest-tasting guacamole I've ever eaten, delicious vegetarian enchiladas and in honor of the birthday girl matching shots of tequila. A warm end to a cold but satisfying day. We were well pleased.
Sunday morning we breakfasted again and packed up to vacate our room. Our hostess, Fanny, was very happy with our praise and wished us well. We'd definitely stay again. We then decided to linger in Montreal a while as there were several things we still wanted to do. First, off to the Basilica! We were literally staying around the corner from this landmark, had heard its bells and walked by several times. We couldn't justify leaving Montreal without having yet been inside, so while we didn't see their show or take the guided tour we were happy to wander the building and admire the stained glass and many shrines. Afterwards we rode the Metro to Le Valet d'Coeur, Montreal's largest gaming store and browsed for a while. It was quite busy due to a D&D Miniatures Blood War prerelease tourney going on but nonetheless quite fun. It was rather entertaining to hear gamers arguing about initiative and such in French, to be sure.
We wandered on down to Chu Chai and ate at their next-door neighbor and sister restaurant, Chuch, which is counter-service with their own readily available vegetarian/vegan entrees as well as access to the full Chu Chai menu (sadly there is a dearth of good links for Chuch but it's also quite nice). On the way we'd stopped in at Excalibor, a fun medieval clothing and accessories shop for reenactors and Ren faire enthusiasts. We picked up a gift here for my roommate Paladin who'd helped us prepare for the trip. His cousin happens to be on the Montreal Tourism board and suggested many of the places we visited to us.
After lunch we set out to return to New Jersey. The weather was again quite windy and rainy for the first leg of the drive but eventually smoothed out and we arrived home safely, happy with the degree of success we'd had in creating a romantic and fun vacation together in celebration of our 21st and 30th birthdays. My thanks to all those who had a hand in making it all that it was. My account of the trip may be somewhat laconic but I had a wholly excellent experience travelling to Montreal and am already considering when we might do so again - there is much we researched or discovered in our planning and during the trip itself that could not fit into a weekend excursion.
Au revoir!