Magnificent Montreal...

Well, I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of our trip....Part 2 begins with us finishing our burgers and heading north of the border to MONTREAL!

We stayed at the Hotel St. Denis, which was a reasonably priced hotel within walking distance to Old Montreal (aka.-the absolute best part of the city) and a block from the Berri-Uqam subway station, which was the main hub to take you ANYWHERE you would want to go.  Not a bad place to 'set up camp'!

And since we were so close to Old Montreal, we dropped our stuff and immediately headed out to take in all of it's beauty...

And even a gorgeous piece of FALL.... 

And since, SHOCKINGLY, we weren't hungry after the MONSTER BURGERS...we again decided to skip dinner and pick up a few treats.  This time coming from a little shop we found called (appropriately enough for this trip): "Maple Delights."  On the suggestion of the man behind the counter, I picked up this yummy maple shortbread cookie with maple icing... 

...Annddd I could NOT pass up on this "maple truffle"...super sweet, but Oh-so-yummy:) 

Scott, however, decided to 'damn the man' and went with his standby favorite:  Tiramisu gelato (I know:)

And since it was superrrrrrr chilly on the day we arrived, as soon as we saw a sign for "the best coffee in Montreal," we flew into this cafe:)  Look how pretty our Cafe Au Laits were made....

Soooo good!  I mean, SOO Good!  Probably because they were mostly milk (as you'll see in a sec:)

After our mondo coffees, we headed back to the hotel and (tried) to catch some sleep after all that caffeine:)

The next morning, after mapping out our day, we headed first thing to a place I had stuck in the back of my mind since I had read about it YEARS ago:

The secret to Montreal bagels is that they are crunchier and less doughy then their East Coast counterparts due to their baking in a wood burning oven... 

And St. Viateur's was said to have some of the best!  I ordered a traditional sesame with garlic herb cream cheese and Scott ordered an "All-dressed" (aka-Everything bagel) also with garlic spread.  And check out the Cafe Au Laits...:) Definitely half milk/half coffee :)

Montreal bagels are definitely smaller and CERTAINLY more CRUNCHY...due to the lack of doughy fluff in the center.  However, since they are cooked first in a honey bath, they also did have a SWEET KICK to them.  Nice, but the saltier, the better as far as I'm concerned with bagels:) 

A very good way to start the day nonetheless and I was super excited I got to try the infamous St. Viateur's:)

Next on our "culinary Montreal tour" was ANOTHER place I had heard amazing things about.  We have a "Top 50" book and this place was listed as the top deli IN THE WORLD.  (Sorry Carnegie!)

Schwartz's Deli may also have won the award for speediest service.  After we elbowed our way through the crowd led by our waiter (this place was SMALL and BURSTING AT THE SEAMS with people) we sat at the counter and placed our order...

 I don't even think we FINISHED PLACING our order and they were already coming at us with dishes.... (I actually even heard a manager tell a waiter "Schwartz is about speed"...you ain't kiddin!!!)  We decided to split a 'smoked meat' sandwich (since, after 2 nights of not, we knew we wanted to be hungry for DINNER that night), fries and a garlic pickle.  We were in such a tailspin that this was the best picture I got...

Which is UBER tragic, since the star of the show was the SANDWICH.  TAKE MY ADVICE:  SKIP THE FRIES!  They weren't anything spectacular and the sandwich is why you are there.  It was TOOOOO DIEEEEE FORRRRRR.  The meat is apparently marinated for TEN DAYS before it's smoked fresh daily and it was out of this world.  I'm not even a huge sandwich FAN and I would have eaten 10 more of those:)  Schwartz was DEFINITELY an experience, and one not to be missed.  You may be rushed, jammed into a counter and out of there in all of 10 minutes flats but it will be a memorable 10 minutes for sure:) hahahahaha....

And I know this may come as a shock, but we actually DID more stuff in Montreal besides JUST eat:)  In between all of our treats we managed to climb to the top of lookout chalet in Mount Royal park for a gorgeous view of the city (and MAXIMUM calorie burn!:) 

...visited the Olympic park....and, as you know, I LOVE the Olympics so I was THRILLED... 

...took a tour of the stadium...

...took in the view from the top of the stadium's "Funicular" (aka-the tall piece reaching out of the stadium's roof)...

 ...visited the Botanical Gardens....

...and enjoyed their special displays of Chinese Lanterns... 

...and "The Great Pumpkin Ball"... 

How cool was this one!  It's all pumpkins!

All in all, I think we were on our feet for about 12 hours that day....no joke.  I NEVER get tired of walking while I'm traveling (cause really, how much time do you have there??), but after today...I was SPENT!  It also could have been because I had a cold for a lot of this trip and it TOTALLY peaked the full day in Montreal.  To the point that I, tragically, couldn't even taste ONE BITE of the dinner I'm about to show you.  So sad:)

We ate at the Vieux Steakhouse and it was JUST wanted I wanted....dim lights, pretty candles and a table looking out of one of the picture windows onto the cobblestone streets.  The one thing missing WAS MY TASTE BUDS!!!  However, the French Onion Soup was a good way to start because I was sooooooooo cold for most of that day...

For our main dishes, Scott & I decided to split our entrees because we both wanted to try the dishes we picked out....butttttt I think Scott was the clear winner in this deal, since he got MOST of this "Santa Fe" chicken (chicken topped with red peppers, zucchini & feta cheese) with GARLIC mashed potatoes...(tragedy, I tell you:).... 

...and almost ALL of his Bavette steak in shallot sauce with garlic mash...   

I'm sure it was lovely, but let me tell ya:  Eating steak for TEXTURE rather than TASTE is NOT a fun experience:)  One bite was enough of that nonsense for one night:)

However, creme brulee: not so bad in the "Textures department"....although Scott said it actually TASTED delicious:)  Not a big shock there:)

So after my bummer of a dinner, I knew EXACTLY where I wanted to go for breakfast the next morning!  As soon as I saw "the sun"...I knew where we were headed...

YUP!!!  We found a Cora's RIGHT around the corner from our hotel!  I literally let our a SQUEEEEEEEAL! :)  LOVE CORA's!

How can you not???  Just look how HAPPY this menu looks.... 

And I was even HAPPIERRRR to discover that a PORTION of my tastebuds had returned!  (I was SHOCKED...usually I'm 'out of tastes' for a good 3-4 DAYS normally!  I lucked out on this one:)  So even though I missed out on the BEAUTIFUL fruit display this time, I still got to enjoy this raspberry & cream cheese stuffed crepe topped with more raspberries and English cream... 

Love you, Cora!  Love, Love, Love! :) hahahahahaha....

And Scott really enjoyed his blueberry crepes, too... 

So after our favorite Canadian breakfast;), we decided to leave the city a day early because the hustle & bustle really wasn't conducive to how drowsy I was for this part of the trip.  But thankfully, we found the PERFECT place to unwind and relax (well, at least a little:)....stay tuned for Part 3:)

Have a great Wednesday!