Bienvenue à Montréal

We have been anticipating our arrival in Montreal all week and were excited to finally make it to our most eastern destination. Although we had a few hiccups on the way (thanks to Captain Paul for the Prop issue) we are only delayed one day from our original plan and considering we were without a second prop for 5 days we did well on our trip.

Today the weather in Montreal was hot and humid. Our first goal of the day was to find a Montreal Smoked Meat Deli and introduce Swabbie to this sandwich because it is not readily available at home and many places in Montreal are famous for their styles. We decided to walk to Schwartz's Deli. It was established in 1928 by Reuben Schwartz, an immigrant from Romania. It's long popularity and reputation has led to it being considered a cultural institution of Montreal. The list of famous people who have eaten in this Deli is too long to post but now Swabbie can be added to that group. Needless to say Swabbie liked the meat.

We spend the better part of the morning walking through Old Montreal gazing at the architecture and art in the windows. We made a stop at the downtown IGA store to get provisions for our dinner. By the end of that walk we were hot and tired so we went back to the boat and had a short rest. Cynthia kept going and found lots of wall art and interesting items on the streets. There were large Chess Sets, a Little Red Riding Hood play set, kids running through water spouts and families walking the streets with their children. It was good to see such excitement and activity happening as we have been "locked down" for a long while. It seems that normality in Montreal is happening.

We enjoyed our first day in the city and look forward to finding more adventures tomorrow. The weatherman is calling for some rain this evening and possibly some periodic rain on Monday, so we are hoping that he is wrong.

A stroll through the streets this evening brought out the typical French Canadian atmosphere with all the restaurants full, the outdoor patios packed and the streets active with families walking and enjoying summer. We joined in the atmosphere, treated ourselves to some ice cream and finally retired to our boat for a good nights rest.

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he Hallman Experience - Can't go wrong with Montreal Smoked Meat

The Solution - Eat it and enjoy

Hoping for more sunshine tomorrow !