Montreal Road trip: part I

Spouse & I packed up the ML 350 and were on the road by 8:15am on Thurs.  We made 1 brief stop in upper DE to get coffee, another brief stop in NJ for lunch, and another brief stop in NY for gas.  We encountered no traffic delays (even at the border) and really enjoyed seeing the beautiful fall foliage.  I didn't take any photos of the foliage since I was driving.  The GPS worked great, and we talked a lot of the way but also listened to some music.

We arrived at Tornwordo & Serge's house in Montreal shortly after 7pm, so it took us a total of 10 hours.  We visited with them and Georgie, and enjoyed a lovely snack with sparkling wine to toast our arrival which was very thoughtful of them.

The 4 of us made our way across town, brought our luggage inside our apartment, and then had delicious pizza at La Piazetta, then stopped in for a drink at Campus.  

Tornwordo & Serge

The open kitchen at La Piazetta

Tornwordo & Serge helped us get our bearings by providing us with a map and several nice tips.  Montreal is in the province of Quebec which is French-speaking.  Many people in Montreal can speak some English which is good since my French is quite limited.  Even when I am able to string together a coherent sentence in French, when the person replies in French I am over my head.

A neat thing about downtown Montreal is that the City has a lot of free wifi.  Most of the time I was able to find free wifi connections which enabled me to use my iPhone to post photos to Facebook.

Tornwordo & Serge took our car back to their house where it could be parked on the street for free and we settled into our little apartment.  It was a studio in a building I would estimate to have been built in the late 60s or early 70s.  We found it on AirBnB.com and selected it for its ultra convenient location and the fact that it had a balcony.  

The studio was located less than a block from a metro station and just 1 block to Ste Catherine St which is the main street of Le Village (the gay village) where many of the gay bars, restaurants, and clubs are located.  The studio was on the 6th floor of the building and the balcony offered a great view of Mont Royal, the tallest spot in the city.

Fri morning Spouse & I headed over to Ste Catherine St to have breakfast at Chez Cora.  Spouse had a traditional breakfast while I had a lovely French crepe filled with Nutella, apples, strawberries, kiwi, pineapple, grapes, and melon.  C'est magnifique!

Then we got on the Hop On/Hop Off bus for a narrated tour of the city.  One of the stops was the Oratory of St Joseph on Mont Royal.

I also liked the building across the street from it which is the College du Notre-Dame de Montreal.

The bus also stopped for photos from a hillside vantage point which offered great views of the city.

The St Laurence river on the right and the Olympic Stadium in the center

The Olympic Stadium on the right and the city on the left

After the bus tour we continued exploring on foot, stopping into stores and peeking at menus of restaurants.  In the late afternoon we returned to the apartment to rest up a little and change clothes, then we met Serge for happy hour at Sky Complex, then a 2nd drink at Lounge L'Un et L'Autre where Tornwordo met up with us.

Spouse

Serge

Next the 4 of us went to dinner Le Saloon, a chic bistro with very cool black and white wallpaper.

Serge & Tornwordo - check out the wallpaper!

Spouse & me

The food was great and the atmosphere was noisy and fun!  After dinner we bid adieu to our friends and Spouse & I went in search of something sweet to end our night.  Just down Ste Catherine St we found 1000 grammes where we shared an amazing slice of cake called 'Explosion Chocolate Praline'.  It was probably 1 of the most delicious cakes I've even eaten!  We walked back to the studio and watched a little TV before going to bed.

 

Paris places visited

Since it was my 1st time in Paris, I wanted to see as much of the city as I possibly could.  The best way (in my opinion) of doing this is to utilize the Hop-on/Hop-off bus.

There are a few of them in Paris, but we were told L'Open was the best, and coincidentally that is the one Spouse's travel agent booked for us.  They have 4 different routes and we had time to go on 3 of the 4.  You are given earbuds so you can plug into the commentary (available in several languages) as the bus drives by and/or stops at landmarks and places of note.  I found the commentary to be quite interesting and informative.  Spouse & I always sat on the upper level as close to the front as possible for the best views.  I would certainly recommend L'Open Hop-on/Hop-off bus to others who want to see a lot of places in a short amount of time.

Places we visited:

• Arc de Triomphe
  
• Louvre
• Champs Elysees
• Notre Dame
• Eiffel Tower
• Pompidou Centre
• Jardin du Luxembourg
• Pont Neuf
• Place de Vosges
• Sainte-Chapelle
• Paris Flea Market
• Montparnasse Tower

Descriptions of many of these places can be found HERE.  We did not "tour" all of these places, as we only had 3 days in Paris.  Many we visited on the bus or on foot.  

When not using the tour bus, we used the metro/subway.  It was very convenient, inexpensive, and ran frequently.  You take the metro nearly everywhere.

Where did the time go?

Oh my god, where did the time go? We had a fabulous time in NYC.

The BoltBus was terrific. It was clean, modern, roomy, and on time. I definitely recommend it. We arrived 1 block from my friend Lisa's office at 3:00 so she took our luggage up to her office while we explored. Our 1st stop was at the Barnes & Noble to buy a laminated 'pop-up' map of Manhattan. It was great because it folded/unfolded easily, didn't tear, and slipped into my front pants pocket. It is a NYC essential, and a bargain at $6.95. Armed with our nifty new map we walked down 7th Ave, turned onto W 23rd, stopped in at Ricky's Drag (and Halloween) Store, then headed up 8th Ave, and back to meet Lisa at 4:00. We took the 1 train to the 7, and the 7 across the river into Queens where Lisa lives. Spouse took a late afternoon nap while Lisa and I talked.

Around 7 or so we changed clothes and took the train back into Manhattan for dinner at 1 of Lisa's favorite restaurants Basilica at 9th Ave and W 47th St. Its a narrow, dimly lit place with exposed brick walls on both sides; quite cozy and attractive. Lisa and I both had a glass of Pinot Grigio, then I had the tortellini in cream sauce. Oh... my... god. It was absolutely delicious! Lisa and Spouse both had gnocchi which they enjoyed a lot. We talked politics, gay marriage, living in NY, and the 2 hours seemed to fly by. Then we caught a cab up to McAnn's at E 58th St and 1st Ave. where some new friends of Lisa's were performing. Sarah Hayes sang jazz standards accompanied by 3 excellent musicians on piano, drums, and string bass. As I raised my Cosmo to drink I saw it was back lit by the candle on the table, creating the most beautiful glow of blush in my martini glass. I imaged my cheeks were nearly the same shade. We sipped cocktails and enjoyed the jazz. Could anything be more quintessentially New York?

Fri morning Lisa went to work and we took the train into Times Square where we purchased tickets for a Grayline bus tour that took us past Macy's, Greenwich Village, the Empire State Building, the Flatiron building, Soho, Chinatown, Little Italy, Lower East Side, East Village, Tribeca, Rockefeller Center, the United Nations, the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum and Katharine Hepburn's apartment. The double-decker bus allows you to hop on and hop off at any stop, and the tour guides offered lots of interesting facts about NYC. We hopped off in Greenwich Village to meet DavidDust at Garage restaurant where we ate lunch. We had lobster sandwiches! If you can imagine it, David was even nicer, sweeter, and more handsome in person than he is in his blog! We had a great time and looked forward to getting together with him again the next day.

We picked up 1/2 price tickets at tkts to see "Gypsy" Fri night (word to the wise: bring cash because tkts does not take credit or debit cards), then headed back to Queens for a little snack and to change clothes. Back in Manhattan we found the theatre at W 44th St and 8th Ave, stopped at Starbucks for a mocha frappacino, then went to the theatre. We really enjoyed the show, but I must admit that I am not the biggest fan of Patti Lupone's singing in this show. Nobody can sing "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" like Patti, but somehow I didn't think her singing translated in "Gypsy". There seemed to me to be too much variation between her straight-tone and vibrato singing. It was almost like a switch she turned off and on. But I was blown away by Laura Benanti who plays Louise/Gypsy. After the theatre we walked 24 blocks to Mare on 8th Ave and W 21st St in Chelsea where we ate dinner shortly before midnight. We walked all that way because it was an absolutely beautiful night. We opted to eat at a tiny table on the sidewalk so we could get fully intoxicated with NYC. I had seafood risotto. We took the 1 train to the 7 train back to Queens and crawled in bed at 2:00.

Sat morning we sat in Lisa's kitchen drinking coffee and talking until 1:00. We had such a good time that the time got away from us. We took the train into Manhattan and met our friend Michael at 7th Ave and W 28th St, near his office. The three of us walked to New Venus Diner at 8th Ave and W 23rd St and had a terrific late lunch. We hadn't seen Michael since our last trip to NYC 4 years ago so we had a great time catching up on all the goings-on in our lives. I had a Greek frittata. Afterward we strolled down 8th Ave into the heart of Chelsea and ducked into Rainbows and Triangles at 8th Ave and W 20th St. While inside I saw a man who looked very familiar, but since he didn't seem to notice me, I didn't say anything. As we were leaving I accidentally bumped him with my backpack, and as I turned to apologize I realized how I knew him. "You look very familiar" I said. "Do live on Capital Hill in DC?" I asked. His eyes opened widely and he replied "I used to." Then I said "Your name is Rhett, right? You're friends with Michael S. We met you at his house, and then came to your house with him for dinner several years ago." He smiled and we re-introduced ourselves and chatted for 15 minutes or so. What a funny coincidence to meet an old friend from DC in NYC. But it gets better.

Back out on 8th Ave we said goodbye to our friend Michael, then headed toward the Village for our little NYC blogger meet-n-greet. Jesse, Bam Bam, and YOU met us at The Monster at 7th Ave and Grove St, followed by DavidDust. It was great to meet them! Jesse was even sweeter, funnier, and cuter in person than in his films! Bam Bam was great too. I must be honest and say I was very excited to meet YOU, as I have admired and been inspired by his writing. We talked, we laughed, we drank. Where did the time go? I couldn't believe it when 2 hours had gone by and our group decided to go across the street to Marie's Crisis, a showtunes sing-along bar! We sang our big gay hearts out in the dark, dank basement until Jesse, Bam Bam, and YOU had to leave for a birthday party. DavidDust and Spouse & I stayed a little while longer and talked. On the way back to the train we ducked into Rawhide at 8th Ave and W 23rd St in Chelsea because we'd heard they had Go-go Men (not boys). It was so dark we couldn't see a thing, and were out of there in 3 minutes. Then it was back on the train to Queens.

Sun morning we sat and talked and drank coffee with Lisa in her kitchen again until nearly 11:00. As I was telling her the story of meeting Michael S's friend Rhett, she asked me if Michael S had a twin brother named Mark. My eyes nearly popped out of my head as I answered yes. As it turns out, Lisa met Mark S through a mutual friend! So let me spell it out for you: Lisa and I lived in the same neighborhood and went all the way through school together. Spouse & I met Michael S when he moved into the same neighborhood we'd just moved to, then met Michael's twin brother Mark shortly thereafter. Mark went to college with Debbie, who introduced Mark to Lisa, who Spouse & I were staying with in NYC. Is that not completely insane? Lisa, Spouse & I had brunch at Aubergine Cafe in Queens. I had a delicious sandwich of smoked turkey, granny smith apple, and cheddar cheese. Then we returned to Lisa's, packed up our stuff, and took the 7 train into the city for the last time. We caught the BoltBus and enjoyed an uneventful ride back to DE. We stopped for a delicious and filling dinner at Meding & Son Seafood. Spouse & I both had seafood platters, then returned home.

It was a fantastic trip! Although the forecast had originally called for a chance of showers, it didn't rain and wasn't even cloudy. It was perfect weather for being outdoors on foot, which we were. A lot. What absolutely killed me was everyone with the scarves. Granted, I understand that a scarf looped around the neck is a fashion accessory, but not when its 75 degrees outside! I honestly saw one guy wearing shorts, a t-shirt, old suit vest, and a scarf looped around his neck. Where else but NYC?

Crush du Jour: Dane Cook