One of the things we've learned on this trip is that contrary to our previous marina experiences, having a multi-day reservation doesn't mean that you will have the same slip for the entirety of your stay. This morning we had to depart the T-head and move over to the fuel dock for our final night. We checked that task off early and turned our focus to our last day in Montreal. With more of the city to explore, we called on the assistance of Uber to make our way to the top of Mount Royal.
The city of Montreal gets its name from Mount Royal, a large hill that overlooks the Saint Lawrence River. The largest overlook is belvedere Kindiaronk which sits in front of Chalet du Mont-Royal. Our driver let us off at the parking lot for the Chalet and we had a short wooded walk to the observation patio. The Chalet itself is a wide-open venue for hire. I found the squirrel "gargoyles" perched on the rafters to be a nice touch.
After taking in the views from the top, there was only one way to go. The Mont Royal Staircase has 400 steps that goes down the mountain, with a few landings and observation decks along the way to break up the descent. The knees felt no worse after the trek, and we were very glad that we had brought our water bottles today. Montreal was again on the way to a record high temperature.
The staircase put us out at the edge of McGill University. A walk of about a mile led us to our first stop to see Kat, whom we had met at the marina on day one and is the food manager at a local museum and cafe. A warm smile crossed my face as I saw the name of the cafe was Fletchers (see posts from 5/21 and 5/30). This had to be good karma. We thanked her once again for the travel assistance and she graciously refilled our water bottles. These personal encounters will be remembered long after the sights from a walking tour.
Our next stop was for lunch at a local institution recommended by many. Schwartz's deli is the oldest deli in Canada, having been in operation for over 90 years. There was a pack of folks lined up at the door waiting to get seated.
Their claim to fame is something called "smoked meat," which is a pound of red meat with a little mustard between two slices of bread. Definitely no frills. Not being one for mystery meat (Barry informed me it was corned beef), I elected to go with the turkey sandwich -- a pound of turkey, between two slices of bread (I got no condiments). Barry said his was good. I would have preferred a salad.
We left the deli stuffed and off to explore one side of the Montreal Bagel War between St. Viateur and Fairmount. Fairmount Bagels was the closest, so that's where we headed. Kat had told us there was a great ice cream place next to Fairmount Bagels and when we turned the corner we met up with the tail end of the line. It didn't take too much discussion to take our place. I had a blackberry sorbet and Barry had almond ice cream. We reached the bagel shop, but were too full to sample and too hot to carry takeout. We'll leave the decisions on the bagel wars to the locals. It was time to finally start heading down the hill to the riverfront. It was about three miles down and once we reached the bottom, we refilled our water bottles and then went about emptying them as we sat in the shade for a few minutes before catching the ferry back to the marina.
We'll leave in the morning and start our passage through the Saint Lawrence Seaway and locks. We will be sharing the lock chambers with the big barges and freighters so it will be an interesting experience. Barry has spent a great deal of time in preparation for this section of our trip. Fingers crossed all goes smoothly and without drama.
Since July 4 is just another day up here, and I couldn't find any American television channels on which to watch fireworks, I searched through old photos and remembered past Independence Days. The photo below is from a couple of years ago in Cape Charles, VA, where we watched the fireworks from the marina.
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