Day two in Montreal

Had a bad nights sleep even though i was in bed for midnight. I headed down to the Gym around 8am to get some endorphins flowing through my body. It worked! i felt great after a 45 minute workout and then 15 minutes in the pool.

Andy was on his laptop in the room, Bob had booked a room at another hotel as we weren't able to get a rollaway bed in the room and we both said there was no way we were sharing the same bed with Andy!

Our Hotel for three nights.

Andy and i arranged with Bob to meet him at about 1pm at Schwartz's deli. This is somewhere a few people have on my blog had told me not to miss. Andy and i took the subway towards the deli and got off around 6 or 7 blocks away. It was in a great art of town, not commercial and touristy at all,lots of boutique and independent stores, no large chains at all.

   

We called Bob (whom I've since found out from this mornings trip to the airport has no sense of direction!) who said he said was on his way and close by, we were at number 3750 on the street and Bob was at 1200! Andy told him to jump in a cab as he was no where near yet! Andy and i walked up to Schwartz's and Bob arrived in the cab some 20 seconds later. What we didn't know what that between the numbers 1300 and 3750 they miss out about 1500 numbers! hence Bobs cab ride was little more than 400 yards or so!!  i don't think it even clicked over from the starting fair!

 

Schwartz's deli is a similar type of place to the Carnegie deli in New York however its a LOT smaller but just as busy! They have a unique way of storing their brisket meat, in the window!! Andy commented that normally the pile is a lot higher in the window and it doesn't matter what weather is that is where they stored it! We all had a laugh later on commenting that the reason they cant get Zagat rated is due to their “refrigeration” techniques!

     

They pretty much sell 3 or 4 things and that's it,  Brisket, fries, steaks and coleslaw and pickle! Its usually pretty busy at lunch but we were able to walk straight in and get a table for three right away. It was full of older Jewish men sat at the bar area whom probably eat there every day and have done since they were kids! The place has been going over 80 years and still looks like it probably did 80 years ago!

Bob asked for the menu and the waiter looked at us strangely and said “its there” he pointed to the paper on our table that had a list of meet, fries, pickle, etc and had no prices on. He asked if we were hungry, we all were, it was gone 1pm and none of us had eaten breakfast. He made his suggestion, we agreed and then waited! Firs two plates of fries arrived, then a plate of bread, then two plates of pickles and then two huge plates of meat!

Food at Schwartz's                           Before shot                                      After shot

   

 

The brisket meat was fantastic! you just loaded some in the bread , added some mustard and ate!! Bob tried opening his water and threw it all over himself, he then continued to add mustard to not only his bread but his shirt and Jacket! I asked Bob if he would like me to ask the waiter for some crayons!! lol

We were more or less finished when the waiter came back over and asked if we would like another plate of meat, i looked at Andy, Andy looked at Bob, Bob looked at me and we were all like mmm i don't mind whatever you want. The waiter looked a little shocked as he said he was only joking! We decided not to be pigs,lol As you can see from the above pictures there was plenty of food and we pretty much had it all apart from licking the plates!

 

Had to laugh at this guy who was obviously a Snowy fan and had seen the 1998 tour:) !!

After prising ourselves out of the seats we headed outside onto the street and decided to walk down to Old Town Montreal. The street we walked down was full of real nice restaurants, deli food stores and coffee places. bob waned a coffee but seemed to think the store with probably over 100 different types of coffee inside wasn't the right place to get one! Andy told him otherwise and we headed into the coffee shop.

 

Bob then found it difficult to order a coffee! he wanted it black that was all but it wasn't on the board! Andy and Bobs friendship has been since school and they just “bounce” of each other with the things they say. Andy said, Its simple, watch. He went up the girl at the counter and said “ hi, my friend here would like black coffee but doesn't know how to order it” she looked  a touch confused and then started to make the coffee there in front of us, see Bob, it wasn't hard! (you kinda had to be there)

We passed some unusual buildings and stores on the way as well as walking through Montreal's China Town

   

We walked for a good couple of miles before hitting Old Town, we knew we were there when Andy pointed up and said “you can tell were here now, look old Mc Donald's”

Old Mc Donald's!                                        An Unusual site in Montreal, no traffic!

 

We walked up and down the whole of Old Town twice. The building were cool and old, lots of restaurants and some real history!! well 200 years old stuff!!

     

I loved it but Bob and Andy had different things on their mind! Bobs a trader on the markets and Andy does a lot too so they were more interested in what was up and what was down!

Bob, Andy and Blackberries!                       Site of the 1967 worlds fair            Old Town

   

 

We must have walked at least 4 or 5 mile since our plates of meat dinner and even though i felt better for it i could still feel the food just lying there in the bottom of my stomach! its not the sort of place you go to eat healthy! However i was pleasantly surprised this morning when stepping on the scale after working out and seeing i was 2lb less than when i left home!

As we walked around we came across a “park” which we the three of agreed was indeed a place where people bring their plants to die!! It was strange the whole place was overgrown with dead plants in pots just laying around, al the footpaths had huge concrete blocks on but there were brand new wooden benches for people to sit on! There was also a green mural on the wall that looked like they were trying to blend the wall in with the “park” but had chose to paint a huge microwave oven in the middle of it!

   

We found a small bar and had a couple of drinks in, by this time it was going on 4:30 and we planned to make our way back to the hotel to chill out for an hour before meeting up with everyone at the bar before the show.

I think Bob and Andy will be the first to admit we had a great 4 hours wondering around and had such a laugh together. We had so many “you had to be there” moments  that I've completely forgotten but i do remember laughing and smiling so much my cheeks were hurting. Bob got a cab back to his hotel and Andy and i walked the 20 minute walk up the main shopping street to our hotel.

View all the pictures from Old Town and more below:

View Full Album

Au revoir Montreal!

So i fly from Montreal to Cleveland today, pick up a rental car and then head down towards Columbus.I then follow the map below. Looking forward to seeing Kim, Joe, Eric, Mike, Hannah, John and a few others tomorrow night before the show. Lots of driving over the next week and all alone, not in two’s. You can click on the map and move around to see it in more detail.

View Roger Waters "The Wall" USA & Canada 2010 tour in a larger map

Montreal second show..

Great show tonight, detail soon