Liz and I are now in London, needless to say we haven’t had much time to update lately. Iceland was *amazing*, we will post up lots of pictures and stories soon.
We arrived in London at the start of the week (wow), and I thought we would post up our itinerary to show you what we are up to. Again, we hope to find some time to post pictures and stories on our adventures. So much has happened since our last update
Oct 26 to Oct 31: London (yes, that means Halloween in London!)
Nov 1 to Nov 3: Bath
Nov 4 to Nov 6: Stow-on-the-wold and touring the Cotswolds
Nov 7 to Nov 10: York
After that: Liverpool (Nov 11-13?)
Next up: Edinburgh (Nov 14-16?)
Getting to Scotland is the last currently planned location on our itinerary, not sure where we will end up after Edinburgh!
Liz and I are super excited, as we booked flights to Iceland and then the UK last night (all while watching the Oilers beat the Ducks!)
We will be going to Iceland first, staying in Reykjavic for close to a week, and then on our way to London! Iceland Air has a great deal where if you fly from the US or Canada to Europe, you can stop over in Iceland for up to seven nights on the way there (and you can even book it through expedia, which we did). The cost of the flights works out so the whole package is cheaper than booking the flights seperately, and was quite reasonable overall.
Ice Ice Baby
We almost have our Iceland trip planned out, and hotels there are super cheap right now (although I hear the food will be expensive). Liz has a previously planned London to Edinburgh itinerary that we will probably us as a basis for our UK travels, although who knows where we will end up.
We will be spending the rest of the week and weekend in Montreal, and then flying out Monday!
Robin and I finally stumbled into old Montreal with eyes wide and a child-like compulsion to explore. Tunnels and cavernous cobbled streets were lined with iron signs protruding from the entrances of shops. It was nothing short of Muggle “Diagon Alley” with posh galleries, and hip restaurants boasting “best poutine in town” speckled throughout. Horse drawn carriages clip-clopped their way down the alleys, and wealthy folks on holiday bounced in those carriages in all their finery admiring the views of the port. To my dismay, the chocolate shops were few and far between! The docks at the port jutted out into the St. Lawrence river, and were swarming with seagulls. If you turned around, you could see the towers of Notre Dam, the steeples of other gorgeous ancient churches among the skyscrapers, and Mont Royal Mountain.
Still hoping to find my favorite chocolate on earth, I trekked to Jean-Talon Market by metro. Jean-Talon market is an enormously good time for anyone who enjoys grocery shopping the way it should be. Outdoors, and under countless tents. There were kiosks dedicated to selling pumpkins of all sizes, garlic and dried peppers, vendors who’d combined exotic berries in baskets to create irresistible displays. You could find giant figs that had to be bought individually, and shops specializing in hard-to-find spices. The cheese shops were so busy that the Montrealers had to shout their orders over counter tops and shove each other ever-so-slightly. I bought currants as bright as cherry candy, Concords, a few giant figs (because I do not fool around), and a handful of artisan chocolate- but still no sign of that darn Porcelana chocolate! I am beginning to have bad dreams about finding my favourite chocolate on store shelves, but when I get close, the packages turn into cd’s. It is very frustrating!
Sutton
As a very thoughtful birthday gift to Robin, Joan and Deirdre rented us a car for one whole weekend. So, Robin and I drove out to the Eastern Townships (Cantons de l’Est) during the first weekend in October, which might have been the very best time to go! The mountains in the distance were on fire with oranges and reds, yellows and greens. There were leaves blowing around the streets of those little towns too, and pumpkins on almost every doorstep! It was heaven! Robin and I stayed in Sutton the first night, at Gite Vert le Mont, a lovely B&B run by a British woman and her mother who kept us in stitches the whole time. The next morning was overcast and chilly, with the sent of woodsmoke drifting in from somewhere, and we decided to go for a drive. Because of the cloud cover, we were unable to get the pictures we wanted. But Robin and I will be able to recall the colors in our minds- we were speechless! I was lucky to find two lavender farms during our travels that day- but of course, all the lavender had been harvested so there was little more to see than the gift shops. We drove on and on through the most scenic towns, each with their own little churches and graveyards, until we stopped in Knowlton. Knowlton is where Deirdre grew up and I must say that she is a lucky one! It was the most charming town we had seen yet, surely the most sceninc town to spend Halloween in, and we got to spend the night in the historic hotel on main street! Robin and I went book shopping, and wandered around the town crunching leaves under our shoes. Delightful! We spent one more night at the B&B in Sutton before heading back to Montreal.
