Really enjoyed Montreal and Quebec City. Beautiful old buildings with lot of history. Everything seems to have burnt down at one point or another. We walked everywhere and I do mean WALK. They weren't kidding when they said there's a church on every block. Somewhere on the second day, after visiting the 50th church, we stopped going in. Mont Royal was interesting. We were walking along and I asked my husband how far until we get to the mountain. He said we're on it. It's a very small mountain. By B.C. standards and the true definition of the word mountain, it's almost a hill. Still, it was a beautiful walk. Old Montreal was really touristy and it was very crowded. If you don't like crowds, don't go on a Saturday when the Tall Ships are in. We went back the following Monday and it was much better.
I wasn't looking but came across one yarn shop in Montreal. It was an odd little store. All the yarn was in cones and stacked in boxes like a warehouse. The prices were by the weight. You would go in and pick out what you wanted and a little old man would wind it off the cones and weight your yarn on an old scale. I couldn't tell what was the material for most of the yarn. Another thing that surprised me was how many people smoked in Montreal. Although, you can't smoke in stores, there's no bylaw that says they have to be a certain number of feet away from the entrance. There were a couple of old ladies smoking just at the entrance and it made the yarn inside smell like cigarette smoke to me. Blech!
In Quebec City, we stayed in Old Quebec. The hotel was really small and quaint but in a good way. No rusty beds. Again, we walked everywhere. Plains of Abraham, Battlefield Park, Old Quebec, the lower city, EVERYWHERE. One would think that with all the walking, I would drop pounds but paired with all the good eating we did, I'm lucky the net gain was only one pound.
Toronto could have definitely be a miss for me. What made it worthwhile was seeing old friends and meeting people I've heard my husband talk about over the years. He hasn't seen some of these people in nearly thirty years. Most of these guys knew each other in highschool band and are still playing music for fun. Some of them are in the music business there and some just play in bands on weekeneds. They got together at the place we were staying and played. That was a lot of fun. Good food, good conversation, good music, and good people.
Yarn-wise, Toronto was the only real wool stop. Visited Lettuce Knit and Romni Wools. Lettuce Knit is like any LYS anywhere. Romni Wools was filled to the brim with yarn. I convinced my friend to start knitting again. Overall, I bought one measuring tape (forgot mine at home) and one ball of yarn. Honestly, there was nothing that I saw that I couldn't get in Vancouver.
As fun as it was to go away, it's so nice to be back home. Two weeks is a long time for me...I start missing things like my own pillow and my coffee mug. Just before we left, we got our new stove delievered. I'm so glad I took an extra week off. It has been nice and relaxing. Dusted stuff (house needed serious dusting), tried out the new convection oven (baked muffins), knitted stuff (made pumpkins), and general relaxing.
