After riding around several neighborhoods in this city, thatâs my second impression. I gotta take the bad with the good. Like most big cities there is a lot of trash and dilapidated buildings and some homeless but a lot of friendly people, activities, and interesting things to see. Oh yeah â I was impressed with the bike paths and a large percent of riders.
Carl in the hostel made us breakfast including pancakes with real canadian maple syrup. Like most hostels thereâs plenty of shared tasks like cleaning your own dishes and putting the sheets & towels in the hamper. Carl said this building was built as 2 houses by 2 brothers in 1885. He also said that it was a clandestine brothel because of the red neon lights they found and other evidence. AnywayâŚ
We bought our boxes at the bus station and a got some packing stuff from the hardware store. Tomorrow we pack.
A friend suggested Schwartzâs deli so we shared a table with strangers and ate some delicious smoked beef sandwiches. Brent took us to the most famous bagel shop in Miles End and we had a different âMontreal Styleâ bagel. I had maple apple. Despite the name it wasnât too sweet and I savored the flavor.
We met a nice lady named Christine that gave us all sorts of stories that only a 50 year resident could. She even offered her place to stay if we ever come back.
The t-shirt weather was perfect for a ride along the waterways alongside the canals. We stopped at a brewery and relaxed in their Adirondack chairs soaking up the sun and suds. I got a nap attack for a few minutes.
We finished the day with dinner including our first serving of poutine (french fries, gravy, cheese curds and often other stuff added). In our case it was pulled pork and onions. We shared it 4 ways.
Life in the big city as they say.
Mike, that odd-looking building is a grain silo, specifically Silo #5.
I found this: “This is Silo No.5 in Montreal, abandoned since 1996. Parts of it date back to 1906. It was a grain storage facility. In the 1920’s, Montreal was the main grain port in the world. Today, Silo 5 stands as a terribly ugly building at the heart of downtown Montreal, but considered to have significant heritage value – Its a protected building by Heritage Canada, but nobody seems to really know what to do with it.”