Sonya's Blog - Day 59 - Le Vieux Port

Sonya’s Blog - Day 59 - August 20th - Le Vieux Port

We discovered that the trains do not run on the weekend which means that in order to use up the passes that we bought we need to go in on Thursday and Friday so that we did not waste our money. Today we wanted to visit Le Vieux Port, which is near Le Vieux Montréal. On our way downtown we were looking at the map and decided we would head through Chinatown first and then head down to the port. We caught the 10:30 train this morning due to our late night last night. We found Chinatown without too many problems and by the time we got there it was lunchtime. We found a restaurant and had a meal there and it was very tasty. We then walked along and explored all the shops and Blake went into this little place that had all sorts of buns for sale and was asking about them. They had all sorts stuffed with savoury or sweet. He chose a white bun with coconut and nuts in it to try out. It was a kind of goopy sticky bun, a different texture, but quite tasty. Our kids loved it. While we were standing there trying it, this guy walked up to us and started chatting to us as he thought we were eating Dragon’s Beard. We didn’t know what that was so he pointed it out and told us you have to eat it in one bite or it will end up all over you because the insides will explode out if you try and bite it in half. This had a unique texture as well, almost papery on the outside, but on the inside was caramel and nuts (or something like that). Natasha took the challenge and bit into hers and all the nuts explode out onto you. I just popped mine in my mouth as they are not that big. They were really unique and very good so we were glad that the guy told us about them (he was just a shopper, not someone who worked at the shop). It is more of a multicultural chinatown as well in that there is Vietnamese, Taiwan, Japan, China and other cultures represented there.

We then headed towards Le Vieux Port and after about 10 minute or so we had found it. It is a very touristy area, with a zipline and a giant ship with an obstacle course on it and also a zombie haunted house. They also had various stalls that were selling stuff. We looked around for awhile and then decided it was time to start making our way back to the train.

We stopped at a Crépiere for a couple of crepes and some gelato. We then walked through old Montréal, but took a different street than last time. We came upon the courthouse and they had the most unique doors:

We went inside and had a look and then continued on our way. We made it back in pretty good time and managed to get there 5 minutes before the next train left.

We were all pretty tuckered out so we had some supper and just hung out at the campground. We gave Kizmet a couple of long walks and also had a fire to end off the day.

Sonya