2024 Eastern Canada


  • Montreal, QC

    Montreal is one of our favourite cities and wanted to spend another day here shopping and eating. We took the river ferry from Longueuil to Old Montreal and found the Cafe Caffeino that had just opened for the first time today. The owner was still a bit nervous but did everything to give Ruth an amazing cappuccino while Martin had a fruit juice.

    Ruth thought she needed more beads for her next round of necklace production so off we went to Pierres St. Dennis for shopping and a quick lesson on some new techniques. The shop owner was very helpful and patient and really knows her trade.

    Now hunger got the best of us but fortunately Schwartz’s Deli wasn’t far away. The lineup was fairly long and we probably spent 45 minutes waiting in the sun to get in. As usual, it was worth the wait and this time, in addition to the sandwiches we added smoked meat poutine to our order. Let’s just say it will be added on all future visits. We sat at the bar and talked to one of the servers. When asked how many briskets they go through a day he said around 200! Each brisket takes 10 days to cure before smoking, so that means they’ve got around 2000 briskets in production at any time.

    Martin wanted to return to the Maison de l’Astronomie telescope store to get some more information. Our home area may not be the best place for observing because of light pollution, so the telescope purchase has been put off.

    On our walk we again admired the street art. One building in particular stood out.

    After walking over 13km today, we were tired and headed back to the campground.

    No map today.


  • Montreal, QC to Dundas, ON

    With heavy hearts we left Montreal but not before picking up St. Viateur bagels. Four dozen sesame bagels fresh from the oven and still hot served as breakfast and were delivered to ex-Montrealers at home.

    The traffic got worse as we got closer to Toronto and we asked ourselves why, exactly, we were returning.


  • East Coast 2024 Summary

    Almost six weeks and six thousand kilometres passed so quickly and now this trip is already a memory.

    Some of the highlights:

    1. Cirque de Soleil Kurios show in Montreal (https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/kurios)
    2. Bagel making class in Montreal (thebagelclass.com)
    3. Abrams Village Acadian Music show in PEI (https://www.villagemusical.ca)
    4. Minister’s Island in St. Andrews, NB (https://www.ministersisland.net)
    5. Bay of Fundy Tides
    6. Local Arts and Crafts people with creative ideas
    7. Cook’s Edge knife store in Charlottetown, PEI (https://thecooksedge.com)
    8. Three fondues in Quebec City
    9. Taking the time to enjoy nature
    10. Talking to locals and fellow travellers
    11. Prospecting for agates and geodes

    As on previous trips, the iOverlander app found us some great places to stay with our van including some right in the downtown areas of cities.