Oh Canada! Day 19

One restaurant in Canada I have taken a real liking to is Cora's...and the city it originated in was Montreal. Cora's is a restaurant that continually turns out plates of delicious pancakes, crepes or waffles covered in a variety of tasty fruits. Despite the wide range of options on the menu, I have stayed true to two dishes...the first being the crepe that is loaded with fruit and custard and cream. The second being the stack of Blueberry pancakes. Today I decided to go again with the crepe....and I wasnt disappointed! Polishing that off accompanied with my morning coffee...I was very satisfied.

After breakfast it was off to Old Montreal...well known for its historic buildings and sites. Some of the structures date back to the 1600's in this area. Some of the more amazing things to see included buildings such as Montreal City Hall, Bonsecours Market, and Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel. Luckily the weather was really nice this morning so it made for a lovely morning in this area

 Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel is an amazing and beautiful chapel and one of the main attractions in this area. One of the oldest churches in Montreal, it was built in 1771 over the ruins of an earlier chapel. Walking through the chapel was really nice and peaceful, this is definitely a place to visit when in Montreal.

After browsing the market stores within Bonsecours, it was off to try a recommended sweet that goes by the name of a Beaver Tail. What that actually means is some sweet dough deep fried and then smeared with a topping of your selection...mine was half nutella and half maple syrup. Not bad overally...but not a scratch on what Cora's had served up for breakfast!

From here it was off to get some real lunch...and that would be Poutine for today. Now this is a dish that is well known in Montreal and its a combination of fries with gravy poured on top with cheese curd. My first reaction when hearing about this was...how simple! But as Im in Montreal...I couldnt pass up the opportunity to give it a try! And while it was not too bad...it was at the end of the day very simple. But that didnt stop the locals flocking to that particular store to order Poutine in large quatities! The line for takeaway alone stretched well outside the front door.

After our lunch of Poutine it was back onto the train and on route to Oratoire St-Joseph. Montreal's St-Joseph Oratory is the largest roman catholic church in Canada and second only to St-Peter's Basilica in Rome as the largest basilica in the world. And as can be seen by the photos...it is pretty awesome to see. One of the interesting points I noticed on arrival was that the most faithful pilgrims climb the center staircase — 103 steps — on their knees, pausing to pray and reflect on each step. Upon seeing people do this...I really had to fight the urge to run past someone as they were reaching the top and saying something like "I won"...but my maturity prevailed.

After spending a good slab of time strolling the Oratoire, it was late in the day and by this stage it was time to get back to downtown Montreal and grab some dinner...tonight a French restaurant close to the hotel. My selection was a Scallop and Prawn Risotto.

The weather started to turn ugly after dinner so it was straight back to the hotel for some well earned rest. Really got so see some great things in Montreal today. Tomorrow will be dedicated to eating more of the foods Montreal has on offer =)