Eh!?

We were accommodated fantastically in Canada by Andrew’s family. The first night was spent at the home of Margy, Ian and Brittany in Sudbury. We were fed like kings by Margy and in return we showed her the delights of Geocaching as she gave us a tour around the area. We also gave a slideshow of the edited highlights from our trip which went on into the tiny hours.

The next morning we set off on another huge drive, this time to Montreal. We were greeted here by Bob. We had a good old chat, put the world to rights and Bob drew us a map of local area and it’s attractions before he had to leave for work for the night. He left us with a key to his apartment and told us to post it through the letterbox when we left.

Margy had recommended the famous Montreal smoked meat sandwiches so we decided to grab one for dinner. Following Bob’s map we found Schwartz. The sandwiches consisted of two slices of bread, spread with mustard and filled until overflowing with sliced beef. It was really good meat and we ate them with some difficulty as we walked along. The majority of the sandwich consumption was spent eating the meat which had fallen out onto the greaseproof paper.

Another touristy thing to do was also food related so it was fine with me. We headed to a bagel shop which pumps out bagels twenty-four hours a day. They firstly make a huge lump of dough which they take a slice off of. They then cut the slice into strips about a meter in length. This gets divided into small pieces which then get shaped into the bagels. They then line about twenty up and slide a thin paddle underneath to transfer them into a clay oven to bake. This is all done lightening fast by the team and was mesmerising to watch but I’m sure mind numbingly boring to read about. We bought a couple which were still warm and some Philadelphia (the spread not the place) and made up some supper once we got back to the apartment. The fresh handmade bagels were much better than the mass produced ones we’d been getting from Walmart.

The following morning we spent a bit of time in the city seeing the sights and grabbing a couple of Geocaches before travelling back south and into America. It was really good to visit the country on our trip and I’d like to say thanks again to Margy, Ian, Brittany and Bob for making our visit even more special.

J.