Things We Did In Montreal Day 2


The first thing on todays agenda was heading over to Schwartz's for their famous smoked meat sandwiches. We went down to the basement garage and once we were up on the ground level where cell signal was available, I punched up Schwartz's Deli and followed the turn by turn direction. Street parking was not an issue, but I did have some issues figuring out how to pay for parking. I did pay for parking but to be honest, I wasn't exactly sure I paid for the right spot where I parked our rental car. At this point I figured I'd risk it and we headed over to Schwartz's across the street.



There was only a few people waiting ahead of us and after about 5 minutes of waiting we, along with the people ahead of us were seated together. Tables here are communal and definitely not a place for people with social anxiety issues. When it came time to order, I ordered three smoked meat sandwiches, two pickles, coleslaw, french fries and three diet cokes. Had I known how big the pickles were, I would have only ordered one. Sodas arrived first followed shortly behind with our order all served together. I really liked the smoked meat. Unlike pastrami which I think is way too "cured" flavored, the Montreal style smoked meat tasted way milder but still well seasoned. The sandwiches already came with mustard on it. At first we didn't think we would be able to finish the overstuffed smoked meat sandwiches but we managed to finish everything. The coleslaw was so good that my mom ordered another one. When it came time to pay, my dad took out his credit card but our waiter told us that they were cash only. So I handed my dad the CAD I had to pay for lunch.

As we headed out of Schwartz's Deli, we noticed that a line had formed along the wall of the restaurant. We lucked out big time by arriving when we did. From what I have read and seen on TV, the wait here at Schwartz's Deli can easily be 1 hour plus. We walked back to our rental car and the first thing I did was check to see if there were any parking tickets on the windshield. Either we lucked out or I paid the parking meter correctly. I still don't know which one it was.


The next place on our agenda was Mount Royal. According to couple of articles I read online said that Mount Royal was not to be missed when visiting Montreal. I punched up Belvédère Camillien-Houd into Google Maps and followed the direction given my the app. Well, at first the directions took me into some neighborhood on Mount Royal and ended on a dead end street. I checked and found different address for Belvédère Camillien-Houd which took us to the correct location. From Belvédère Camillien-Houd, you get a nice view of non downtown Montreal along with Autumn foliage. Just as we were finishing up taking pictures and taking in the scenery, a tour bus pulled up and offloaded a bunch of tourists along with their tour guide. All of a sudden, what was tranquil was transformed into noisy shouting of what I'm guessing was explanation of what they were looking at. So at this point, we knew it was time to go.



The next stop on Mount Royal was the Mount Royal Chalet, which according to the reviews I read said it had spectacular views of the city. Well, all I can say is that the reviews did not lie! We parked our rental car, paid for parking and walked the trail up to Mount Royal Chalet. The distance from the parking lot to the Chalet isn't that long maybe a quarter of a mile if that. While the view from Mount Royal Chalet is of downtown Montreal and the Saint Lawerence River in the distance. Everyone who visits Montreal should definitely visit Mount Royal, especially in the fall when the cityscape in the distance peeks out of the autumn foliage in the foreground.



Since we were starting to run out of time on parking, we headed back down to trail to the parking lot. After some consultation with my parents, we decided to check out Montreal's Little Italy neighborhood. Once again, I punched up Google Maps and followed the directions into Little Italy. I found parking on a residential street and tried to figure out what the sign said. From what I could figure out, we could park until 4PM after which it was by permit only. The neighborhood street that we parked on pretty much epitomized "Autumn in Canada." The homes had the wrought iron curved staircases along with the street lined with trees with leaving changing color and the sidewalks covered with leaves.


We only had about 40 minutes before 4PM so we didn't do much here in Little Italy other than walk around a bit and then went inside Milano Market before heading back to our car. We found couple of cafe's that were busy with what looked like locals but due to the parking situation, we were not able to go in and try out what the locals were having.

More pictures from Schwartz's Deli
More pictures from Mount Royal and Montreal's Little Italy