July 9 Montreal

 The hotel has extra slow speed internet. It is painfully slow. Takes hours to upload anything.

The view from our window.

Rita did some laundry. We were ready to leave at 11:45. Stepped out of the building, it was raining. Decided to wait it out. Checked the weather forecast. Rain; rain, rain. Decided to brave it.

Rita stopped around the corner from our front door to buy an umbrella. Walked down Rue St. Paul to Marche Bonsecours. It is not realy a market, it is a collection of shops that sell junk to tourists. Rita was right into it.

Before we left the Marche, we put on our Niagara Falls Ponchos that I had saved.

 Walked around Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours.

Didn't go inside just snapped a picture from the door. An elderly couple, also wearing Niagara Falls ponchos, started to talk to us. Rita was excusing herself trying to explain that she didn't speak French. Turns out they were from Memphis Tennessee. Might as well have been talking French, they were really hard to understand.

After walking around for awhile decided to have lunch at Chez Suzette the restaurant almost right below us.

No Sleeman's. (Why do I feel guilty?) Had lunch then went back to our apartment just around the corner. Put our clothes in the dryer.

We left for the IGA at 4:15. The rain had stopped. Nether the GPS nor Google Earth had the IGA that near to us. There were printed instructions how to get there on a piece of paper thumbtacked to the wall. Followed the instructions and sure enough it was in a humongous shopping center.

Stocked up on coffee Swiss Cheese etc. They had wine at the store but we didn't want to carry it that distance. The SAQ store was on the way back anyways. They had a better selection.

Rita really liked the little carts they had in the store. They are plastic and you can put your hand basket on them and push them around. The trouble is Rita shops in volume. They would have to invent couplers for the carts so Rita could push a train of them around.

Walked by Notre Dame stopped in the SAQ. To my disappointment they didn't have my cheap Hungarian wine. So I bought an expensive French Merlot $13.55/Lt. instead.

On the way home Rita stopped to gossip with the ladies in the neighborhood.

We will update you after we conclude our winetasting later on this evening. We had a perfect wine pairing last night. The Hungarian Kékfrankos paired EXTREMELY well with the Big Mac and the Cheeseburger. We should have had a light Rose Sparkling wine with the fries though. The Kékfrankos overpowered the delicate flavor of the French Fries.