Category: Canada

February 7, 2017 - Tanya's Winter Wonderland Tour - Day 2 - Montreal, Canada - A UNESCO City of Design

2/7/2017

Elisa's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 66 DAYS

Why Montreal is a UNESCO City of Design & Travelin' Tuesday Update

Hello! Welcome to the second day of the first full week of February!!

I have to say, the weather has been quite delightful here on Long Island. Yesterday, in particular was just so sunny and bright. Still chilly, but hey, it's Winter! Kind of makes up for the fact that it's rainy and gray today.

In spite of how yummy they are, I am getting tired of paying lots of money for store-bought smoothies

So.......

I decided to start making my own. Yesterday, I made a STRAWBERRY, MANGO AND BANANA smoothie. I used soy milk.

It was ...OK. I think it's missing something. Tomorrow I'm going to make one using a splash of orange juice and some yogurt. I'll tell you know how it turns out.

MY STRAWBERRY, MANGO, BANANA SMOOTHIE (c)travelincousins.com

As Tanya is enjoying her second day in Montreal, Canada, I'm back here in New York doing some bookings of my own:

Cousins Chicago Road Trip
I'm still looking for hotels for the following nights in the following cities:

* Days 4 & 5: Chicago
With the past few days and Tanya getting ready for her Winter Wonderland Tour, we haven't been able to coordinate much to firm up our accommodations for Chicago - so I'm going to do a little research and email to my cuz. If she likes what I've come up with - I'll do the booking.

* Day 6: Cleveland
This is going to be my gang's first night without the cousins. I found a great deal on a Hilton Garden Inn downtown Cleveland, but alas, it was sold out for my date! Darn!!!
So, now I'm looking at others.

My hope is that I'll be all booked for the above nights by next Travelin' Tuesday.

Gianna's 13th Birthday Trip to London
Believe it or not, I'm pretty well booked for this trip. Here is what I have left:

* Day 4: London
Afternoon Tea

* Day 6: Paris
Dinner

* Day 9: London
Afternoon Tea

I'll work on this during the coming week!

As for the next few weeks I am joining Tanya, VIRTUALLY, in all her travels on her Winter Wonderland Tour!!!

As you may have remembered from my blog yesterday, in which I listed
17 OF THE MOST INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MONTREAL...

one of these was that "Montreal is a UNESCO city of design."

Were you wondering, what exactly this means?
Well, just in case, I'm going to tell you!

According to the official UNESCO website,

The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.

The 116 cities which currently make up this network work together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.

MONTREAL - UNESCO CITY OF DESIGN (c)travelincousins.com

BEAUTIFUL MONTREAL AT NIGHT (c)travelincousins.com

The Creative Cities Network is currently formed by
116 Members from 54 countries covering seven creative fields: Crafts & Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Music and Media Arts.

December, 2015, marked the 10th Anniversary the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the official announcement was made to designate 47 additional cities from 33 countries as new members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, bringing the total to 116.

CITIES OF DESIGN
In the area of design, there are 11, for which Montreal is one of them.

Berlin, Germany (2005)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (2005)
Dundee, Scotland, U.K. (2014)
Graz, Austria (2011)
Kobe, Japan (2008)
Montreal, Canada (2006)
Nagoya, Japan (2008)
Saint-Etienne, France (2010)
Seoul, South Korea (2010)
Shanghai, China (2010)
Shenzhen, China (2008)

Look at these gorgeous pics Tanya took last night after arriving in Montreal...

Please read Tanya's scoop to hear about her flight and first evening in Montreal. Tomorrow, she leaves for Geneva and boy do we have lots of great information and fun facts in store - you are going to feel like you are right there on this Winter Wonderland Trip!!

As for me today, I can't for the like of me figure out what's going on . I had a terrible stomach virus 10 days ago and then last night I was back to experiencing a bad belly ache again. WTH??

This morning, I was just in no condition to drive the girlies to school, so they were not too happy when I told the they had to hoof it to the bus stop.

(I'd hardly call walking to the corner a major trek, considering we are the 2nd house from the corner!)

In any case, I was able to see them from the window and watched patiently until the bus came and they were on safe and sound. My goodness, when I was a kid, we walked almost a mile to school - boy, no wonder these kids are snowflakes!

Anyway, I'm going to pop some Tums and relax today.

Hope it's a good one for you!!!

-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN: MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA

Can you tell that I obviously have a thing for UNESCO cities/sites?!

GREETINGS FROM MONTREAL!

This is our 3rd annual return visit and my 4th time to this French speaking city in Canada!

Montréal, which is the largest city in Canada's Québec province is set on an island in the Saint Lawrence River and named after Mt. Royal, the triple-peaked hill at its heart.

Arriving at Le Saint Sulpice Hotel (c)travelincousins.com

Lobby of Le Saint Sulpice Hotel (c)travelincousins.com

If you are just joining us or one of our loyal followers, I'd like to suggest that you begin with taking a peak at yesterday's blog entry.

You might be saying or thinking "Been there. Done that."
And maybe you have, however there were a number of issues that I encountered yesterday and there were a number of photos that did not get uploaded until today. Luckily my sweet cuz Elisa is providing me with lots on support and now even uploading photos for me! Thanks a bunch cuz!!

But not only that, perhaps you've already noticed - she is totally giving you guys info, facts, and lots more about each and every city/town and village that I'll be visiting. It's almost like having her right here with us and having a step by step personal guide.

Is she the best or what?! Wish she was here btw!

Now back to the here and the now...

Well aside from the headaches of things not working properly for me on here, we are having a wonderful time and a great start to our Winter Wonderland Tour.

I opted to adjust the itinerary slightly and move Ming Tao Xuan Tea Salon to today's schedule - since I kinda felt that by the time we got over there we would've been rushed - and heaven knows I don't like being rushed and that's no way to enjoy your traditional tea experience.

So although I was looking forward to it yesterday, the anticipation has built even more and if it is at all possible I'm looking even more forward to it today!!

We did manage to take a cold stroll - of which Dave acted as though he was FREEZING and that I was torturing him. I guess he doesn't recall how cold it was here 2 years ago or the insanely frigid temps that we encountered in Quebec City last year.
So the 15F degrees was rather refreshing and nothing to complain about - we are in Canada after all!

The kids did great and Cosette was so happy to be back in Montreal that she even had an extra pep in her step! And if you recall, she was the only who was super nervous and had anxiety about the trip!

The streets were oh so quiet around Vieux Montreal, Notre Dame and around the Old Port.

Please enjoy a few of the pics taken:

Notre Dame Basilica (c)travelincousins.com

It's so pretty! (C)travelincousins.com

Bundled up! (c) travelincousins.com

(c)travelincousins.com

Eventually it was time to head in the direction of the new and quite happening vegetarian restaurant - LOV
Where we started with an order of the Canadian specialty Poutine - feed Dave fries and he quickly forgets all of his woes. I swear he is such a potato lover that he's motto is "I never forget a fry!" So he quickly forgot that he was miserably cold only moments earlier. That works for me!
There is just something about them Irish and their love of potatoes!

We also enjoyed a number of other dishes:
And then after dessert we headed back to the hotel, got ready for bed, took a long while to unwind (all except for Dave) and also prepped for today.

Now we are off to go tour the Notre Dame Basilica - which is one of my all time favorite cathedrals. Breakfast will be next. Then the best view point in the city which can only be found at Parc du Mont Royal.

If all goes according to schedule it'll be tea time next, we'll squeeze in a bit of shopping and if time allows even go check out the Barbie Museum - which I didn't get to do during our last visit (because the museum hadn't yet opened and was still being set up).

And finally dinner, at another Montreal vege restaurant that I've been looking forward to trying - Sumo - all vegan sushi!!

It's gonna be quite a day!

Catch ya back here from Geneva, Switzerland tomorrow.

Cheerio,
-T