Day 45 - Market and Neighborhoods

It was cloudy and much cooler today at 15°C but there was no rain. Our first stop was the Jean-Talon Market. My favourite store was the patisserie. The cafe tried hard to make good coffee but I am so looking forward to coffee made by an Australian barista.

Our return Metro tickets cost $6.50 each but the trains run very frequently, there are lots of stations, and the everthing is very clean. The trains run on rails but instead of having steel wheels running on steel tracks, they run on quieter rubber tyres.

We wandered through Little Italy but several shops are vacant and there is a lot of roadwork and construction. In a row of identical trees only one had turned yellow.

Our next Metro trip was to the Gay Village neighbourhood but it was not very interesting or classy. Simply putting up rainbow flags doesn't change a neighbourhood - there were no designer boutiques, decent restaurants or other interesting shops. A feminist bookshop is surviving despite having major roadworks right outside the front door. Some buildings in the side streets were interesting. The squirrel hoped we had food for it to store away for winter.

We walked back to downtown and had poor quality ribs for lunch at a sports bar. There was no better alternative nearby when we felt hungry and needed to be off our feet. Anita went to the hotel heated pool and steam room, but at 30°C the pool is too cold for me. I will wait to enjoy the hot hydro pool on our cruise ship.