Productive Morning in Montreal

[kevin_standlee]

After breakfast, we walked down into the Old Montreal part of town, then back up past the Palais and up to the Complex Desjardins up the street from the Holiday Inn Select where the IGA grocery is -- it's part of a shopping mall with, among other things, a large food court. Anyone wanting to buy supplies for his/her party need look no further than here -- this is indeed a full-service grocery store with just about everything you'd want to buy for a typical room party. On the way out, we spoke to a manager, who said that they also do delivery for orders of at least C$50, with a $4.75 delivery charge. After a brief pass through the mall, we swung through Chinatown. If the big grocery up the hill doesn't suit you, there are Asian groceries here. Finally it was back to the hotel, where we had a last chance to check e-mail before check-out time, which is 1 PM. I'll be on the way to the airport after that, while Cheryl will have a couple of more hours before she has to leave. Lucky her! I wish I could have spent at least another full day here, maybe two or three, without any meetings or other commitments, but I simply don't have enough vacation days, and Cheryl has to get back to the UK anyway.

Cheryl took many photos, and in a few days after she gets back to the UK and has a chance to sit still long enough to process them, I expect we'll see photographic evidence of the things about she and I have been riding. For her short take on this morning's tour, see her blog.

Incidentally, before anyone asks: No, I have not been any train rides, including the Montreal Metro. I guess we could have rode around the city on the Metro this morning rather than doing some exploring of the city, but the exploration was more important. Furthermore, I was not going to do a "token" Metro ride -- the two stops from near the Delta to near my hotel -- any more than I would ride BART from Montgomery to Powell stations.

Comments

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

That IGA Grocery is something that will be very helpful for me at Worldcon.

[cyberneticnomad.livejournal.com]

Another party supply option (admittedly further away) is Marché Atwater, a farmer's market (fresh veggies yeah!) with various shops (cheese shop, butcher, etc...) It's 4 metro stations away from the Delta and quite easy to get to by car. There's a small SAQ that specialized in products from Quebec in it (if you've had ice cider or maple liqueur at one of our parties, it's likely to have been bought there) and another very large one across the street. There's also a large grocery store across the street.

Here's a link (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=montreal&sll=45.47959,-73.576423&sspn=0.011449,0.014656&ie=UTF8&ll=45.480784,-73.576995&spn=0.005725,0.007328&z=17) to googlemaps

An aside: we do plan to help party organizers find the supplies they need locally.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Something really strange is going on there. Pull the map up so you see the other side of the river; Avenue Atwater and Atwater Ave are different streets. A little bit NNW of Marche Atwater, Avenue Atwater crosses Avenus Atwater.

I guess it's easy to get to by care if you have a friendly native guide.

[cyberneticnomad.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the street does kind of splits in a weird way there. But you can see the market form the intersection. FYI, driving from the convention, you'd be going south on Atwater Avenue to reach the market.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

That sounds good, too! I know we're going to help the party organizers, but I reckoned that reassuring people as early as possible from an "outsiders" point of view -- i.e. I found this stuff without too much trouble, and I've never been here before -- would be a good thing.

Montreal looks great, and I only wish I had more time to spend there.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

...do delivery for orders of at least C$50, with a $4.75 delivery charge...

What a boon to party hosts that will be!