K & L's Travel Blog

We woke up to rain and a gray sky.  The plan was for a museum on a rainy day, so after a grocery store run, we headed uptown on the subway.  The Montreal museum of Fine Arts is huge but we found our way to the Modernist section pretty quickly.  I enjoyed the description of a Picasso (Embrace, 1971).  He painted it when he was 90 and it said that although his early portraits of couples used to exude sexuality, this one only expresses performance anxiety. 

I always tease Lorena that malls suck all the air out of her. Once she fell asleep in a changing room. The same phenomenon seems to happen to me in museums.  All the air leaves me and I just want to sit and sleep.  It works out ok.  I sit while Lorena tours around. The art seems to give Lorena energy while it just puts me to sleep.  

I was, however, excited by the lunch prospect of soup dumplings. They are popular here and are made by hand in several small restaurants. We choose the “Le Petit Poisson” on St. Catherine street, close to the museum.  Ordering is a challenge as I was scared we were misunderstanding the word for soup dumpling.  But we managed just fine and got 10 lamb & cilantro and 10 mushroom & chicken. Way too much food!  We ended up bring a whole order back to the apartment for dinner. I simply cannot have the imagination that one meal will be enough for both of us when we sit down hungry. Really excellent dumplings and the freshest edamame I’ve ever had.

We walked back to the apartment for a break. When coming up in the elevator we chatted with a nice woman.  She asked if were were visiting a friend or lived in the building.  We said no, we’re tourists renting an Airbnb.  She cautioned us to not mention this because when she signed her daughters lease it specifically said “no Airbnb.” “But I am sure they mean to exclude young, rowdy adults not older adults like you.”  It is so clear that our rowdy, partying, days are over even if we don’t feel sedate.

We headed out towards the Old Port in the afternoon. The crowds weren’t as thick on a Wednesday as they had been on Saturday, but there were still tour groups and tourists thronging, all happy to be out in good weather. No cellist was playing in the Place d’Armes, but a woman crooning out Hallelujah with lots of feeling. We walked back down towards the Old Port and this time went towards the water and old piers. Lorena headed down towards the Clock Tower, past the ferris wheel to take photos. The weather was clearing but the skies were still dramatic with storm clouds, perfect for photos.