This morning began at an unearthly hour of 3:15 AM. We had to be at the airport in order to catch our 6:20 AM flight and Brett (bless his heart) drove us there. Our big scare of the day came when I turned on my phone in the morning and it said that our flight was departing at 7:48 AM which would have made us miss our connection to Montreal. So we worried about that all the way to the airport.
We made our flight and eventually got to Minneapolis/St. Paul. We got off the plane in Concourse F and our connecting flight to Montreal was in Concourse C. I think it was 5 miles from Concourse F to Concourse C so we trudged along until we got to the gate for our flight. We were afraid our flight would not take off as there was lightening and rain and when that happened to us in New York we almost got a cancelled flight.
But we arrived here and went into Immigration and there were literally thousands of people in line for customs. We wove around and around like you do at Disneyland only there was no super fun ride at the end. So by the time we arrived at the immigration desk I was hot and sweaty and super grumpy.
We passed by such foreign sounding companies as Kraft, Armstrong, Kia, Howard Johnson, Hyatt, all extremely foreign sounding names.
After an hour we made it through customs and got a car to our hotel. We are staying at the Hotel Le St. James which is a converted bank building. This hotel is absolutely stunning. We are on the fifth floor and were upgraded to a junior suite and they told us that the fifth floor was the only one that was not completely renovated so we are actually staying in what was once an office in the bank. The room is gorgeous, the service has been impeccable but after all the traveling we were tired and reluctant to go to our dinner which was included as part of the gastronomic package we bought from this hotel.
Our dinner was one of the most fun meals we have ever had. The restaurant is in the business room of what was the bank. The moldings on the ceiling are absolutely amazing. We will try and take a picture tomorrow when it is not such romantic lighting. We had princess scallops with green tea emulsion, pineapple foam and juniper berries. The second course was olive oil poached salmon with enoki mushrooms and napa cabbage with crispy chicken skin and curry powder. The third course was beets with radicchio and red wine foam and figs with puffed rice. Our fourth course was foie gras with arugula puree, poached pears, brioche, pinenuts and rosemary. The fifth course was slow cooked beef with ansazi beans and carrots with tamarind rind. Then we had an extraordinary cheese place with five kinds of cheese. Our super nice server told us that out of the 100 best ranked cheeses in the world that Quebec has 25 of them. That’s high praise and it was well deserved because the cheese was absolutely magnificent. Then we had a pre-dessert of yuzu sorbet – I don’t know what that is but it was delicious – and it was in a raspberry sauce. Dessert was a red pepper ice cream (yes, it tasted just like red peppers) and hazelnut crumbs, hazelnut cake with celery puree and celery foam with chocolate and banana pudding. It was super super yummy. Lastly they served us truffles which were absolutely out of this world. I’m so full now I don’t know if I can sleep. Well, yes, I am sure I can.
Tomorrow – on to the cruise ship.
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Here is the post, for some reason it didn't post the first time:
This morning began at an unearthly hour of 3:15 AM. We had to be at the airport in order to catch our 6:20 AM flight and Brett (bless his heart) drove us there. Our big scare of the day came when I turned on my phone in the morning and it said that our flight was departing at 7:48 AM which would have made us miss our connection to Montreal. So we worried about that all the way to the airport.
We made our flight and eventually got to Minneapolis/St. Paul. We got off the plane in Concourse F and our connecting flight to Montreal was in Concourse C. I think it was 5 miles from Concourse F to Concourse C so we trudged along until we got to the gate for our flight. We were afraid our flight would not take off as there was lightening and rain and when that happened to us in New York we almost got a cancelled flight.
But we arrived here and went into Immigration and there were literally thousands of people in line for customs. We wove around and around like you do at Disneyland only there was no super fun ride at the end. So by the time we arrived at the immigration desk I was hot and sweaty and super grumpy.
We passed by such foreign sounding companies as Kraft, Armstrong, Kia, Howard Johnson, Hyatt, all extremely foreign sounding names.
After an hour we made it through customs and got a car to our hotel. We are staying at the Hotel Le St. James which is a converted bank building. This hotel is absolutely stunning. We are on the fifth floor and were upgraded to a junior suite and they told us that the fifth floor was the only one that was not completely renovated so we are actually staying in what was once an office in the bank. The room is gorgeous, the service has been impeccable but after all the traveling we were tired and reluctant to go to our dinner which was included as part of the gastronomic package we bought from this hotel.
Our dinner was one of the most fun meals we have ever had. The restaurant is in the business room of what was the bank. The moldings on the ceiling are absolutely amazing. We will try and take a picture tomorrow when it is not such romantic lighting. We had princess scallops with green tea emulsion, pineapple foam and juniper berries. The second course was olive oil poached salmon with enoki mushrooms and napa cabbage with crispy chicken skin and curry powder. The third course was beets with radicchio and red wine foam and figs with puffed rice. Our fourth course was foie gras with arugula puree, poached pears, brioche, pinenuts and rosemary. The fifth course was slow cooked beef with ansazi beans and carrots with tamarind rind. Then we had an extraordinary cheese place with five kinds of cheese. Our super nice server told us that out of the 100 best ranked cheeses in the world that Quebec has 25 of them. That’s high praise and it was well deserved because the cheese was absolutely magnificent. Then we had a pre-dessert of yuzu sorbet – I don’t know what that is but it was delicious – and it was in a raspberry sauce. Dessert was a red pepper ice cream (yes, it tasted just like red peppers) and hazelnut crumbs, hazelnut cake with celery puree and celery foam with chocolate and banana pudding. It was super super yummy. Lastly they served us truffles which were absolutely out of this world. I’m so full now I don’t know if I can sleep. Well, yes, I am sure I can.
Tomorrow – on to the cruise ship.
There, I fixed the post for you.
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