No time to make lemon butter

We arrived in Quebec City via train on New Year's Eve. We were happy to say goodbye to montreal. Despite our local being the Gaspar tarvern and the food sensational the city is largish and very cold. We knew that we would love Quebec City before we got here as it involved a train trip to reach our destination. We are big fans of train travel. You often leave the middle of the city and arrive in the middle of the city. Taxi rides from airports to the city I often find depressing as you usually don't drive through the nice part of town. The train trip was 3 hours long and you don't have to be there hours before. We were given priority boarding because of the children but we were also scolded for having the children push the large bags!  We arrived in the heart of Quebec City to snow. It fell lightly at first but gathered momentum at great speed. Our hotel in the old town was beautiful and apparently hosting a big party for New Years. We decided not to join them and dined at a...

Our last day in montreal and our main objective was to stay warm. Thermals, triple socks and double gloves meant it took almost a full hour to get dressed! We skipped breakfast at the Gaspar tavern as it wasn't very nice and we have eaten enough eggs to last us a while. Montreal is all about the food with the French European influence it's a foodie haven. We ventured to the fresh food markets and took a metro to jean talon. It's an enormous market that is indoor during winter and outdoor during the summer. We enjoyed the best crossaint and coffee at a pâtusserie and finished it off with brioche and spicy salami. We rode the metro to our next destination which was lunch. Schwartz deli reminds me very much of Kratzs deli in NYC. They smoke their own meat and give you at least 400g of small goods  on your rye bread. When we arrived it was before 12 and there was a queue down the street. Too stay warm while we waited we would visit the the local pharmacy 3 doors down and thaw o...

The restaurant attached to our hotel was called the gaspar tavern.  The menu needed Bakas touch   A live dj will be playing at the gaspar tavern for New Year's Eve   Although it's been incredibly cold the food in Montreal has been outstanding  Gaspar beer on tap at the gaspar tavern   Charlie getting ready to eat a salami sandwich   Georgie outside Norte dame   On the move to the next destination. 

When I get asked about travelling with children my main mantra is "to be flexible". Have a pretty good plan but if things are going pear shaped throw it out the window or if everyone is really enjoying it stay a little longer and forget about the must do list. I'm also pretty firm with the kids and try and make them do things that they won't regret.   The very first ride we came to at Disneyland was "no I won't go on that one ... Maybe later". This reaction called for a"no, we are all doing it now there will be no doing it later". Once the first ride was conquered there was no stopping them.  Yesterday was very much a travel day. The whole day gone with transfers, flights and waiting. The kids were great. Lucy finds any change of venue as a bit daunting. She missed Disneyland terribly when we went to banff. She missed banff terribly when we went to lake Louise and now we are in montreal she is missing lake louise.  I have 2 words to say about m...

We have just spent a week in a winter wonderland. We arrived in banff on 20th December and stayed for 3 nights at banff springs fairmont hotel. I have a always been an economy air travel kind of girl and spend the money on the accommodation. Banff springs was like a castle in the snowy mountains. It was big, luxurious but intimate at the same time. Plenty of spaces to have a drink by the fire, enjoy a game of pool (which the kids loved) and a very sizeable gym. The service was outstanding. There were daytime movies (in a proper cinema with popcorn) and the most incredible thing was that the hotel welcomed pets! So it was not uncommon to see a puppy dog walking through the corridors of the hotel with its owners. Banff is known as a party town (ever since Harry Nina worked here it got it's reputation) it's a beautiful small town (about a 10 minute freezing walk from the hotel) it's about 4 blocks by 3 streets long and is just small enough to give it the cute tag. At banff spr...