We leave New York by train to Montreal. This is good way to travel, comfortable and relaxing. Eleven hours takes the train ride and in deed this is not a hign speed train, but it allows us to
enjoy the beautiful landscape along the Hudson River. Definitely better than any TV-show. At the Canadian border it takes some time as everybody has to be checked and than we cross the mighty
St.-Laurence river and reach Montreal.
At the train station we are picked up by two ladies. One is Suzanne, a friend of Dorit, and the other Suzanne's friend. They bring us to Janet, where we will stay the next days. These three elderly ladies are awesome, they care in a way that they even have set up a visitor's programme for us and made definitely sure that we will not die from hunger. So thext day we wisit the Atwater market, an old and renown market in Montreal, where you can get the nicest flowers and delicious food. Especially the extraordenary variety of sausages catches Holger's attention.
For the next three days we hire bicycles and explore Montreal and its suroundings in this way. Luckily there are nice places to sit in the shadow everywhere, because the city is hit by a heat wave. We are also lucky that these days the famous Montreal Jazz Festival starts and so we can enjoy some concerts.
The days fly by and we continue to our next stop, Halifax in the East of Canada. Here the Bluebaer is supposed to arrive in three days. We stay in a nice flat in one of the traditional wooden houses. The day we arrive is the first of July, Canada Day, national holiday. Besides all the flags and people celebrating one event catches our attention: the "Rip-Festival". Several giant barbeque stalls sell mountains of their products like rips, steaks and sausages in front of huge advertisement walls. But it is not that or the long queses in front of the stalls that makes us stop it is the table in front of the stalls. All kinds of different trophies and cups are presented there showing that this or that stall is definitely the best. Obviously there a lot of contests taking place in this discipline. And on top of each cup there is a happy pig, laughing and not knowing its fate. This makes us laugh.
Welcome to Canada!
