Montreal

Shortly after our Iceland trip, we bought an Aliner camper and have taken it out twice since then.  Unfortunately for the blog, camping trips typically do not have enough activities for a write-up.  With that, I’m pleased to announce that Jaime and I took a real trip a few weeks ago!  My sister had time off work, so she offered to watch our daughter, which of course meant that we had to leave the country.  For a long weekend, it didn’t make too much sense to go very far, so we narrowed it down to Canada or Central America and the flights ended up being the best timing and cost for Montreal.

We flew in late on a Thursday evening and immediately crashed at Hotel 10 in the Latin Quarter.  We chose the location because it was in the middle of the three neighborhoods we intended to visit and it was relatively close to public transportation.

Friday morning we hit the ground running and walked around the Plateau neighborhood with a breakfast stop at a great diner named Beauty’s.  Plateau is a lively area with two main roads that crisscross the neighborhood full of shops, restaurants, and bars.  The most unique thing is that nearly all open walls are covered with very large, ornate, and detailed graffiti.  We then headed west to Mount Royal, a large park on a small mountain next to downtown.  I foolishly thought we could walk across the whole thing in order to get to St. Joseph’s Oratory.  After about 20 minutes of hiking we looked at the GPS on our phones and we were only about a fifth of the way, so we decided to turn back and walk around the mountain (assuming flat walking would be easier).  After a couple of hills we decided to take a cab.  Good thing too because it was a roller coaster of a cab ride; we never would have made it!

We had the cab take us to the top parking lot of St. Joseph’s Oratory, not realizing that we bypassed most of the usual tour.  Regardless, the oratory was stunning and we did the full tour in reverse.  The other notable things are the elaborate candle tributes on the first level, escalators everywhere (first ones we’ve seen in a church), and a glass-enclosed heart of a Brother involved with the church.  There are also some great views of the area from a terrace outside one of the levels.  After our self-guided tour was over, we took a cab across town to the place that invented poutine, La Banquise.  While we both don’t fully understand the poutine phenomenon, I must say it was very tasty!  We walked off some of it on the way back to the hotel to take a nap.  For dinner we took the metro downtown to a Portuguese restaurant that was recommended to me, Ferreira Cafe.  We quickly learned that “cafe” can mean anything in Montreal — from an actual cafe, to a full service restaurant, to a night club.  We walked back on the busy St. Catherine’s Street and ran into the popular International Jazz Festival (“jazz” is another loose term in Montreal), where we enjoyed a few performances.

Saturday morning, we tackled the bus system in order to try out the famous original St. Viateur Bagel shop in the Mile End neighborhood.  I had read about lines there but when we arrived, we were the only people around.  The original location is just a pickup place, so we grabbed a couple bagels and ate on a nearby bench.  They were so tasty, we decided we had to try the nearly-as-famous Fairmount Bagel a few blocks away to compare.  There was definitely more variety and we ended up liking each place for different reasons.  After breakfast we went to Jean-Talon Market, one of the oldest public markets in Montreal.  We thoroughly enjoyed wandering around and purchased some sweets for the rest of the trip.  We then took the metro to Old Montreal and went straight to the Old Port to catch an extended boat cruise.  The cruise was very relaxing and a great way to break up the day.  Back in port, we spent the remainder of the afternoon strolling around Old Montreal, mainly along St. Paul Street and in the square around Notre-Dame Basilica (which was unfortunately closed for a wedding).  We also enjoyed an impromptu performance on a public piano outside the Museum of Archaeology and History.  For dinner, the hotel recommended nearby Restaurant Laloux, which served delicious French food.

The morning of our final day in Montreal, we realized that it’s not really a breakfast-eating city.  There were few breakfast/brunch locations and the streets were nearly empty before around 10am.  We ended up going to Eggspectation with seemingly every other tourist in town.  It was pretty standard fare and hit the spot.  After breakfast, we made a quick stop back at Fairmount Bagel to pick up some to bring home before heading over to Olympic Park.  We spent a couple hours at Olympic Park which was mostly converted to a massive diverse Biodome.  Also at the site is the tallest inclined tower in the world where we took in the sweeping views of the city.  Our final stop was the must-go Schwartz’s Deli, famous for smoked meat.  We enjoyed the experience even though we got shamed for not eating meat (“meat” means beef in Montreal).

So with only two and a half days in Montreal, I think we covered all of the highlights and had a great time.  It’s definitely a nice walkable city that has a more European feel than you’ll find elsewhere in this hemisphere.  We’ll have to go back with the whole family in a few years.  One important tip: the weekend metro pass includes the bus to the airport, which separately costs just about as much as the weekend pass, so it’s a real steal of a deal.