Montreal - Day Four - Amaluna

Today we started the day with some Montreal-style bagels from a local bagel shop.  They differ from the traditional NY-style bagels in that they are lighter and have a bit less flavor (due to less salt).  We had a sesame seed, which is one of the traditional flavors, and a cinnamon raisin.  Having tried both, I prefer NY-style but that might be because it's what I am used to.

We then took the Metro downtown and climbed to the top of Mont Royal.  We got off at the University of Montreal stop and walked through the Notre Dame des Nieges cemetery.  The walk was a lot longer than I expected, but it was worth it.  The cemetery is beautiful, and had flowers everywhere.  We made the choice to not take any pictures there.  

After getting through the cemetery, the climb to the top of Mont Royal was taxing.  It's a long way up, but the views once we got there were spectacular.

It reminded us of the Piazalle Michaelangelo in Florence, though the setting is obviously not quite the same.

We walked down the front of Mont Royal to McGill University to look for some swag to bring home.  The campus is set into Mont Royal and is a great setting for a university.  While in the university gift shop we learned that McGill has a quidditch team.  I asked the girl how they got past the whole "not being able to fly on brooms" thing.  She said they sort of run around on the ground.  I found this video of a match on YouTube.  I am not quite sure what to say.

For dinner, we found a place here on the Plateau that serves speciality grilled cheese sandwiches called Emporte Piece.  I had a delicious sandwich that had salami and pickles (cornichon) on it.  Shelley had a grilled cheese and applesauce sandwich.  Both came with a really fresh salad of arugula and strawberries.  While they were quite tasty, I thought the prices were a bit high for a grilled cheese sandwich.  Very unique flavors, however.

After dinner it was on to le grand chapiteau for the Cirque Du Soleil show.

Having seen Ka in Las Vegas, I knew it would be amazing.  However, I must say that seeing it at the Old Port in Montreal under the big tent gave it a special something that you don't get in Vegas.  The show was Amaluna, which is brand new.  It was simply breathtaking.  There are no words to describe it, so I won't even try here.  You are not allowed to take pictures of the show, either.

We left the show completely exhausted from a long day.  Tomorrow we are going to take it easy, take in a bit more of some of the great food here, and be on our way home Friday.

Montreal - Day Three - Out of the City

Day Three started the same as Day Two:  A trip to Le Fromentier for some delicious pastries.  

After breakfast we packed a lunch and headed north out of Montreal to St Sauveur and St Jerome.  It took about an hour to get to St Sauveur, where they have Alpine slides.  When I was young, many of the ski resorts in New York would have Alpine slides in the summer to stay busy.  They do this in St Sauveur here in Quebec.  

 

The track was very different from the ones I rode on as a kid.  Instead of it being more or less an open track that had a bobsled kind of feel (high banking turns, open on the straight-aways) this track was much more like a roller coaster.  The sleds could not just fly off the track like the good old days.  While the fear factor was significantly reduced, I will say that this new style allows you to go a LOT faster and not brake at all.  

The other nice thing about this track was that they towed you up the hill, again like a roller coaster.  The rides were quite expensive, so we only rode it three times.  It was, however, a complete blast.  Highly recommended!

After our adrenaline rush, we headed back to St Jerome and Parc Regional Riviere du Nord.  It costs $5 per adult to get in.  We had read about there being some great hiking trails and waterfalls in the park.  At first blush, we thought we had found the wrong place.  The park runs right alongside Autoroute 15, and does not seem like it would be much from the road.  However, we quickly found that once you get away from the highway it is a beautiful park.

There is a river running along the entire length of the park and we did some wading and exploration as we went along.  We got to Wilson Falls after about 15-20 minutes of hiking.  The falls themselves are not huge, but the area around them is really beautiful.  We spent probably an hour or more just walking to different parts of the rapids and sitting and enjoying the views and the nice cool water.  It was a great break from ramming around the city.

Upon returning to Montreal we got cleaned up and headed out for dinner to Chinatown.  We found a good, but not great, Szechuan restaurant called Delicieux Xiang.  I don't think we ordered the right food, and one of the items we ordered was not at all what we had expected.  Crossing three languages also had its issues (Chinese, French, English).  It was the first real miss of the trip food-wise.  By miss I mean it was not exceptional.  

We took the Metro back to the apartment and crashed, full of another days activities.  Tomorrow is a big day, as we have tickets to the Cirque De Soleil under the big tent down at Old Port, Montreal where it all started.  This was an unplanned bonus, and we can't wait to go!

Montreal - Day Two - The Olympic Stadium

We started today with some amazing baked goods from a bakery right here in the Plateau called Le Fromentier.  It is one of the top-rated bakeries in the city according to everything we read, and it did not disappoint.  We had a couple of berry pastries and croissants.  They were incredible.  I know that we will be going back there tomorrow.  And the day after that.  And the day after that.

It took a while to get going this morning, so we decided to stay around the apartment until lunch time.  We walked from the apartment to Schwartz's Deli.

The walk took about 30 minutes, during which we passed Parc La Fontaine.  Montreal is full of these really big parks that are simply beautiful.  It does not hurt that the weather here has been unbelievably nice.  It has been a welcome respite from the heat of the South.

When we got to the restaurant, we had to wait about 20-30 minutes to get a seat.  The seating is NY style, where they just put you wherever they can find you a spot.


Schwartz's has been around for over 80 years and is world-famous for their smoked meats.  The main item on the menu is a smoked beef concoction made of pastrami and corned beef.  I know, it doesn't sound great.  But it is.  They serve it on rye bread with this amazing mustard.  We ordered a side of french fries and cole slaw to go with it, both of which were really good.



After leaving Schwartz's, we walked to the Mont Royal Metro stop.  One of the fun things at this stop is that they have these HUGE Adirondack chairs.  The gang horsed around while I returned some phone calls.

We headed off to the Olympic Park area to tour the remains of the 1976 Olympics.  There is this really odd-looking observation tower that was, at one point, going to be used to raise and lower the roof on the stadium.  However, it only worked a few times and then stopped, so now you can just ride up there and see all of Montreal.  You ride this odd cable car thing up the outside of the tower, then get off in the  observation area to look around.

I am not sure what I was expecting from the Olympic Stadium area, but it was thoroughly underwhelming.  It looked a bit run down and dilapidated.  There is a new stadium right next door where the Montreal MLS team plays (I don't know their name, and let's be honest: Who really cares about the MLS?).

After the run up the observation tower, Shelley and our son went to the Biodome.   This has four climates under one roof, complete with live animals and other accouterments.  I stayed outside and enjoyed the weather / slept on a bench in the shade.

On the way back to the apartment we picked up some groceries for dinner. One of the main reasons we like to stay in an apartment when we travel is that there are times we feel like eating in.  Tonight was one of those nights.  We had some pasta and veggies, along with some fresh bread.

After dinner we went to get some ice cream.  We found this really tasty spot here in Mont Royal called Bo-Bec.  I had a single scoop combo of Pistachio and Strawberry, and our son had Blood Orange sorbet with Blackberry.  All of it was quite delicious.

After a full day, we hit the rack with full bellies and the cool night air drifting around the apartment.  Tomorrow we are heading out of the city for some hiking and (hopefully) Alpine slides.

Montreal - Day One - Bon Jour, Montreal!

Yesterday we arrived in Montreal for a few days of holiday time.  We drove in from New York after dropping one of our kids off at camp in the Adirondacks for the week.  It is the first time for all of us in Montreal.

The border crossing was really easy.  I have heard horror stories from others about getting into Canada by car, but we had no issues at all.  We were through in probably ten minutes or less.

Welcome to Quebec!

It took a little less than an hour to get from the border to downtown Montreal, where we promptly got lost (thanks to Google Maps).  We are renting an apartment this week in the Mont Royal neighborhood of the city.  We found the apartment on Airbnb.  The owners have been really helpful and the apartment is quite nice. 

Mont Royal is an older, more residential area.  The street we are staying on has a ton of really great shops and restaurants to choose from, all within a short walk.  The Metro stop is about 7-10 minutes away on foot.

After dropping our gear at the apartment, we took off to see some of the city.  Our first stop was a restaurant called Cornichon in Mont Royal for lunch.  Shelley had a croque monsieur and I had a chicken club sandwich.  Hers was way better than mine, though mine was good.   We then headed to Old Montreal.  We took the Metro to the Place D' Arms stop, which drops you right at the border of this section of the city.

The first landmark we came upon was the Notre Dame Basilica.  The facade of this buildings is beautiful.  We unfortunately arrived a bit too late to go inside, but are planning to do so later in the week.

We wandered the streets for a bit and walked into an art gallery featuring the new exhibit from Barbara Cole.  It was the first time seeing her work, and this particular exhibit was called "Two People Walking on a Tightrope in an Ordinary Life Full of Extraordinary Moments." She took pictures of people both on land and in the water from under water, then used editing to transform the pictures into something spectacular.  The pictures animate as you move past them in any direction, creating an amazing effect.  You can watch a report from the CBC on the exhibition below.

After walking through a few more exhibits, we found our way to a restaurant where we enjoyed a nice cold beverage and took some time to soak in the views.  We stopped at a place called Bevo which had a great view down a few streets.  And beer.

Old Montreal has a very European feel, with cobblestone streets, many of them closed to car traffic.  There are lots of open air restaurants and people playing music all over the place.  One of the more clever ones is in the video below.  Watch the kids chase his cup around to put money in it.  

We ended the day with dinner at Pizzeria Napoletana, a neat Italian restaurant in the Little Italy section of the city.  We ordered two pizzas, which was plenty for us.  The pizzas are the thin crust variety we ate all over Italy a few years ago.  We really enjoyed the food here, and the atmosphere was fun as well with lots of people scurrying about.

Tomorrow we are planning to go out to the Olympic Stadium area, and perhaps a few other things depending on what we feel like.