Dibbo's Canadian adventures: Montreal

Friday, March 17, 2006

Montreal

March break has arrived and after much debate and research we decided to head north in search of more ski fields while the snow holds out. On the way t

o find the white powder we dropped off at Montreal to explore another Canadian city. Montreal is in the province of Quebec on the St Lawrence River about 100kms over the

border. On our trip up on the 401 highway we passed many signs saying 'to US'. If you have a look at the map you will see that once you pass Lake Ontario on the trip north following the 401 the US border is a short hop over the St Lawrence. We were tempted to go over for the first time just to have a peak but did not have the time.
Alex's friend Julia accompanied us and with a car full of ski gear we arrived in Montreal at 2pm. Checked into the hotel and went for a walk looking for 3 or 4 attractions that lonely planet and other tourist books suggested could be tackled in an afternoon. The hotel

was in the middle of town and a short walk brought us to old Montreal and plenty of interesting sights including Chinatown, some fantastic old architecture, the Notre Dame basilica and a shopping mall where we had a late lunch. Even though it was quite cold (about -7) the sun was out which seemed to attract many other tourists and locals to come outside and enjoy the day.
A walk through the basilica was awesome, it is a very large building and quite stunning, then down through narrow streets with ter

race housing that have doors that either open out directly onto the street or open onto a steep set of wide stairs if the front door is above street level which was usually the case. We came across the waterfront which had many many people out for a walk in the sun and then onto a piazza where we ran into a fire eating juggler and other buskers.
We returned to the hotel where Alex and Julia went off to the pool to see if there were any interesting guys hanging around, and to have a swim, whilst Jenny and I raced off to the park before dark. To get to the park, which is located on

a hill in the middle of the city, we had to walk through the university. This had staggeringly beautiful architecture with buildings dating from the 18th century. We felt like we were stepping back in time, or walk

ing through Hogwarts out of Harry Potter. The climb uphill to the bottom of a cliff face was demanding as we were setting a cracking pace (the sun was rapidly setting). The last leg was a flight of about 1,000 steps which we took 2 at a time. This took its toll on us and we finally stopped almost at the top to catch our breath and watch the sun set over the city. Apparently the park was designed by the same architect who planned Central Park in New York. It was a very pretty place with lots of paths and heavily treed. We both agreed that it would be worth a visit in summer. In fact, we would like to return to Montreal at another stage when we have more time to see the rest of the city.
PS: click on any picture to view larger.