Day 7 and Day 8. City of Montreal

8/24, 8/25/23 This is a very long blog😊. Hope you enjoy my view of Montreal. It’s a great place to visit!

First of all you need to know that Montreal is on a big island between the St Lawrence River and Riviere des Prairies. It has 2 million people in the city…4 million in the metro. In the city it’s 50/50 French/English but 70% speak both languages!

On our first full day in Montreal we took the “Hop on-Hop off “ Bus Tour. I know it’s really touristy but I do like these tours to get the “lay of the land”. You get a little history, local culture and highlights of city pride and joy! From there, I know where I want to explore more! So that’s mostly how we spent our first day. It was an enjoyable short walk around the base of the Mont Royal Parc to one of the bus stops. As we walked we passed through McGill University. It’s one of the top 10 private universities in North America. Most likely the top in Canada. It was teeming with freshman orientation. It is also an English speaking university. Nice campus in downtown Montreal.

Of course the bus tour takes you through Mont Royal Park. It is a huge park on a big hill near the downtown area of Montreal. After making the bus loop we hopped off in the park to walk the top a bit for views of the city then walked back downhill to our BnB (sorry Walt F we did not run up!) The steep climb to this park is a favorite for cyclists training to climb. We saw a guy making laps.

This huge park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted… same man who designed Central Park NYC.

The area we are staying in is called Le Plateau Mont Royal. It’s loaded with restaurants of many nationalities. It’s within easy walking distance between two big parks. We can walk downtown or to Old Montreal from here. There are a few streets in the city that are pedestrian only. Of course, these are filled with shops and restaurants. The one nearest to us is called Duluth St. There’s also Mont Royal street. The area is a hipster, young neighborhood. I have enjoyed it. Unknowingly I found a good location to stay.

There is so much bicycling in this city. It’s refreshing to see so many people riding bikes. Naturally they also have share/rental bikes. With the price of gas about $6.40/gal it makes sense to use alternative transportation. And to think we grumble about the price of USA gas!

The iconic “eats” of Montreal.

We were told and have read about the Montreal bagel. Unfortunately we did not get to the famous bagel shop. There is also the Hasidic Jewish smoked meats tiny little restaurant called Schwartz’s. My nephew Alex had told me Schwartz’s is a must do. It did not disappoint.! Thanks Alex… the hop on bus guide mentioned it also.

Architecture of the apartments/flats

When we were riding into the city on Rue St Denis for 8 km I kept noticing the amazing black curved staircases of the flats. Two or more stories high. They are beautiful. I couldn’t stop to photograph because we were literally on a bicycle highway. But I managed to capture a few while walking around today.

On our 2nd full day I sent Jim to the boulangerie around the corner for a breakfast croissant and baguette for lunch sandwiches. What a treat that is!

Then we took about a 7 mile walk to investigate some of the neighborhoods we passed yesterday on bus. It was a cooler cloudy day. We had rain last night but it let up for today. More rain is expected tomorrow. We wandered down to the riverfront, through the Old Montreal street… full of tourist souvenir shops and then through Chinatown. There is an underground area of Montreal that turns out to be a mall. Quick trip in and out of there! Walked through the Gay Village on the way back home. I’m guessing that is more interesting later in the day. I think my favorite part was the little parks as we walked up the streets and the homes with their staircases on the walk back!

The coming week

We exit Montreal tomorrow and plan to take about 6 days to get to Quebec City. (240 miles). Once we get there we will spend a couple nights there to visit this very old French Canadian city. We are expecting rain tomorrow and maybe the next but okay after that. The plan is to camp if possible all the way to Q City.