Montreal

By Glen Bruels
This is part of a series called Eastern Canada 2017

After visiting family in CT, Deb and I decided to do a swing up to Eastern Canada, where my mother’s side of the family came from.  To start our journey, we flew to Montreal, arriving in the cold and rain (always a risk when traveling to the Northeast in late-May!).  I hadn’t been there since I was a kid and Deb had never been to this part of Canada. We both loved the city. It has a very European feel and, while there is lots of public transport, it’s lots more fun to walk around and check out the interesting neighborhoods. Lots of art, music, and great food! 

We were trying to focus on indoor activities near our hotel in Old Montreal when we came upon a bit of a folklife festival. While we were pretty cold, we really enjoyed knocking around the festival. We’ll try to be more serious about touring around the next day (assuming the weather improved!).

Nothing cures cold, damp afternoons like French Onion Soup and a nice bottle of wine!
Bien sure! Allo!
The new recruit. She is out of uniform, however!
Lots of artisans all around. Damn, and I had a pair of shoes that needed mending!
The new recruit’s fly is open. I suspect he won’t make the cut!
Somehow I don’t think these guys are going to be spending the night here.

What a difference a day makes!  Our second day was glorious, with lots of sun and warm weather.  Since this was a relatively short stay on our trip, we had to make the best use of our time — and we covered some serious ground!  I think we covered about every compass point in the city.  Of course, some of these jaunts were a bit distant so we used the services of an on-off bus.  But since Montreal is such a walkable city, I think we spent a lot more time “off” than on.  We explored history, architecture, art, lifestyle, and food.  While some of this was planned, a lot was happenstance (the best way).  Anyway, we definitely earned our cocktails that night!

Down by the Place Royale. Lot’s of great architecture in the old part of the city.
We stayed in the old city, so we had the streets pretty much to ourselves, especially in the morning. Again, lots of amazing old buildings.
But lots of interesting architecture in the new city too; e.g., the Batman Building!
Waving to our evil twins!
A year of celebrations in full swing.
The oldest brewery in North America with the third busiest bridge in Canada.
The Village — a funky cool neighborhood filled with all types of shops, restaurants, etc. Imagine stringing these balls — there’s only 170,000 of them!
One thing you can say is that they are very accommodating here in Montreal. This extra tall fire hydrant is designed for big dogs…
In a number of Montreal neighborhoods, the buildings are covered in murals. They come in all shapes and sizes.
This one was my favorite.
By the way, if they aren’t painting their buildings, they are projecting on them at night. This was pretty cool!
The Beaux Artes Museum. Does every city have to have a Chihuly installation?
Up in the Le Mont Royal Park. This is the oldest building in the park. It was the summer home of one of the big real estate developers in Montreal in the mid-1850s. Even at that point, the wealthy were looking to escape the industrial pollution, overpopulation, and epidemics that their labors resulted in.
But the park also provides breathtaking panoramas of the city, …
… the Mont Royal Cross,…
… some beautiful gardens,…
Trekking down from the top of Mont Royal. At least it was downhill!
Walking down Sherbrook, there were lots of art installations. This is called the Urban Forest.
I really loved the way they blended their art installations and gardens.
But the chronic lack of restrooms has led to some rather unseemly behavior!
That is a very small smoke-free zone. It must be the French influence…
This is the convention center. I only posted this because of the cool dichroic glass. Reminds me a bit of the new Amazon campus in Seattle.
So many parks and green spaces around. They are like little surprises on your walk.
The Metro — fairly reminiscent of another famous Metro. Very modern, clean, and efficient.
This is the Notre Dame Cathedral. In front of it is a statue dedicated to the citizens of the city. There are lots of different figures around the base of the statue.
It wasn’t clear to me why this mother had her child in a headlock, but I’m obviously missing the symbolism…
But inside the cathedral was the amazing part. We never saw the interior during the day, but there was this amazing “light show” inside, illuminating all the statuary, etc. It was incroyable!
Deb lighting a candle for my Mom.
Of course, we had to visit the other iconic Montreal Church — St. Joseph’s Oratory. I hadn’t been since I was a kid and the interior was significantly different than I remember. BTW, pilgrims go up the center stairs (wood, not stone) on their knees). Being weak of the flesh, we took the shuttle up…
If this is actually the way it looked when I was a kid, I probably appreciate it a lot more now. It seems to be of the Brutalist style, but its combination of starkness and sparseness is really powerful.
So many amazing restaurants with fresh, inventive dishes — I had a homemade pasta with fiddlehead ferns and morel mushrooms in a veal reduction.

After a day of power walking, we were ready to spend our last half day wandering around one of the many food markets around Montreal.  Frankly, we wanted to see where some of the fresh produce that made up our dinner from the previous evening.  After that, we made a stop at one of Montreal’s culinary landmarks — Schwarz’s Deli.  Their smoked meat is world famous and is definitely a “must stop” for any visit to the city.  It ain’t fancy, but it is amazingly good!  It was then time to head to the train station for the next leg of our trip — Quebec City!

For a change of pace, we headed over to Little Italy and then over to the Market Jean-Talon. Lots of produce, charcuterie, cheeses, plants, etc.
Beautiful produce!
Maybe the fiddleheads from last night’s dinner came from here!
I was hungry for a burger, so what to have — horse meat or red deer, horse meat or red deer. So many decisions…
And, of course, no visit to Montreal would be complete without a visit to Schwartz’s Deli.
It’s all about the smoked meat. But saying “smoked” sells it short. It is brined, smoked, steamed, and then smoked again. Oh man, was that good!
This entry was posted in Canada, Montreal, Quebec, Travel
Glen Bruels

I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.

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