Train trip to Montreal (a good one this time – no motion sickness) and we made our way to the Auberge du Vieux Port, a cute little boutique hotel in the heart of the old town. We were greeted by two attendants at the desk who were most helpful. This hotel is nothing like the Chateau Frontenac, which was a castle…full of opulence and grandeur. This was a small hotel with old world charm, and I absolutely loved it!

The weather was quite cold but off we went walking along the old Port on our first night. I mean after all, we did arrive at 4:30pm and had sat on a train for several hours, so Marc’s legs were saying. ‘Take me out for a walk’. Yes, we obliged!

Sounds of music and lights met us as we meandered along the icy path, wrapped up in scarves hats, and gloves (yes, I had my new beanie on), and on our stroll we were met with a Ferris wheel similar to the one at Southbank Brisbane, and an ice-skating rink. Young people of various ages were skating around and around – it obviously was what they did on a Sunday night on a cold Montreal night in Winter! Walking around the harbour, working out what was safe to walk on and what was not due to the ice, we meandered in the cold to the clock tower and part way along the wharf wall where we came across a sign that made us both laugh. Ice on the stairs, snow all around and it clearly said “beach”. Where? Oh, I don’t think I would want to swim tonight at that beach! But it made us both laugh aloud!

How do I describe Montreal?

Montreal is only 34 years younger than Quebec but whereas Quebec had great military strategic value, Montreal’s value was as a commercial hub. So, although Montreal still has an ‘old town’, most of it has been lost including all its old fortifications to the commercial pressures to tear down the old and build bigger and newer buildings. In fact, from the heights overlooking the city, the city has truly little to impress visually. However, explore the streets of the older parts of the city as we like to do, and we found some historic gems and, just as importantly, some lovely friendly locals.

The memory we will definitely take away is a light and sound show presented within the Notre-Dame Catedral, “Aura”! Both the reception staff at out hotel and at the Tourist Information Centre fully recommended it and we booked it as one of the first things we did. Just as well we had, since at this time of year it is run only twice a week and one of those was on our second last night in Montreal.

We walked after sunset in the cold to the cathedral and then stood outside in the dark waiting to go in, not knowing what we were going to experience. The Notre Dame cathedral is not the same one as in Paris but so similar in appearance, size, and magnificence. As you walked in, you could sense the overall majesty of this building, its ornateness, its magnitude, it really took your breath away!

Once in the church, it felt ‘different’. We were in an enormous cathedral dimly lit but still with scattered areas of warm red light from the votive candles still burning from worshippers earlier in the day. It was quiet as is normal in church, but it felt ‘warm’ and welcoming in a strange way. Such a completely different feel from the Cathedral we attended on Christmas Eve in Vancouver, where we felt totally disconnected and struggled not to laugh. Instead, here, the ambience, the emotion, the reverence made you instantly whisper and breathe in the sense of this beautiful convivial cathedral. We sat, quietly, waiting for the show to start. Maybe that was part of the show? Having the audience wait patiently for just the right amount of time as people filled the pews, waiting in quiet understanding murmurs for the presentation to start…could this just possibly add to the sense of anticipation?

Then the spectacle started.

A sound and light display, but such a dramatic one as we viewed a balanced amalgamation of church organ music and choral works being accented and accentuated using lights and projected images, utilising all the surfaces of the church from the altar alcoves to the ceiling arches, to the pillars supporting the rook and, by the use of a fog machine and lasers, to the air above our heads. At times, you felt as if you could reach out and touch the light beam before you. You did not know where to look, as the graphic display presented the Cathedral in realms of 3D images, singular displays and multitude of colours and movements simply by the use of lights. So many lights. It was enthralling, it was entrancing, it was outstanding. It was simply breathtaking!

Everyone was silent, even the young children in the audience – mesmerised by use of these audio and visual effects created to tell stories and generate moods. At the end, when the show finished and normal lighting filled the church, everyone slowly started to clap slowly, as if unsure to break this hypnotic moment in time and no-one seemed eager to leave. Most just lingered within the space that had just been filled with music and colours. We eventually did make our way reluctantly back to our hotel.

But Montreal was more than one show.

We have explored.

Really?

Strange that?

Blue skies and sunshine took us to Mont Royal where we ascended the highest hill in Montreal. Did we ascend the 256 steps from the city to reach the top? From my previous stories you would have thought that Marc would have said, “Why not?” and I would have followed behind breathing heavily! But not this time. We wisely took a couple of local buses and only had a gentle snow-covered path to stroll along to get to the top. We later descended those 256 steps amongst ice and snow and were grateful we did the trip in that order as we saw many ‘unhappy’ climbers going up the stairs. Some clearly only doing it since their other half had suggested it and they were definitely ‘not happy’. (Oh, I can relate to that!) Personally, I was so delighted to be doing this in reverse, because I am sure I would have been one of those not happy ones that we saw! But I did do all the steps!

The view of the city did not reveal a particularly attractive city from the above. But the stroll around the Parc du Mont Royal was pleasant. We walked up to the Cross that was perched on the very highest part. Why is there a cross on Mont Royal? Erected in 1924, the cross atop Mount Royal commemorates January 6, 1643, when Maisonneuve, Montréal’s founder, kept his promise to carry a wooden cross to the summit of Mount Royal if the young colony survived flooding. Today, the cross is lit up and stands thirty metres high and when lit, can be seen from kilometres away.

On our walk, the ground was covered in lovely white snow (and slippery ice). The squirrels had come out to search for uneaten seeds under the bird feeders. One even came up to us and gave an exceptionally good impersonation of a dog begging for food by sitting back on its tail, holding its fore paws up in front and using ‘doe-eyes’ (just like the Movie character ‘Puss in Boots’) to try and get us to spare him some crumbs. Quite humorous.

As an aside, Montreal has had several names, Hochelaga to the natives, Ville- Marie the name of the first settlement and now, Montreal – named after the mountain above it, Mont-Royal: in French, Mont Real, thus Montreal. I never knew that before.

Leaving Mont Royal we walked back to the city – approximately two plus hours of walking, stopping at various tourist must-see venues, such as the Café Crew which was part of the original Montreal Bank but now converted into a café. Very underwhelming for all its tourist sensationalism, but we did have a hot chocolate (mediocre quality) then continued with the roaming of the various souvenir stores. (I do believe I have drunk more hot chocolate this holiday than I have for many years!) On that walk back to our lodgings, we travelled by foot 22,303 steps or 15.50kms…but we also climbed twenty-two flights of steps. I wonder, if we had completed it in reverse how many more flights we would have climbed??

Another blue-sky day and using the Metro, we travelled to the botanical gardens which are situated near the Montreal Olympic Stadium. The stadium itself was all covered in snow and unfortunately not opened, but that was okay. For me personally, viewing and standing next to this arena was quite exhilarating as I imagined, those athletes in 1976 from all over the world marching as part of the opening ceremony and performing to the best of their athletic ability inside those walls. Looking at this concrete behemoth with its inclined tower of 45 degrees holding up the roof, I could feel the excitement of both the athletes and spectators that had crammed inside to see their favourite sport, or sports personas. I could hear the cheers and enthusiasm from both participants and spectators observing the opening and closing ceremony. I know you may wonder why this was special to me, when Australia had itself hosted the Olympics in Sydney in 2000, but I had not attended those, viewing them only remotely through the medium of television. Here, standing next to the Olympic stadium in Montreal, made this experience more surreal. To think I was actually here!

The metro itself was an incredible experience. Officially, the Montreal Metro is Canada’s second busiest rapid transit system! It is not like our Australian train system using ‘normal’ electric trains running on rails. Montreal’s Metro is a rubber-tired underground rapid transit system. They are fast and run incredibly smoothly. The newer train carriages like the one we travelled upon, are all open, no connecting doors. You could see all the way up the train and all the way down. You could distinguish easily the ‘up and down’ of the train as you looked along the carriage.

But do you know how fast they go?

With top speeds up to 72km per hour and no traffic to slow it down, they boast that Montreal’s Metro system will quickly get you within walking distance of most of the city’s popular tourist attractions. All information aside, my goodness, we flew along the tracks! One minute, you get on the train; six stops later, blink your eyes and we were there! I am sure we travelled faster than the speed of light!  It was amazing!

The botanical gardens next to the Olympic stadium were a long series of hothouses with plants from all over the world! The signage was some of the most informative signs either of us had ever seen in a botanical garden. Sure, there were plaques with a common and Latin name for the plants. But there were many other signs explaining many ‘plant facts’ – how they have evolved, adapted, been cultivated, and even, how they have been exploited. The information on spices was particularly informative. Beautiful exotic plants and worth the small price paid to view.

Some of the hothouses were extremely hot and humid which made my arctic winter attire of jacket, scarves, gloves, and my beanie felt ridiculous. I almost melted like a blob of snow, as I gradually peeled off layers walking around each hot house! Marc ended up stripping down to his t-shirt. No, I could not do that!

The outside ‘gardens’ were free to stroll through. They were really snow glad garden beds interspersed with trees and frozen ponds. Still, the Chinese Garden had Chinese pergolas outlined by snow that was picturesque.

The nearby Biodome was entertaining. I was not sure what to expect. I thought it some series of static presentations of the animals and marine life of the different ecosystems of the world. Imagine my surprise on entering the Polar Region portion of the dome and seeing penguins, I amused Marc with my startled exclamation of, “He moved, he’s alive”. He laughed and I noticed some strange looks were darted at me from fellow visitors! Well, I did not know what to expect and they were standing there…and then suddenly, they moved! I so loved watching Mumble and Lovelace (from the movie, Happy Feet) perform their antics – their expressions and the way they walked – no dancing unfortunately. However, even if Hugh Jackman, Robin Williams, and Beyonce were not speaking or singing for them, they were making their individual own song and gestures quite clearly. And it was all ‘live’ . That was truly the highlight of my day.

The Biodome is actually an enclosed zoo subdivided into four different habitats complete with appropriate settings, foliage, and environmental conditions. People have different opinions about zoos. Are they just cruelty to animal masquerading as entertainment for the ignorant populace or are they means of educating people about the natural world and using their knowledge of animal husbandry to improve the chances of some endangered species to survive or even recover? I have mixed feelings. I am sorry for the captive animals, but I also acknowledge that some of my entrance fee will go towards a breeding program for endangered species or other ecologically important project. Regardless of your opinion about whether zoos should exist or not, as zoos go, it was interesting that they had been able to create an enclosed zoo in a climate that would have been too inhospitable to display such a variety of animals in a traditional zoo setting. Nonetheless, in the sub-arctic habitat, we met Mumble’s and Lovelace’s cousins but, no matter how hard we looked, we could not find Sid the Sloth’s (from movie, ‘Ice Age’) relation in the tropical habitat although we did find some macaws (think ‘Rio’) as well as other animals appropriate to that habitat.

As an aside, it was quite humorous when we went from the subarctic habitat straight into the tropical (hot and HUMID) jungle habitat … Marc’s (now chilled) camera immediately fogged up as did my reading glasses and refused to demist for the entire time we were in this habitat.

Our last day here was snowing. I must admit that the weather channel app is so correct- it informs us at exactly to the minute what time the snow will fall and how long for and how heavy it will be. Today was no exception. Down came the snow at exactly the precision time the app said it would! Australian weather apps are not like that!

Due to the anticipated colder conditions, we had already planned to spend today at the History and Archaeology Museum which was only about one km from our hotel. We know about history museums and look forward to them since we are both interested in history. This museum was also about history but told from an archaeological perspective. You started by descending into the depths below the city – literally exploring the foundations the city. The city’s sequential history is then ‘told’ by wandering through a labyrinth of excavated layers of soil, palisade remnants, stone foundations, and even an old, abandoned cobble-stone path. There was plenty of explanatory material, written and in video formats, together with large displays of the artifacts that had been discovered during the archaeological excavations to make sense of what we were seeing. Very enlightening.

Just as fascinating to me was the excavated vaulted over central sewer. Really? Me being excited by a sewer. Historically, it had been a creek, then an open sewer and then vaulted over with brick complete with access tunnels still complete with iron rungs. We walked all the way along- not once but twice! It was mind boggling! It was not all dry archaeology (sorry Helen) and history. There were interactive exhibits and Marc and I played at being pirates, or is that privateers, just like children, in the section that described both in historical context of the late 1600’s-1700’s?

But being there, in the ruins of the original birthplace of Montreal was so exciting. To look at the original foundations, now all encased in protective glass below us or beside us, to walk around and feel the history and hear the stories of those old stones of the original marketplace, the original forts palisades, the merchants house, the insurance offices and clock tower and the custom house- all underground. We were standing there amidst all this history of Montreal…in a museum that was built on top of it all to preserve it for the future. It was genuinely exciting!

Before we knew it, we had spent 4 hours at the museum and a thickening carpet of snow had been building up outside. Since the museum is built underground, the building we were in at the end was not the building we had started in. Our warm clothing was in a cloakroom in the first building. Marc suggested making a run for it through the falling snow as being the shortest distance between two points. No thank you, as I watched the thick snowflakes fall in a horizontal fashion, so I vetoed that one and took the more circuitous route of returning to the tunnels of the museum.

I must admit, that living in a cold climate also really affects your hair and skin- it dries it out so much. Face and hand moisturizers for both of us are a necessity! Some days, my hair is so dry, I feel like I am brushing straw and not my hair! My small waves due to non-semi tropical conditions of humidity like home, are not as wavy and being contained within a beanie is not my favourite pastime. But the conditions of Montreal enforce the essential layers needed to be worn.

Living in a cold climate is also learning to dress. We have both become quite proficient on how to put scarves on to bring them up to your face when the wind bites through, or not allowing any drafts sneaking through, to lacing up your high fur lined boots to stop snow falling in them, how to bring the hat down to meet your scarf to again stop the chill and when gloves are needed, and the thickness required before your fingers fall off, all put on in the morning and removed continuously,  on and off when you enter and leave a warm building!  All part of our learning process of living in sub-zero conditions! I am sure when I return to Australia, I will feel quite naked with losing all those necessary layers of clothes! I will be ‘light and airy” and ‘stripped’.

Holidays with Marc always meant a lot of walking and Montreal was no exception. Each day we have walked up to 25,000 steps (or 16-18kms) with some days rising in elevation of up to thirty-four flights! This also includes walking up the three flights of stairs to our room, instead of taking the lift as ‘normal’ people would! (When he did take the lift, I was concerned and asked him was he okay!!)  Not complaining at all, our walking also sometimes meant tired bones at night, and I was ready to crash into the hotel room when dark occurred, thinking, I cannot walk anymore. Rest -feet, back, arms…rest!

But our walking in this city (and others – but more here) have also included slipping on icy paths, something I was quite fearful of! When I walked, I always managed to find a section of ice to slip on! And not just one foot either. Two feet at times. I am quite sure that in my “little slips” if I had not been holding onto Marc’s hand, I would have landed many times on my bum or my back….and broken a tailbone or two or more! One night, I even dreamt about sliding on the ice and saw my two feet spreading apart in a split style – one foot sliding out from the other one and I could only stop my body splitting in half by slamming into Marc- I did. I woke him up!  But I do have to compliment Marc being so steady on his feet and not afraid of slipping. He considers that “sliding on ice is simply one foot going faster than the other one!”, “I’m not slipping I am gliding with style”. Really?? A good consideration for him, but for me, I prefer to have control of both my feet thank you!  However, walking together on our adventures and challenges is what we do, and as we continue onto Newfoundland, will continue to do so, trying extremely hard not to slip! I’ll just have to tighten my grip on his hand even more! I am not sure how his fingers feel but I need them!

I am sure there were other things that we could have seen and experienced in our four days here, but to end this dialogue, what might be to you, a long-winded travel chat on Montreal, the city has been overall enchanting!  So, what better way to finish the time here than with a ‘formal’ dinner tonight, to a fancy restaurant. Not just any old restaurant, but one that is the oldest one in Montreal, an establishment of 1688, that was granted the first alcohol licence, issued in 1754. To add to the allure of this historic restaurant, it is stated to be allegedly haunted by the ghost of a 19th century girl who died in a building fire.

How exciting.

How entrancing!

How significant being the halfway point of our holiday, and for our first dress-up meal since the train.

And yes, we will be walking!