Montreal, jour deux

After sitting in a car for six hours and consuming four delightful courses for dinner the day before, some physical activity that required ambulatory locomotion was essential.

We had three sites on our list to see for the day and mapped out our route in the hotel before we left in the morning, as once we were out of range of a Wi-Fi connection for our phones, we were on our own for directions. The route was relatively simple and circuitous and would take us back to the hotel in mid-afternoon, after ice skating at Parc La Fontaine, taking in the views of Montreal from Parc du Mont-Royal, and walking around the campus of McGill University, in that order.

It really wasn’t too complicated of an endeavor, especially for two people that have been fortunate enough to travel as extensively and successfully in Europe as Gina and I have. Between us, we’ve managed to navigate everywhere from Scandinavia to Iberia, from the British Isles in the west to Poland in the east. Surely another country on the continent we call home wouldn’t be that daunting of a challenge.

Imagine our surprise, then, when we didn’t have much of an idea where we actually were after emerging from the bowels of Montreal’s ultra-efficient subway system, walking down a busy boulevard to the entrance of a large green space, and beginning our gradual climb up the trails of a small mountain for the better part of an hour, There were plenty of other walkers out, a good sign to be sure, but we didn’t see any maps along the way. We had intended to go skating on a body of water that had been frozen over, not an artificially constructed public rink, and when we spotted signs along the trail for the Lac des Castors, we figured we were in business.

The problem was, Parc La Fontaine did not appear nearly as large on Google Maps as the length of the walk we were on, so doubts consistently lingered in our minds. When we saw people climbing to a lookout point at the top of the mountain, we followed Gina’s first rule of travel and headed for where the pretty pictures could be taken. Gina got a GoPro pole for Christmas, making the art of the selfie much easier for people who don’t want to ask other tourists and travelers to take a picture of them, so we did our business overlooking the most picturesque, stunningly arresting view of all of Montreal. Fingers sufficiently frozen in the numbing cold weather, we went inside what appeared to be a visitor center on the summit to warm up. 

Hard to beat this view

We consulted a map near all the brochures extolling the virtues of the tourist sites of Quebec, which we ignored, and were bemused when we saw where we were. We had made a right at Rue Rachel instead of making the left we needed to make to head to Parc La Fontaine, so we’d ended up stumbling on Mont Royal, the triple-peaked hill just west of the heart of the city to which it gave its name. The park on Mont Royal was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, who is perhaps better known for co-designing a little place you may have heard of in New York City called Central Park.

There is no more gratifying feeling when traveling then to discover something new, or to see something when it was least expected. We were going to see Mont Royal at some point that day, but to find it on a complete fluke somehow made it better, in an odd way. We went back into the open air and stood for a while, admiring the skyline of the city and gazing, as silently as a cliché, miles into the distance, including the St. Lawrence River and the Champlain Bridge we’d crossed entering Montreal the day before.

After descending the stairway from heaven – at least, it seemed that high when we walked up, huffing and puffing and stopping multiple times to catch our breath and rest our aching quad muscles – we left the park and headed for nearby McGill.

McGill has interested me for a while – I looked fairly seriously into its graduate programs in art history – as it’s an American-accredited institution and an English-language university right in the middle of a predominantly French-speaking city and province. It has a strong academic reputation and tradition, having been founded in 1821, and boasts a large number of international students. Its urban campus backs right up onto the base of Mont Royal and is conveniently located near several metro stops and the lively main commercial shopping thoroughfare in Montreal – Rue Sainte-Catherine. I can’t say it’s the most beautiful school I’ve ever seen, though my view is at odds with that of Travel and Leisure Magazine, which named McGill’s 79-acre grounds and its plethora of stone buildings one of the 17 most beautiful university campuses in the world in its September 2012 issue.  We walked around for perhaps a half an hour, and saw everything one could fairly expect to see given that none of the buildings were open due to the Christmas holiday.  

Looking onto McGill's campus

Our final stop while it was still light outside was the place we’d intended to visit first, Parc La Fontaine. Our research before the trip told us it would be an interesting place to go ice skating simply because it was an actual, real pond that had frozen over, rather than going in mind-numbingly boring, endless circles while dodging hordes of little children and teenagers who can’t be trusted to stay upright for any longer than two seconds at a much more crowded, artificial rink.

While the plan was good in theory, we (read: I) made a slight oversight: when we arrived at the park, there was nowhere to rent skates, unlike at one of those rinks I so detest. The park is right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, so while it was a great place for locals, it wasn’t ideal for tourists from America who didn’t think about, I don’t know, needing ice skates. Instead, we made the best of it as we managed to do some skating in our shoes, and had a leisurely end to our afternoon strolling hand-in-hand across the ice while the sun went down.

Nice day for a skate..on shoes

Our plans for dinner were a bit more low-key than our experience at Chez Suzette. Gina wanted to explore Montreal’s famous Underground City, a 20-mile network of shops, apartments, and restaurants connected to the metro system that is particularly beneficial in the winter when the weather is so harsh. As we reached Bonaventure metro station, one of the entrances to the Underground City, we found ourselves surrounded by throngs of people wearing Team Canada hockey jerseys, scarves, and other assorted apparel.

Before our trip, I had checked to see if the Montreal Canadiens were in town for a game when Gina and I would be in town, but when I saw they were away for our entire stay, I assumed there would be no hockey for us. Gina silently rejoiced, praising her good fortune. Somehow I managed to convince her to follow the crowd, who were headed to the Bell Centre, and after a bit of sports sleuthing on my part, we figured out the World Junior Championship was being contested and there was a game in Montreal that night – Canada vs. Finland.

At the box office, I inquired how much tickets would cost and was dismayed (Gina probably couldn’t have been more thrilled) to hear that $66 was the cheapest ticket available, ranging all the way up to $130 for better seats in the 21,273-seat capacity arena. There was zero chance or desire for us to afford that, so we moved on in our efforts to find dinner. Much of the Underground City was closed by that time of night, so it was onto Plan B.

We took the metro back to the closest stop to our hotel, and our proximity to Chinatown came in handy. After peeking in the windows of a few places, we settled on an all-you-can-eat buffet place because we’re just that classy. In addition to food you would rightly expect a Chinese place to have, other options included pizza, spaghetti with meat sauce and/or meatballs, jello, and pudding. What a selection. I opted for fried rice, some type of meat that vaguely resembled General Tso’s chicken, and shrimp that still had the eyes and feelers/tentacle things, attached. Gina did, in fact, take a jello square in addition to her mystery meat and fried rice dish. All-in-all, it actually wasn’t a bad meal by any means, and what I love about us is that we make the most out of every place we go, no matter how fancy or informal.

We still had one more day in Montreal to come, which I’ll write about in my next post. It really is a fantastic city, and despite our directional challenges over the first couple days, we were growing more and more comfortable with the environment and the locals. The next day would bring a change of hotels, but more fun activities. Hockey and shopping – the best of both worlds for us. More soon.