Travel Day........Montreal to Toronto and Deeply Discounted Dogs!

Traveling by rail in Canada has been great!

After exploring Montreal on foot for three consecutive days, then hiking Mont Tremblant, yesterday was just the kind of slow paced day we needed.  Sitting on a train for five hours watching the rolling farmland and small cities between Montreal and Toronto peacefully pass by was a very good thing.
We don't have much experience on VIA Rail Canada (Canadian Passenger Train System), but both of our experiences have been very positive.  The stations in Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto have all been clean and very centrally located.  The trains have also been clean, as well as comfortable, and on schedule.  All of this at very affordable rates.  If you're in Canada and looking to get from one place to another take a look at VIA Rail Canada.

A final picture from Montreal on the way to the train station

Once we arrived in Toronto, getting to our hotel (Intercontinental booked through Hotwire) was a short five minute walk from the station.  Also, we shouldn't get lost while we are here.  Our hotel is located under the 1,815 foot tall CN Tower.  All we have to do is look up and walk towards the tallest structure in the skyline of this city of 3 million people (Canada's largest city).
We enjoyed a nice lupper (late lunch, early supper) at an outdoor water front restaurant.  Afterwards we enjoyed a casual stroll along the waterfront area on the shores of Lake Ontario, giving our legs a much needed day of rest.

It's somewhat difficult to get lost with this as the landmark

Lupper at The Slip

Safety Orange Swimmers-A piece of artwork in Lake Ontario honoring Toronto's immigrant history

Roundhouse Rail Museum

 We topped off our first day in Toronto at the Blue Jays/Rangers game at the Rogers Centre, which is just a couple of blocks from the hotel.  This was ballpark number 26 out of 30 and it was memorable for a couple of reasons.  Unlike most MLB teams, the Blue Jays don't honor the baseball pass that was given to me years ago.  We were sitting outside the stadium waiting patiently for the prices of tickets to go down.  As game time approached a nice gentleman handed us a couple of extra tickets that his group wasn't going to use.  They were great seats, just eighteen rows up behind first base.  The lady sitting beside Beth offered to share her bag of peanuts as soon as we were seated.  Her and her companion left the seats after about an inning and a half, never returning so we had practically a whole bag of free peanuts.  Incredible Canadian hospitality!

Showing off the free tickets while a couple of fans gaze up to the top of the CN Tower

Nice water feature of swimming salmon outside the Rogers Centre

One other memorable thing from the game, it was Loonie Dog Night.  This is the Canadian equivalent to Dollar Hot Dog Night at US ballparks.  The best news of all, with the current exchange rate, it was really more like Seventy Five Cent Hot Dog Night for us Americans!  Baseball north of the border, with some incredible friendly Blue Jay fans...……..it doesn't get much better!

The retractable roof of the Rogers Centre was open, giving us a great view of the CN Tower while watching the Blue Jays/Rangers game.

I really wasn't hungry but I wasn't going to pass up deeply discounted hot dogs!

Finally, to everyone reading this blog a great big THANK YOU!  I have no idea who is reading, but I do get a pageview statistic that indicated that last night the blog had it's 30,000th page view.  Also, this is my 500th blog post, which is about 499 more than I ever imagined writing!  I'm humbled, amused and befuddled by both of these numbers.  I appreciate you sharing the adventure with us.  

Mont Tremblant..........Biting off a little more than we could chew!

From the summit of Mont Tremblant!

A few years ago a well traveled friend of ours suggested that we visit Mont Tremblant.  She was so fond of it that she called it one of her "happy places".  It was only an hour and a half outside of Montreal so this was the perfect time to check it out.  

We rented a car at a location not far from the hotel that opened at 7:00 AM, which allowed us to pick the car up and get out of town before the rush hour traffic.  At the present time it seems as if road work is going on everywhere.  Throughout the city so there are numerous road closures and detours.  We understand from talking to someone from Montreal that this is an ongoing project with no end in site. Surprisingly, thanks to Google Maps and Beth's navigation assistance we were able to get out of town without incident or taking the lords name in vain.

Mont Tremblant is both a summer and winter resort area.  There are several golf courses, hotels, shops, restaurants, activities for people of all ages, including many for "adrenaline junkies" and a beautiful lake appropriately named Lake Tremblant.  For as lively as it is in the summer, we understand it is equally as lively during the ski season.  

Before reaching the village we stopped at an information center to pick up a map as well as suggestions on how to fill our day.  We shared with the helpful lady behind the counter that we liked hiking but that we didn't want anything too long or with too much elevation increase.  She told us about the Ruisseaux Trail which was about an hour long, flat trail that followed along a peacefully flowing mountain stream.  It sounded perfect.

She then proceeded to tell us about the Grand Brule Trail.  She said it was a 2+ hour trail that went from the village to the summit of the mountain. She didn't seem to make it sound as if it was too difficult and told us that there were several places along the trail where there were great panoramic views of the village and lake.  After all the walking we had done the three previous days in Montreal we were cool to the idea of a trail of this length and the words "up to the summit of the mountain" didn't sound too appealing either.  She did tell us that if we hiked up the Grand Brule Trail that once at the top we had the option of taking the gondola down for a mere $7 per person.

The Ruisseaux Trail is the lower trail from the center going to the left.  The Grand Brule Trail is on the right!

Parking was a little difficult because they were preparing for an Ironman Triathlon this coming weekend and had already closed two of the parking lots.  Once we were parked it was a short walk and short complimentary gondola ride into the village.  The gondola ride ended at the base of the mountain and the trail head for numerous trails including the two that had been described to us.

We could have turned left and enjoyed a nice leisurely one hour stroll along a mountain stream.  Inexplicably we turned right, putting us on the Grand Brule Trail to the summit.  We somewhat rationalized our decision by saying to each other that we could turn around at any point along the way and return to the village that reminded both of us of a smaller version of Downtown Disney in Orlando.

This complimentary gondola takes you from near the parking area to the top of the village

From the gondola

We hadn't gone far before realizing that we were truly climbing a somewhat steep trail.  Not only was our heartrate and breathing elevated we had both broken into a healthy sweat.  When we checked the weather channel app it showed the temperature as being only 62 degrees but that the humidity was a very Florida like 100%.  We rationalized that it was the humidity causing us to sweat and have difficulty breathing, so onward and upward we hiked.

After about an hour it looked on the trail map like we would soon be reaching the "scenic overlook" that had been described to us.  Onward and upward we hiked, certain that the promised overlook was just around the next bend in the trail.  After rounding numerous bends we came to the conclusion that the trail map probably wasn't to scale, but onward and upward we went.

Finally!  We reached the promised land and once we wiped the sweat out of our eyes the views were as magnificent as promised.  It was now decision time.  Do we keep going or declare ourselves wimps and head back down the trail?  You guessed it, onward and upward we went, determined at this point to reach the summit.

The scenic overlook was as promised, very scenic!

I wasn't tired, just holding the rock in place

Why are we on the Grand Brule instead of the Ruisseaux Trail?

The trail was fairly busy,  mostly with people hiking the same direction as us, but occasionally with people hiking down the trail.  We weren't sure if the downward bound hikers had decided to turn around or if they had already been to the summit and were hiking down.  One thing we knew by now was that if the good lord allowed us to make it to the top that we were certainly going to fork over the $14 and ride the gondola down.  One other thing that became apparent was that we were constantly getting passed by people going in the same direction as us.  Most of them looked younger so it wasn't too discouraging, except when we'd get passed by small children or a mom or dad carrying a child.  For the record, right near the end we passed one person!

The trail would occasionally cross one of the ski slopes which again gave us the opportunity to enjoy views of the village and lake below that were getting smaller and smaller as we climbed.  At one point while crossing a ski slope we were able to look up and see the chalet at the top of the mountain.  This wasn't as encouraging as you might think because not only did it seem to be almost straight up but it also seemed to be in another zipcode.  However, onward and upward we went, there was nothing short of a cardiac event that was going to stop us from reaching the summit. 

We had been on the 2+ hour trail for 3+ hours when we finally realized that we were very close to summitting what now seemed like Mt. Everest.  Just like the Boston Marathon has Heartbreak Hill near the end, this trail saved the steepest section for the very end.  

At last, we made it!  We'd like to personally thank Coca Cola for the wonderful red chairs that they provided at the top of the mountain.  We sat for a while, mostly in silence but occasionally reflecting on our accomplishment.  

Victory!

Once we had recomposed ourselves, we enjoyed a nice lunch with a view before hoping on that gondola for the ride down the mountain and back to the village.  We enjoyed walking around the pristine village for a while before heading back to Montreal.  

It was a great day and easy to see why it could be someone's "happy place" , especially if you stick to the hour long, flat trail along the beautiful mountain stream.

Thanks for the recommendation Christine, we had a great day and I only slightly exaggerated the story.  After all, it was you who wisely shared with me to "never let the truth stand in the way of a good story"!

Montreal Day 3-LaFontaine Park, the Botanical Gardens and the site of Caitlin's triumph!.

Gold Medalist in ??????????

It was a sunny Sunday in Montreal. With the temperature hovering in the 70's all day it was prefect conditions for checking out a bit more of this amazing city.  We had done much of what had been recommended by the hotel concierge, with the exception of the Montreal Botanical Garden and the Olympic Park.
One of the most direct routes to this area happened to be through some neighborhoods we hadn't walked through the previous day, as well as La Fontaine Park. With our map, sunscreen and a couple of bottles of water we put our semi-rested legs in motion.  We walked along the waterfront for a bit before turning left towards LaFontaine Park.  It was still fairly early in the morning when we made it to the park but it was already full of joggers, walkers, sitters and families.  Like Mount Royal Park, La Fontaine has a small lake in the middle that is also used for ice skating in the winter.  It made for a nice stop to sit for a while and do a little people watching.

La Fountain in La Fontaine Park!

La Fontaine Park

When we left the park we had two options of routes to take as we continued on to the Montreal Botanical Garden.  The route we selected wasn't bad, but the neighborhoods weren't nearly as interesting as some of the others we had passed through the last couple of days.
We didn't know it at the time, but size wise, the Montreal Botanical Gardens is the second largest of it's kind in the world.  There is a nice restaurant with outdoor seating where we enjoyed a good and surprisingly inexpensive lunch.  After eating we headed towards the ticket office, which had a long line.  We lost our motivation to stand in line for tickets and were quite pleased with the gardens in front as well as those around the restaurant, so we decided to pass on going inside.  Learning about the size of the gardens and still feeling a bit worn out from the two previous days, I think that was a good decision.

Entrance to the Montreal Botanical Gardens

Gardens in front of the entrance to the gardens!

Botanical Gardens Restaurant

Directly across the street from the botanical gardens is the Montreal Olympic Park.  This is where the 1976 Summer Olympics were held.  The venues are still being used. What was the Olympic Village is now a large apartment complex.  The velodrome is now a popular Montreal tourist destination known as the Biodome.  There is quite a bit of renovation going on in and around some of the venues, including the Biodome, which is currently closed until December.
I did a little checking on who were the stars of the 76 Olympics.  The gymnastics world was turned upside down by a 14 year old Romanian who was the first to score a perfect 10 in the Olympics.  She went on to win three gold medals at the games and added two more at the 1980 Olympics.  Her name...…….Nadia Comaneci.  If you're around my age, you probably remember her well.  Some other household names from those Olympics were boxers Sugar Ray Leonard and Leon and Michel Spinks.  But, the most famous athlete from those games was the decathlon gold medalist, Bruce Jenner, who is now Caitlin Jenner.

Straining to hold up the Montreal Tower.  It's over 500 feet tall and angled at 45 degrees.  Not surprisingly it's the tallest incline tower in the world!  It is part of the Biodome

They love their hockey in Montreal and they loved Maurice "Rocket" Richard.  He played 18 seasons for the Canadiens and was the first player in NHL history to score fifty goals in one season.

By the time we finished the botanical gardens and Olympic park area it was mid-afternoon and we were pretty well whipped.  We took a bus back to the hotel, checked out a few art galleries, did a little more people watching and called it a day.  Not just any day, but a real good day!

Montreal Day 2.......Mount Royal and a bagel quest!

Enjoying the view from the Mount Royal Chalet

With a population of just over 3.5 million people, Montreal is Canada's second largest city (Toronto is the largest).  Compared to US cities that would put it behind Los Angeles and ahead of Chicago.  It's a very large and interesting place with plenty of great things to see and do to keep you busy for a long time. Yesterday (Saturday) morning we headed out fairly early to explore some of the downtown and surrounding areas. Our first destination for the day was Mount Royal.

Mount Royal is a small volcanic mountain that is 760 feet high located just west of downtown.  It has been developed into a nice park with hiking and biking trails, a small lake that becomes a skating rink in the winter and plenty of picnic tables and benches.  By mountain standards it is not very high but it does tower over the city and Montreal actually got it's name from the mountain.
It was only about a 45 minute walk from the hotel, through downtown, to the entrance of Mount Royal Park.  We had been told that once in the park there were about 200 stairs to climb to reach the trails.  What we weren't told was that there was a steep street to climb and about 200 additional stairs before reaching the park! The park itself is really a great place to visit.  In addition to the trails and lakes there is the Mount Royal Chalet which has a great overlook of the entire downtown.

St. Catherine St (downtown)

Mount Royal Chalet Overlook

Downtown from Mount Royal

Lake Castor, it's located in Mount Royal Park.  It becomes a skating rink in the winter

After spending a few hours in the park we made our way towards the north entrance/exit in search of Montreal's best bagel.  Little did we know that this was a city with numerous bagel shops, none more famous than St.Viateur Bagels.  Google maps sent us on the "most direct" walking route which happened to take us through one unusual but very peaceful and beautiful neighborhood, the Mount Royal Cemetery!  Outside the gates of the cemetery we also walked through some really nice neighborhoods that were a little more lively.

Not exactly the "pearly gates" but it is the gate to Mount Royal Cemetery.  In case you're wondering, the sign on the right wall is to let you know that you can no longer ride your bike through the cemetery.

The bagel shop was small, but very busy.  We were expecting to be able to order a sandwich but at this particular location they only sold bagels to go (they do have another location that sells sandwiches but it was about 30 minutes away).  We went around the corner to a café that used St. Viateur Bagels for their sandwiches.  After lunch we stopped back by and bought four more bagels for later.  Two of them we had for breakfast this morning, the other two disappeared within a few minutes of leaving the shop.  They were really good, and if you're in Montreal and craving a bagel check them out.  They're open 24/7!
St. Viateur Bagel

St. Viateur Bagels...…….they've been around as long as me!

It may look like a lot of bagels but they were selling them fast!

We zig zagged back towards the hotel through numerous colorful and lively neighborhoods.  Taking in as much of the city as our feet would allow.  We arrived back in time to enjoy sitting in front of the Notre Dame Basilica for a few minutes before very slowly making our way to the hotel.  Our phones told us that we had walked over sixteen miles and our feet verified the mileage.
The night was still young, but not us.  At least not me, I was ready for bed!

Here are a few pictures from the Plateau neighborhood, a nice mix of residential and small businesses

Montreal Day 1-The Old City, Port Area and Poutine!

Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal

When you catch the 5:25 AM train from Quebec City to Montreal it guarantees that you'll have a full day in the "City of Saints".  Montreal earned this nickname because so many of the downtown streets  carry names such as St. Paul, St. Elizabeth, St. Catherine, etc.  Many of the people the streets were named after might have been quite saintly in their deeds, but as it turns out you could earn a street named after you back in the early days of Montreal if you were wealthy.  Money may not get you into heaven, but it could get a street named after you in Montreal.
Our hotel (Hotel Place D'Armes) is in the "old" part of the city and was just a short walk from the train station.  We're just a block away from the Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal and about a half mile away from the waterfront area along the Port of Montreal. As we often do, we used Hotwire to book both this hotel and our upcoming hotel in Toronto.
Our room wasn't ready when we arrived a little before 9:00.  With the early arrival there's a good chance whoever had the room the night before us was still asleep!  The hotel stored our bags and offered plenty of suggestions, not only to keep us busy for the day, but for several days.
Due to close proximity our first stop was the Notre Dame Basilica.  Not being very well versed in the Catholic church I had to do a little research on the difference between a cathedral and a basilica.  A cathedral is the home church for the bishop or archbishop of a diocese.  A basilica is designated by the pope because of it's spiritual, historical and/or architectural significance.  It was declared a Basilica in 1982 by Pope John Paul II.
By comparison to many of the cathedrals/basilicas of Europe the Notre Dame Basilica is a youngster.
The main construction of the building was completed by 1829.  It was another fifty years before the interior was completed. The exterior is quite nice, but it does nothing to prepare you for what's inside.
Even though Beth had told me about it, it is something that has to be seen to be appreciated. It's brightly decorated with practically every color you can imagine, a complete contrast to the churches of Europe.  As we stood in the back looking forward my first thought was simply, wow!

The pipe organ was completed in 1891 and contains 7,000 pipes

One other thing about the basilica is that it receives over 11 million visitors per year.  The current admission fee is eight dollars per adult.  There is a discounted fee for children ($5) and children under 6 are free.  I'm not sure of the breakdown of adults to children but they're doing pretty well before they even pass around the offering plate or play a game of BINGO.
The port area of Montreal has been developed nicely with a combination of kiosks, foodtrucks, a huge obstacle/challenge course and zipline, and greenspace, all of which were busy on a sunny summer day.  The very nice front desk clerk at the hotel recommended a restaurant in the Place Jacques-Cartier area, Jardin Nelson, which was very good.  She had also recommended a pastry shop, Maison Christian Faure, for a mid-morning snack, which was equally good.

Happiness is finding the recommended pastry shop!

A chocolate and an almond croissant.  I shared some with Beth!

Jardin Nelson Restaurant  It has a huge patio outback that has live music

That's a zipliner in the upper left corner.  The obstacle/challenge course and Bonsecours Market is in the background.

We spent several hours roaming through the old city and port area, enjoying many of the numerous benches where we could take in the sites and sounds of the mix of tourists and locals.  We also enjoyed several of the buskers (street musicians) performing throughout the area.  In order to perform at one of the designated spots, which has a small stage and speakers set up and ready to go, you must participate in a drawing that is held nightly. Approved buskers (those with ID cards) names are drawn randomly for times and locations for the next day.  We really enjoyed a young man named Nicholas Cangiano who according to his business card is a "Multi-Instrumentalist Solo Musician".  He was very talented and put a unique spin on some classic songs by artists such as Fleetwood Mac and Lou Reed.  You can check him out on YouTube if you're interested.

Nicholas Cangiano with an appreciative audience in Place Jacques Cartier

One thing we've noticed about "cities up north" is that they really appreciate their summer days.  With an average high temperature of 25 in January, Montreal is certainly no exception.  Right now the city is full of outdoor cafes, parades, gardens and festivals.  The festival that caught our attention the most and where we finished off our day was the Poutine (Poo-teen) Festival which was being held along the waterfront.  For the uninitiated, Poutine is a Canadian dish whose origins are unknown, although my theory is it was probably developed in an apartment somewhere after a long night of partying way too hard.  The basic ingredients of Poutine are French fries, cheese curds and gravy.  The Poutine Festival, which could also be considered a cardiologist dream,  offered numerous variations including bbq, Chinese, Italian, Seafood and more.   We opted for the bbq and chose the pulled pork as our topping.  It was certainly a tasty and unique combination of flavors but probably not something that we'll make a regular part of our diet!

It wasn't just any old Poutinefest…….it was La Grand Poutinefest!

I have a stressed look because I was going to have to make a decision on what type of Poutine to order in just a minute or two.....

………..you can never go wrong with Pulled Pork Poutine, although it doesn't make for a great picture!