You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you

Andy Warhol 

Arrived central train station Montreal 10 minutes late due to a freight train we had to follow for a bit, but all good. A modern train. The train carriage we travelled from Vancouver was built in 1954, thus a bit dated. Walked the kilometer to the Moxie hotel, a delightful place reminding me of the Yotel series of hotels. The room is like living in a piece of artwork. Simplicity, colors,

Found a Thai restaurant nearby and were not disappointed. Talking to the waiter about politics and always interesting when people are listening to each other. After we just wandered about downtown going through some interesting neighborhoods, nothing scary or weird, but entertainment, pedestrian only streets, and as with Vancouver and Toronto separated bike lines, although no scooters here zipping precariously in amongst everything. Traffic is quite reasonable

Then our day in Montreal, always fun to figure out a new city. We are no longer on a tour thus are responsible for ourselves. Montreal appears initially very different from Toronto, Vancouver or other cities, as one would expect. Jeanne arranged a walking tour and we walked to find it, again wondering what it would bring. Each city tour thus far we have expected little and thought it hokey, but then it turns out great. And this one the same. Again it being the personal and unsanitized stories which make it interesting. Our guide Jessie did clarify we should always fact check things.

Montreal was first established in 1642 (after the Iroquois had lived here for centuries) by a female nurse accompanied by a military fellow who came along to protect the little lady, although he certainly extended his reach further out. The history of course intertwines with the United States, but generally the future Canadians were not that keen on slavery, and the French and British have always had a tumultuous relationship, hence architecture and time periods sometimes clash.

Jessie did mention the trifecta of false advertising from Montreal.

1. It has a large mountain – well there is a hill nearby 250 meters in height which they call a mountain. Jeanne and I went up it as within a parkland, designed by the same fellow who did Central Park in New York City.
2. Montreal has the largest underground network of a city in North America. apparently 17 kilometers, allowing people to move about in the downtown area without going out into the weather. But as Jessie said about half of it is above ground, just enclosed, and it is not used much as everywhere looks very similar. As he said most Montreal people would rather face the weather and know where they are, than be comfortable and not know where you are.
3. And I completely forgot the third.

Fascinating to see the variety of architecture in the international quarter ranging from 1700 to modern steel and glass, with the Notre Dame cathedral along one area with a French statue snubbing the English buildings and the English statue snubbing the French. Apparently the French thought the English lived only to make money and had no concept of living life. The Notre Dame cathedral structure was built in 30 years, but the interior took 100 with its individual wood carvings, glass work.

We walked and turns out we walked the places we walked the night before, just this time we got explanations. Arts district, Chinatown, financial, etc. Montreal has quite an art community as Jessie noted because it is a cheaper city than other Canadian cities. The arts area is one of the most condensed art areas in the world, with sometimes 60-80 venues within a city block. Every year the city hosts a building mural competition, inviting top mural artists from around the world.

We had received a note from our rail tour company saying if we were traveling through Montreal allow time as the world road racing championships were going to be taking place. They did not specify what, but turns out bicycling, and many in town not pleased as it shuts down major portions of town. As Jessie said you have to be careful because if you get inside a circle there can often be no way out until race over. We came across the time trial event but there were temporary bridges over the 4-6 lanes of roadway.

Our goal after the walking tour was to head to the Royal Park and Mount Royal. It took a bit of wandering about as the race start and finish were at the base so we had to extend our walk quite a ways, but finally headed up trying this and that trail, whenever there was a choice of up, flat or down we chose up. Nice trails with occasional lookouts over various directions in the city and over the St Lawrence river. Ended up hiking the day at about 12 kilometers (7 miles)

When we descended and arrived at the city again (an abrupt divide) we were hungry, having had breakfast many hours before back at hotel. Jeanne wanted Vietnamese and I wanted Indian, thus we googled it for restaurants nearby. I won at 500 meters whereas Jeanne was 800 meters. A wondrous meal and walk the last kilometers back to hotel. Another wondrous day wandering a wonderous city.