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January 2003

Montreal

David Aaronson
2005-09-29 15:56:17

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this area had been crammed full of street performers and people watching them perform. This building is the Hotel de Ville (city hall) which overlooks all the chaos (5). On the morning of New Year's Day it was rather quiet. That may have been a direct consequence of the festivities the night before which seem to have continued on well into the morning.

Since the old quarter was so quiet we headed up to Mont Royal park. Montreal sits on an island in the St. Lawrence river and the center of that island is Mont Royal (really just a big hill). There are spectacular views of Montreal from the park, as well as sleigh rides (in the winter at least), ice-skating, sledding runs and even a mini ski hill for kids. This view to the east is dominated by Olympic stadium which is billed as the world's tallest inclined structure (6). That is just silly. It is rather neat looking though and you can ride up on the outside of it if you're willing to ignore all the major engineering fiascos that have occured thoughout the history of Olympic Stadium.

To the south across the buildings of downtown you can easily see the northern extensions of the White and Green mountain ranges into Quebec (7). After tapering off just across the Canadian border, there are a series of oddly distinct lumps stretching up towards Montreal. Several ski resorts are visible from here in both directions. To the north, the Laurentian mountains can be seen along the horizon.

Another building which dominates part of the city is St. Joseph's Oratory (8). Of course, you have to be on the right side of the mountain to see it. If you're making the trip from downtown or the old town we recommend a scenic route along Mont Royal park. If the park itself or the views aren't worth it, consider the expanse of cemetary that stretches for miles (literally) along the west side of the mountain. The oratory was started by Brother Andre who started with a small wooden chapel and apparently went a bit overboard from there. The basilica has quite a lot in common with Sacre-Couer in Paris, not the least of which is the number of stairs you have to climb to get to it.

The drive from Montreal to Quebec City can be very scenic if you're willing to take the slightly smaller river roads (although the autoroutes on the north shore are not far from the river). In the winter, the size of the ice fishing villages is staggering. We saw several that not only had roads, but electric street lights along the roads, restaurants, and even specially designated parking lots. This is a picture of the St. Lawrence taken at dusk from a roadside rest area along the way (9).

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