Meandering Through Montréal!

 Allons-y !... from the Wandering Berkmans! 

Italy gave us delicious food, Mexico- history of its Indigenous People, Chile- recent political history, Croatia -our intro into Eastern Europe, Quebec City - amazing architecture but Montréal... she has been our deep dive into using public transport and endless biking!  By our count, we've only been in a car twice this entire month-- the endless kilometers of bike trails, public bike kiosks everywhere and the efficient Metro and bus system has opened our (admittedly privileged) suburban-upbringing eyes to how living without a car could be.  Granted, we're here in the summer (the "livable months" we've heard it referred to) so we've had it easy - getting to the Metro in sub-zero weather can't be fun but they're hearty stock here! 

Case in point-- this is a photo of the St Laurence River in the winter of the late 1800's showing what they call "ice jams".  A tour guide told us 6 feet of snow in Montréal is not uncommon. Mon Dieu ! 

 

We bought bike helmets when we saw how available public bikes (both regular and E-bikes) are in the city. Tooling around the 1976 Olympic Park on bike was the perfect way to take in the sites and pretend to be Olympians.   

Along the Route Verte trail (that spans over the width of Canada following rivers, canals and through woods) there is a terrific series of picnic tables, restaurants,  beaches and comfortable benches for taking in the latest read. 

As this was the second time we've been to Montréal, we opted to stay about a 20 min Metro ride outside of central Montreal in the quieter section Verdun.  Here's Don veeery carefully navigating the stairs up to our apartment.  Intimidating at first, we got to be old hands at it--- meaning both hands very carefully holding on to the railings.  For the locals, stairs like this are no biggie.  Our neighbor carried his bike up these stairs everyday.  The best thing about Verdun is the proximity to the bike trail and the fantastic Rue Wellington, where our every shopping/restaurant/people-watching need was met (including the best combo ever of my brother Andrew  and our son Zach!).  Highly recommend this apartment if you can stomach the steps! 

 

It's Zandrew!  Yes, we pretended to take a selfie to get this shot.  No shame.  

One thing we noticed around our little town was the significant amount of older people tooling around up and down Rue Wellington in 3 and 4 wheeled scooters, many with their tunes blaring (the best was "Rock Around the Clock") and chatting it up with friends, as seen in this pic.  It seemed to be too much of a coincidence that so many bought the same kind of scooter so we looked it up. Turns out the Canadian government offers for free these electric scooters for those who fall under certain guidelines of immobility.  What a fantastic way to improve quality of life!  Sign us up!

As always, the architecture of the city sucked us in--

McGill University has gorgeous building after gorgeous building.

This impressive courtyard with the Amphitrite Fountain and Black Granite Reflecting Pool is just a small part of the Underground City, Montréal's 33 kilometers of shopping, dining, entertainment, hotels and workspaces all underground and linked to the Metro.  They know how to avoid sub-zero temps here! 

The Olympic Park Stadium, built for the 1976 games, was the colorful location for this year's Pride Festival.

The Musee des Pompiers 

(firefighters) is currently closed for renovations but the structure itself is beautiful.  

The Forum, where the Montréal Canadiens played until 1996 and the Beatles (among many other performers) played in 1964, is now home to a 20-movie multiplex, a sports bar and classrooms for nearby Dawson College.  The space is also chock full of hockey memorabilia.  In a very "Scooby-Doo" encounter, a former hockey player now janitor of the space was only too happy to share his memories of the players he met and the games he saw. A highlight for DB- finally seeing a pic of the infamous Georges Vezina, for whom the trophy for the Hockey League's best goaltender is named. 

Clock Tower Beach was a great place to relax after an afternoon in the lunacy that is Vieux Port in the summer.  No swimming at this beach that lies along the St Lawrence River but the views, the water misters and a cold drink made it very pleasant. 

How proud were we when we could recognize this artist before we read the write up??  Alexander Calder of Pennsylvania has a similar sculpture outside the train station in Spoleto, Italy.  This one, Three Discs, holds court in the Olympic Park with the skyline of downtown Montréal in the distance.  

Habitat 67 mocked me from afar for weeks-- I tried to get a decent picture of this strange, ugly yet fascinating apartment complex built for Expo 67 but with no success until a random bike ride took us right past it!  The young Israeli-Canadian architect who designed this Lego-like building had dreams of innovating affordable housing that ultimately didn't take hold.  Today, the units are individually owned, including by the architect himself.    

Still sticking to largely outdoor events, Montréal had plenty to choose from in these "livable months"-- 

Atwater Market was an exceptional  

indoor/outdoor market- a smorgasbord of sights, smells, tastes, again, just off our local bike path.  

We had a chance to enjoy the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal  in Parc Angrignon for a little Scheherazade, a little Dorsey and Miller, rounding it off with Bolero.  So many families-- it was great to see little kids getting into the music.

Speaking of kids getting into it, Don was like a kid in a candy shop going from court to court at the National Bank Open (formerly the Rogers Cup) where we saw match after impressive match.  Not even a torrential downpour for 30 minutes in the middle of the day could squelch our enthusiasm.   

Who amongst us couldn't use a little more mime in their life? We truthfully never thought about it until we took in an outdoor viewing along the canal of the french film "Children of Paradise".  When the intermission came after an hour and a half, we mimed riding a bike the heck out of there! 

All play and no work means we don't know where we're going next and what we'll do when we get there!  That's what Don does when we plan our many "work" days in the schedule.  Fortunately, Montréal knew we were coming and set up these terrific work stations all around the city.  Equipped with wifi and outlets, we were able to get our work done and still enjoy the fresh air and the city vibes.  This especially charming one was located just outside the Musee McCord (fantastic exhibits here) and near McGill University.  

While not a food mecca, we did have a list of culinary delights we had to try while in Montréal--

Not for the veg at heart, the smoked meat sandwich is a Montréal staple.  We were told to try it out in the Jewish section of town but this baby found at our own local Wellington Bagel Sandwicherie took the prize-- thin sliced smoked brisket coupled with grilled onions, pickle, mustard and cheese on fantastic crusty bread, this sandwich was a winner! 

A documentary we saw on the Jewish eats in Montréal told us to go to Wilensky's  for their Wilensky Special, a grilled bologna sandwich that they proudly haven't changed since they opened in 1932.  (The decor also hasn't changed.)  Our take-- we enjoyed the kitsch but it was a solid "meh" -- although when paired with pretzels and orange soda, DB was blissfully taken back to his childhood eating days. 

Another must in the area- Fairmount Bagel.  Instead of using a lye solution to boil the bagels like many do in NY, Montréal bagels are boiled with honey added to the water and then baked in  wood fired ovens.  We dug into an unadorned sesame to get the true flavor.  Survey says--- nice.  Nothing amazing, a little sweet, just nice. Give me that chewy, lye-y sheen from a NY bagel any day.  

As seen alongside almost every register in every place selling food-- bags of cheese curds at room temperature.  Our tour guide told us that in order to make the perfect poutine, only room-temp squeaky cheese curds will do.   I found the curds made for tasty and noisy snacking on their own, no gravy or fries needed, thanks! (Yes, probably blasphemous here.)

And finally, while not a Montreal staple, this puppy is a staple in our "house" now.  We first tried ajvar (AY-var) in Croatia and now I put it on everything.  Who knew Ivanka also dabbled in culinary delights!  

We're nothing without a Trip Within A Trip (insert your own acronym here) and this one was 25 years in the making.    Our siblings Mary and Bob have invited us every year since they've been going to Prince Edward Island (PEI) and we could never make it happen... until this year! Sun, beaches, delicious PEI mussels, great discussions, spectacular views, and meeting up with all of their terrific friends.  Thanks for a really special time-- yes, we brought the sunny weather but you served up some fantastic hospitality!

Wrapping up, we're definitely putting Canada on the list for summer stays.  Maybe Vancouver next summer?  If anyone has any suggestions for the Canadian west coast, shoot us an email!  

We leave you with this Slice of Life off the now infamous Route Verte bike path that had us off our bikes and watching for a good 15 minutes.  Sure-- surfing in Maui or Malibu sounds cool-- nice, big waves.  But you have to wait so long for them to come-- how can you practice and improve if half the time you're just waiting for a wave?  (Yeah, we've all been there.)   But.... what if there were a place where the current never stops??   Problem... solved!

Tomorrow is packing day and Wednesday we leave for Madrid, Spain for 2.5 months, where sister Laura will join us at the beginning of the stay and Julia will join us for the last 2 weeks!  Muddling around in french has been fun but it'll be nice to get back to español.  And with Don primed to take a twice-weekly Spanish course while we're there, who knows- maybe our next Zoom call with you will be "en español solamente"!  

Be well, take care and a la prochaine ! Thanks for following along!

Don and Monica

canada