It would have been fun to keep up our Canadian city hopping by train all the way to Halifax. But for this trip, our eastern-most stop is Montreal.
I have been here several times over the decades, mostly on short business trips. My one pleasure trip was in the summer of 1975 when a buddy and I drove up from Boston. I was a rich (by student standards) army captain finishing a masters at MIT’s Sloan School. Hence, we used my car. My travel companion was Larry Linden, a Ph.D. student who, I recall, humbled me with his mathematical brilliance. I’m sorry I lost track of him after I graduated.
As an aside, while I may have been a nicely paid officer while a student, when I graduated, a chart came out of the starting salaries of all my fellow Sloan students. It showed a wide range but the lowest reported figure, at the bottom of the bracket, was mine. You’ll never get rich, digging a ditch, you’re in the army now!
Travel by Train
It’s worth, I believe, a few summary notes on travel by train in Canada. The experience must be divided into two.
For the four-day, four-night trip from Vancouver to Toronto, it was a one-time experience. We did not sleep well on the train, one of the two major downsides. Others on the train had slightly better nights of sleep, or claimed so. The other negative is the cost—but only if opting for the highest-end sleeping accommodations. Still, for us, it was worth it. One sees much of Canada in a way that city visits alone miss. The camaraderie on board was excellent.
For the Toronto to Ottawa and the Ottawa to Montreal runs, the trips were day ventures. Our rides were smooth, comfortable and on time. Food was slightly better than airline quality, but only barely. Getting and exiting these trains was so much simpler and pleasurable an affair compared to dealing with airports. I’d recommend such travel to anyone.
For those of you who have been reading my posting, here is the update on my leg problem. Each day it is getting better, although I am still clueless as to what happened. Let’s hope it was some type of one-time anomaly. We really did consider terminating the trip and flying home at one point. I’m glad we didn’t.
We’ve come to rely on Uber for most of our transportation over distances too long (or too hot) to walk. Until Montreal, all our usage was flawless. In Montreal, we had a few minor glitches. To old fogies like me, once quite proud of my map reading skills, pick-up points can be a problem. You exit an unfamiliar train station, for instance, not sure what street is in front you. Uber picked the wrong location, likely because of signal interference near large buildings. Despite our confusion, the driver did find us (for a slight extra fee labeled as waiting time). In a second incidence, I fumbled (apparently) the destination, but caught it in route and corrected it.
Despite these problems, we have been quite happy with using Uber. We never had to wait more than four minutes for an Uber to arrive. If the driver hopped out to help us with the bags, we added a larger tip—all on the phone of course. No cash flows.
Speaking of cash, as I mentioned in another posting, I never had a need for cash. Once, on departing the Montreal hotel, I tipped (with a U.S. bill) the attendant for being especially helpful with the luggage, given my leg problem and the hotel’s entrance steps.
Our hotel, Le Mount Stephen, is worth special mention. The front end was a mansion built in the early 1880’s. It took three years and 3,000 workers to complete. It was built for George Stephen (later Lord Mount Stephen), president of the Bank of Montreal and of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Later the mansion was an exclusive gentleman’s club. Ultimately, it was purchased for conversion to a hotel. The mansion is the front end and is attached to a modern structure behind which contains the rooms for lodging. The hotel manager took us on a tour of the mansion, some pictures of that tour being below.
A unique feature (for us) was the bathroom’s bidet-toilet combination. This is old hat to friends like Brian and Karen, but the first time I was truly tempted to try it out—no bouncing from toilet to a separate bidet being one of the attractions. The verdict? For me, with my spinal fusions making some actions difficult, the bidet worked quite well. For Frances? Not in this lifetime.
Before leaving the bathroom, I’ll mention the shower, larger than our train cabin, with an excellent rain shower, a hand-held shower and a tub on one side large enough to host a threesome. Given we were only a twosome, it went unused.
Montreal
“OK, OK,” you sigh. “Enough with the extraneous stuff; tell us about Montreal.”
We rested up on our arrival at the hotel. I did not want to over-stress the leg. We did go out that first evening and dine Italian. It may have been the best Italian we’ve had since, well, Italy.
Our mandatory first destination for our first full day of sightseeing was the Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal. The apse and altar area of the cathedral are simply stunning.
Did you ever believe you would see the day when having a couple of burgers for dinner would exceed $100? It’s not only possible, it’s probable if you are in Montreal, drinking wine with the meal, and calculating how to take a bite out of a five-inch high stack of meat and accoutrements. Looking around, ours weren’t even the tallest. I had to peek to see how a slight woman at a neighboring table tackled a six-inch high extravaganza. She cheated; she took the fried onion rings out of her stack and ate them separately. Smart girl; we paid extra for our onion rings. (And, to be fair, $100 Canadian is $75 U.S.)
For our second full day of touring, we explored other neighborhoods, and then took an Uber to the park that overlooks Montreal.
For our last dinner in Montreal we fell back again on Asian—this time going with sushi and sashimi, paired with an Italian white, of course. The sommelier was out of the modest wine we had selected and upsold us on the Italian. He could see an easy sell coming his way. Well, it was good.
I would be remiss in neglecting to mention the breakfasts in our hotel. Each morning we indulged in a full-service breakfast included with our room (thank goodness) and served in one of the mansion’s beautiful rooms. This precluded our desire for a lunch meal, except for the mandatory ice-cream/gelato break, of course.
All our meals across Canada were quite good and some outstanding, excepting the Vietnamese pho stop earlier in the trip. There is an exception to our praise, however, and that is the pastries. From croissants to scones and from breakfast nooks to bistros, we found them mediocre in comparison to the main offerings. Lots of butter and jam compensated.
There is so much we didn’t see. The hotel concierge had given us a fine overview of Montreal and presented a full set of recommendations for sights and activities. It was tempting to hire a cab for a full day and get a whirlwind view of everything from unique neighborhoods to the Olympic stadium, but we passed. Perhaps there will future visits. We’re not done traveling.
We’ve two weeks left on this trip, but it’s all to see family and friends in Michigan, Ohio and Virginia, including attending the 100th year birthday party for my aunt! For now, thanks for traveling with us. We’ll see you again in Vienna this fall.
