Montreal

Montreal is almost directly north of New York City. Amtrak has service to Montreal from Penn Station once daily.  The train travels up the Hudson for several hours and then up Lake Champlain, which makes for a magnificently scenic trip. Most of the eight hours were spent with my eyes glued to the window. I enjoyed being able to check out of the world for eight hours, which flying doesn't always allow for me.

We decided to skip town the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Our train left in the morning and we were in Montreal by early evening. The majority of hotels in Montreal are located within walking distance, or a short taxi ride away from Montreal Central. We chose to walk in the biting cold to our hotel, the ever classy Holiday Inn Select, in Quarter Chinois. We were so hungry and had the most unexpectedly delicious chinese meal at New Dynasty on Rue Clark.

The next morning we decided to climb the summit of Parc Mont Royal. Holy Jesus it was cold! I one point I honestly could not feel my hands.

 We sucked it up though and continued onward!

After, we decided to get some lunch at the fabled Schwartz's. My Oh My was that sandwich glorious!

After lunch, we decided to warm up with some brews at Brasserie Artisanale Dieu du Ciel. They brew over 20 different small batch beers in the casks behind me in the photo.

We made good use of the public transportation system there. The subway stations are heated, unlike NYC. Heat really changes everything. I found myself getting excited to go down into the station. Montreal offers a L'occasionelle pass for $14 that is valid for 3 days. The metro seemed efficient, we never waited more than 6 or 7 minutes for a train to come, even late into the night. I believe the trains stop around 1 or 1:30 a.m. The different train lines of the metro system are color coded which make it very easy to navigate. The metro was built in the mid sixties. The cars are spacious and have huge windows. The trains have rubber wheels instead of standard steel wheels, which makes for a much smother ride. Each station has a different mod color palette.

Montreal is quite bike friendly. I saw many people biking despite the cold, however I was not bold enough to try. In the warmer months I'm sure it is amazing.Many of the large streets have bike lanes. There are Bixi bike rental stations all around Montreal where you can rent a bike for the day for $5. You can return them to any Bixi station 

Outside the Palais des Congres de Montreal.

Montreal has such a mix of old and new architecture. Hosting the '67

World's Fair and the Olympics shaped much of modern Montreal.

The last day we were there it began to snow, and we were ready to return to the relative warmth of our New York home. The temperature hovered around 15 degrees the entire trip.    

The train ride back to New York was more scenic than I remembered from the trip there. Stunning.