After
a week back home, I think my legs have finally recovered from walking
in Montreal. Walking 15 miles on country road in one day had nothing
on walking for miles on concrete for 4 days straight! You'd get into
shape pretty fast in Montreal – at least where we were.
Everything
that could go well on our vacation did.
The
train was fabulous. It felt like being rocked gently in giant
maternal arms AND I could read on the train. I cannot, under normal
circumstances, read in a moving vehicle without getting motion sick.
So this was delightful. And they do, in fact, call “All Aboard”
in that iconic sing-songy voice when you need to get back on the
train. In the two days we were on the train, we were allowed to get
off for fresh air for about 15 minutes twice (not a great ride if you
were a smoker). You definitely don't take the train to get there
faster, or even cheaper, but it was surely a great experience. I
would promote the notion of getting a sleeping berth solely on the
basis of its absence on our trip, but we all managed to get a certain
amount of shut-eye.
Our
train was a little late getting into Toronto where we were to catch a
connecting train to Montreal, which we missed. Even glitches turned
into adventures. VIA gave us free meal tickets and we had a little
extra time to go check out the outside of the CN Tower.
The
commuter train from Toronto to Montreal was considerably faster as
was the taxi ride from the train station to the apartment we rented
through AirB&B. Montreal was great. I had been there in the
winter about 9 years ago and I always knew I would love to come back
in the summer. My high-school and rusty college level French got me
considerably farther than I expected, even to the point of having a
small chit-chatty conversation with the baker at the Patissérie
where I bought croissants and pains au chocolat for breakfast
every morning.
We
did a lot of walking. We took a taxi from the train
station at the beginning and to the airport at the end, and once over
Mount Royal and we took the Métro
(subway) from the Biodôme
to Old Montreal, but the rest of the time we walked. The kids were
real troupers, with a minimum of complaining. At the end of one very
long day of walking, and of verbal notification of growing
discomfort, I asked my oldest, who hadn't complained at all whether
his feet didn't hurt. “Well, yes,” he said, “but I choose not
to acknowledge them.” He was in his glory the whole time we were
there and was calculating how many years to go until he could move
there (a minimum of 6 years, in case anyone was wondering). If we
had been hiking on a trail in the bush somewhere he may have been
more quick to acknowledge them!
My
husband and my oldest were hoping for some interesting food and food
experiences while we were in Montreal and in that department there
was success. There were no bugs and especially no mosquitos in
Montreal! so
all the restaurants had garage door-style windows in the front of
their shops that were open to the summer air. I loved that. We even tried fois-gras! My middle son got a big kick out of ordering the Vladimir poutine at the Frites Alors! restaurant.
We
walked to Old Montreal several times, we walked to the port of
Montreal and saw a cruise ship leave the docks, we walked up Mount
Royal and down Mount Royal on the other side to St. Joseph's Oratory,
we walked to the Biodôme
at Olympic Park (which contains five various ecosystems with plants
and animals), we walked to restaurants and shops, we walked to visit
my sister-in-law and her partner at their home and his place of work
at Place des Arts, we walked to parks while waiting for other members
of the family to wake up, I walked to collect breakfast from the
Fruiterie and the Patisserie, we walked to churches and up
interesting streets and down wrong ones. We walked so much that our
little corner of the city was becoming almost familiar.
And
then we flew back. The kids loved it. They loved take off and
landing, they loved looking out the window and getting snacks, they
loved watching the screen that said how high and fast we were flying.
My oldest managed to set off the metal detector with metal toggles
on his sweater and got sent to the x-ray machine. I asked him if he
had been afraid. “No,” he said. “I knew I hadn't done
anything wrong.” I was not so fond of the landing myself
(considering my propensity for motion sickness), but I made it to
solid ground without any drama so I was thankful for that.
In
fact, I was thankful for the whole experience. We made wonderful
family memories, had a wide variety of new experiences, and were
inspired. What more could you ask from a family holiday?
