Looking for a nice weekend escape of food, shopping and sightseeing, off my wife and I headed due East from Whitby, Ontario, about 4 1/2 hours drive across highway 401 East. What was quite refreshing, apart from the many beautiful scenic sights that we were not used to seeing, was the many OnRoute stops along the way, good for a leg stretch of these ‘many miled’ legs, that were supposed to be all Pickleballed primed! So we did a couple breaks along the way, good enough to make our journey more enjoyable.
In what seemed like a much shorter journey than we had envisioned, we finally arrived on the Island of Montreal, which is completely surrounded by the St Lawrence River. We checked into our hotel in downtown Montreal, which is very close to shopping and food, two of our favourite checks on our list. We both had not been to Montreal in many years so our knowledge of the history of Montreal, shopping and food locations was going to be quite challenging and our written and vocal capturing of the French language, was going to be even more interesting than everything combined, if you catch my drift.
What a beautiful city Montreal is, the historical buildings are magnificent to say the least, absolutely spectacular, that left us in total awe of this city. Walking through the many streets of the downtown area, you could smell the different foods, the breads and we were drawn towards not thinking of 3 meals a day, but being teased with a constant 24 hour a day meal. Wonderful! Old Montreal had the most beautiful vibe, small indoor and outdoor cafes, restaurants and pubs, boutiques and tent shops, such that you just wanted to stay there, it was so inviting. The poutines were everywhere with so many different delicious combinations, to meet the dreams of every appetites. The shopping in general was so much fun and I found another of my all time favourite stores, ‘Simons’ or ‘La Maison Simons’, a beautiful department store that I couldn’t help visiting 3 times in 2 days! Thank goodness we now have a few of them in Ontario now.
There is one thing that I would change in taking a trip to Montreal for a few days and we will do this on our next trip there: take the Via Rail train. It goes right into the heart of Montreal and once there, hotels, stores and restaurants are right at your fingertips. For a bit further, Uber is right at your door there.
Very friendly people and I have a special fondness in my heart for Montreal, as my mother lived most of her years there. Thank you Montreal, we had a terrific time , one that I would recommend to everyone.
Merci beaucoup!