Winter Wonderland (Part 2)

I arrived in Montreal at 9 pm to swirling snow and a temperature of -15C and thought what made me think it was a good idea to visit Montreal in winter! I must be mad am I even going to want to go out in the morning???

(For those of you a little lacking in Canadian geography like I was, Montreal is in Quebec province on the east coast of Canada and is an island in the St-Lawrence river)

After a good night’s sleep I woke up feel refreshed and ready to take on the cold! I bought myself a museum pass (pretty good value at $49 for entry to pretty much every museum + a 3 day travel pass!) and headed out into the snow. On my way to the Museum of Fine Arts I noticed a temperature sign on a building it was -13C at 10 in the morning (but sunny and still)! At the MFA I went to Warhol live an exhibition which linked his art with his musical influences. It really enjoyed it as it was a well put together exhibit and very informative. I left the museum and headed along “the golden square mile” an area of Montreal originally populated by the anglophile upper-class so there are heaps of beautiful Victorian houses. My next stop was the Canadian Centre of Architecture; here I went to an exhibit on reclaiming public space – making it greener, more usable by the community or just finding alternate uses. It was interesting, but I went on a tour of the exhibit and the guide belaboured the point of the exhibition a bit which got on my nerves after a while! I headed back out into the snow and made my back to the centre of downtown Montreal. I entered the underground city –around 30km of pedestrian walkways underneath the city connecting metro stations and full of shops – it was a nice reprieve from the cold outside, and made my way to the Museum of Modern Art to an exhibit called Sympathy for the Devil which had art influenced by rock music (and linked well with the Warhol exhibit I’d seen early in the day). Full with art I headed back to the hostel for a rest before heading out for night skating on an outdoor rink in the old port. It was fantastic! They had live music, party lights and a fireworks display – quite an incredible experience. I think I skated for about 2h non-stop (partly to make sure I stayed warm!) and it really made my trip to Montreal!



Day 2 and the fine clear weather of the day before was replaced by a snowy day, and not just light flurries, it was definitely white-out at times – the perfect day to tick off lots of museums in Old Montreal. I visited the St George Etienne Cartier National Historic Site of Canada, the Chateau Ramezay Museum, the Centre d’histoire de Montreal and the Notre-Dame Basilica of Monteal. My favourite place was the Basilica – it was incredibly beautiful in gold and blue. While I was there a choir was practicing up on the organ balcony, which created a wonderful, awe inspiring and peaceful atmosphere. Once I’d had my fill I headed back out into the snow and made my way to the Montreal Olympic site which has been redeveloped and now houses (amongst other things) a Biodome. Here 4 different Americas (as in the continents, north and south) environments – rainforest, Laurentian Forest (like around Montreal), St Lawrence Marine and Polar. It was pretty awesome with a great diversity in plants and animals in very natural feeling environments. Since it was my last night in Montreal I decided to treat myself to a show. So I got last minute tickets to the Nutcracker ballet (apparently the Montreal Ballet Company puts it on every year) and really enjoyed the production. I always prefer the 2nd act with the Sugar Plum fairy to the first, and was very impressed by the dancers. I lovely way to get myself feeling even more ready for Xmas!


My last day in Montreal was another beautiful, clear, sunny, cold day so I decided to head up Mont Royal to get a view of the city (and try and put it all in perspective) and to get out of the city environment and into a natural one. It was a beautiful walk up through the snow to the top plateau where I found another outdoor skating rink – this one with hardly anyone on it – where I just had to have a go! As the day progressed the weather changed and the wind got up so after a hasty stop at the view point I headed back down to the hostel, picked up my bags and headed to the airport for my next stop – Vancouver (winter wonderland part 3!).