Two days in Montreal is not very long, especially when the skies are heavy and the rain is plentiful.

It’s my fault we only had two days. When we were planning this trip, Neil had allocated more days, but I talked him down. When I came here in 1989, I don’t remember there being much alluring about the city. I remember dropping some French girl we’d given a lift off near Mont Royal, and I remember standing on Pont Jacques Costeau watching a fireworks competition.

I feel that Montreal is a place you need to immerse yourself in, and live as best you can like a local for the time you are here. I really feel like it is a place I would like to live for a while. Even to experience the deadly winter cold.

Because of the weather, we spent most time on indoor pursuits, heading out on the rare times when the sun shines.

Museum

Pointe-à-Callière  is an archaeological museum located in the old town. It has a fantastic multi-media presentation, narrated by Montreal herself, that steps you through aound 7,000 years of the city’s history. That show, and a stroll through a former city sewer that is now clean (!) and illuminated with some brilliant effects that made you feel like there was water (and other stuff) flowing, were my highlights of the museum visit.

Murals

It seems as if any blank wall is a potential canvas for the city’s artists. Most of the murals we saw were in The Plateau district, but there are murals around almost every corner both there and in the city area. (And not just Leonard Cohen murals.)

Olympic Park

The 1976 Olympics in Montreal were the first I summer games I really paid attention to. I clearly remember traipsing from my Form 2 classroom over to the TV room to watch Stephen Holland swim in the final of the 1500m freestyle. He came, what seemed then, a disappointing third. Australia performed so poorly in these Olympics that Malcolm Fraser, then Prime Minister, set up the Australian Institute of Sport.

Canada, host nation, won a few more medals than Australia, but finished as the only host nation – ever – to not win a gold medal at their home summer olympics.

Olympic Park in Montreal now hosts the Quebec Institute of Sport, which is strictly for olympians and potential olympians, but anybody can come and swim in the pool where Stephen Holland won bronze.

The park is very much worth a visit. There’s a lovely monument with all the athlete names, you can do a tour of the stadium, and take a funicular up to the top of the tower to catch views over the park and Montreal.

Mont Royal

You can always orient yourself using Mont Royal, as it looms over the city. It has three peaks – the highest being 233m – and provides a great recreation area for locals, and a viewpoint for visitors. There’s many ways to get up it (bus, bike, foot) and a great many paths to go up if you are on foot. Near the top you find Mont Royal Chalet (where you can get an ice cream – perfect in the hot, steamy weather) which has a great open plaza with great views over the city. Nearby is the Mont Royal Cross. The original cross was put there in 1643 by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the founder of the city, in fulfilment of a vow he made to the Virgin Mary when praying to her to stop a disastrous flood. (It obviously doesn’t have any affect on pesky rain!) Today the mountain has a 31.4m illuminated cross.

There’s a lot more to this mountain than we saw in our brief visit, and it is definitely worth exploring. And by the way, this is how Montreal got its name … Mont Royal / Montreal.

Notre Dame Basilica – Aura light show

It seems a little sacreligious for somebody brought up in the Catholic Church, but I’m going to say it anyway. The Aura light show at the the Notre is an incredible, not-to-be-missed spectacle.

From my days as a Catholic schoolgirl, I can only imagine the dark-robed missionary priests bringing hellfire and brimstone down on not only those who conceived and present this show, but on every single person who pays money to sit in the basilica for what can only really be described as entertainment. And at times during the 15-20 minute show, it does feel like there is hell brewing. The combination of music, dramatic lighting and even the colours of lights – there is no mistaking that red is trouble here – make the show awesome (as in the formal meaning) and even a little frightening.

The light work is amazing. They use lights to trace the outlines of pictures or statues, leaving a light trail. Imagine drawing precisely with a pencil made of light. And then being able to change the backgrounds of pictures from sunny blue sky days to grim and cloudy days.

If you get the chance, go. And to hell with the consequences.

The Plateau

Our home in Montreal is an AirBNB apartment in The Plateau district. I looked around for the best places to stay in Montreal, and was steered away from the Old Town area (very expensive) and toward The Plateau. It is a vibrant area, with shops, restaurants, cafes … everything you would expect in an area that is populated by locals and not tourists. We ate all our dinners here, and spent time happily walking the streets.

Pictures from Montreal

The camera spent a lot of time in a waterproof bag, but here’s what I got.