Mont Royal

It's the name of both the mountain in the center of the city, whose summit is dominated by a monumental glowing cross (a remnant of the original settlement of French traders) and the source of the city's name. Mont Royal = Montreal

We mounted that edifice (by which I mean the group took a bus to the viewing point midway up and back down again) and conquered that city. It was beautiful. Not just the mountain or the view, though; the whole city is gorgeous. As was the experience.

In a lot of ways, Montreal reminded us of New York and other urban areas the group had visited. But, in a number of respects, the city is unique. Old Montreal sits right beside the minuscule Chinese Quarter and the Centre-Ville district (read: "Downtown"). A metro line exists that connects only three stations, one of which is mostly desolate island parkland and the farthest of which is "off-island" altogether. Extraordinarily useful tunnels connecting metro stations, hotels and shopping centers were austere and mostly empty, but magnificently well-kept.

It was like we caught the city off-guard. The Sunday to Tuesday visit is a bit eccentric, I guess. That was part of what made this trip what it was. We got something like an "insider's view."

I doubt, though, that any true insider would have chosen the particular combination of sites we chose to frequent. Best stop: an abandoned (and partially roped off) stadium leftover from Exposition '67 in the middle of a barrier island park. Post-industrial ruins - the new cool hangout. Take that intentional and advertised amusement parks! There was one of those on the same island complex, but we disregarded that altogether.

We did a lot of that, overlooking the obvious hangouts, going for something "off-the-beaten-path," so to speak. We put on our adventurers' hats, or looped on our photographers' gear, in the case of the paparrazzi, and found our own Montreal. Go find your own; biospheres, Blue Dogs, bad beer, deserted parks, random sightings of teachers of music humanities, off-limits underground exploration, and killer poutine need not be included.

Canada, go another round? I'll be back.