Montreal, Canada - Day 2

 Day two took us up to the summit of Mount Royal, aka Mont Royal aka Mont Real.  Do you get it?  MONT-REAL???

We decided to walk to the famous Grand Staircase of Mount Royal but we decided to stroll through the grounds of McGill University first.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went here!

Of course, we HAD to walk by the law school! McGill is sometimes called The Harvard of Canada. Or maybe Harvard is called the McGill of the United States?

But our destination was the Rue Peel Steps.  This is where you enter the park via Peel Street and start the long journey up the hundreds of steps to the top of the mountain!

I don't exactly know how many steps there are here. I tried to count, but I lost count somewhere along the way. I read there are anywhere from 300 to 500 steps, but I know it was definitely MORE than 300 because when I lost count, I would start over - and I definitely hit 100 more than 3 times.  Some say there are about 300 wooden steps, which is possible, but you can clearly see these are NOT wooden steps in this picture.  No worries though- even though it's challenging, there are several places you can pull over and take a break or have a drink of water.

At the top, you are greeted by the beautiful Mount Royal Chalet, which was built in 1932

Before we could do ANYTHING, Natalie had to collapse on the ground. She was so sweaty, she left a massive butt angel!  We were so proud!

AHHH.  THERE is the view we were waiting for!  A stunning shot of downtown Montreal with the St. Lawrence River behind it from the Kondiaronk Belvedere terrace.  

The terrace is named for Kondiaronk, who was a leader of the Huron-Wendat Nation of Michillimakinao and helped negotiate the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701, just before he passed away in the same year.  This ended the long war between the French and the First Nations that had gone on for nearly 100 years. (It didn't last though!)

My kids CANNOT be serious, ever.

But they can be pretty cute.  This was after she finally cooled down (but before there was ice cream!)

As I am getting (ahem) older, I had to squint a bit to see who the person on the side of this building was.  From afar (and it is very small from the terrace), I thought it was Frank Sinatra and everyone made fun of me because it was really Leonard Cohen!

When we first drove into Montreal, I couldn't believe how much bigger it was than what I had imagined!  The metropolitan area has about 4.3 million people. But only about 100 years ago, the metro area only had about 775,000 people living here!

After enjoying the hard earned view, we walked back up to the Mont Royal Chalet which is surrounded by tons of beautiful flowers.

The terrace itself is huge, which is good because many tourists were elbowing each other for the best spots to take pictures of the city!  I feel like we are so high up, we are almost in the clouds!

Full stop for more flowers.

While the kids got ice cream, I walked into the chalet.  It's weirdly... empty? There are also dozens of statues of squirrels up in the wooden beam rafters. I appreciate that weirdness.

We had to flee the area around where they sold ice cream though, because MUCH like when we were in Europe, we were being chased (and I mean that literally) by those mean hornets.

Going down the steps was (not surprisingly) much easier than going up!  After our stroll around the top of Mont Royal, we walked back through the city to find some lunch (burritos!)  I spied my friend up close and laughed because no... he does not look anything like Frank Sinatra!

After yummy burritos, everyone was kind of tired so we walked back to the hotel (that's our hotel on the far left). In Phillips Square, there is a monument to King Edward VII.  Although everyone here speaks French, and the signs are always "French first" - you sometimes forget the are a Commonwealth Realm of Great Britain!

Time to head to the roof to hop in the pool!

I think they scared everyone away.  Colleen, why aren't you in the pool?  You know I don't get in unless it's 87 degrees F!  The kids always test the pool for me - is it Mommy Approved?  In this case, it was not.

Instead, I sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the view, trying not to melt because it was VERY warm.

Our hotel overlooked Phillips Square and Hudson's Bay department store, aka "The Bay." The Bay is the flagship store of the Hudson's Bay Company which is the "oldest and longest surviving company in North America" when it was founded in 1670!  This particular department store (as they have several around Canada) actually used to be called Morgan's, and it was built in 1891.  Interesting that it has a flat roof though. Do they not get snow in Montreal?  (Don't answer that, you know that was rhetorical!)

After our pool adventures, we headed out to Pizza Il Focolaio for dinner which was really close to our hotel and every time we walked by, it ALWAYS had a line out the door.

No, you cannot drink our wine, Grant.  Mostly because our poor waiter DROPPED our first bottle (see the caution wet floor sign behind Grant).  Poor guy - he said he had never done that before!

After filling our bellies, we walked back to the hotel and we could see the building that is home to the Canadian Olympic Committee all lit up in Olympic colors! Cheers to another fun day in Montreal!