...ONLY MONTREAL... Canada travel experience
Admit that MONTREAL was never on my list of "100 places to see before you die", but a chain of events, including the ability to sleep in the house of friends and the relative ease with which I was able to reach Canada have done so that left from Barcelona with my U.S. Airways fly via Philadalphia up to final destination.
All U.S. and Canadian I met were not only repeat that MONTREAL is a fantastic city of great beauty and aesthetics.
My doubts me behind them are brought up to the new continent, not as I am an admirer of the American world. And even if partially confirmed, my doubts have found an explanation simple and concrete.
Between the U.S. and Canada, the oldest building is perhaps a few home missionary of the Californian coast or a railway station on the Atlantic side of the country, not both dating back most of the eighteenth century ...
... And then she is in the old part of town, just call Vieux MONTREAL, one finds nell'accurata reconstruction of any late-medieval French village, enhanced by impressive buildings which remind the Paris of 1700.
That's it.
The glance is considerably impressive. The various reconstructions are precise and without the slightest deburring. But fundamentally false. A little like all American cities.
Then, now I understand why an American who has never had a chance to visit Europe is both fascinating city of MONTREAL.
And now I understand the reasons for lack of interest by a European.
MONTREAL remains one of the best North American cities I've seen. Unlike most of its "competitors", the capital of Quebec, like New York or San Francisco, has a charm all his own, has a special atmosphere that makes you who you can remember by name is his silhouette and not to confuse between the dozens of other cities all identical to each other.
Built entirely on an island that is located in one of the greatest parts of width of the river St. Lawrence, the city is just the sum of many small urban areas that already convey all where once the real MONTREAL breathed.
The Latin Quarter and its main artery Paris St. Denis, the university area, the commercial center of the city that runs along the Rue St.Catherine, are the most 'pleasant areas to walk among a multitude of shops and people (not forgetting the 30km of cities that run underground in the central area, there are 5 floors of shops, restaurants and cafes, where the refuge montrealers, when outside temperatures fall to -40 * ...).
The park, with beautiful panoramic view of Mont-Royal, where the middle of 1600 we established the first human settlement with a shipment and Catholic monastery built today by the name to Canadian cities, MONTREAL appunto.
During the period that I was here I had the good fortune to get well for 5 days a clear sky and temperatures trai 23 and 24 degrees. Pleasing to stop and read one of the many parks in the city. And this is without doubt the best time to visit the city.
Deserve the visit then the Vieux Port, which is also pleasant and relaxing, just behind the old district of MONTREAL and the area of the Olympic Stadium.
The largest and highest inclined tower in the world (about 150 mt), sadly advertised by comparing its 45 * tilt with "only" 5 of the Tower of Pisa, fall almost to peak about the white dome of the stadium. The Olympics are celebrated here in 1976 and is recognized in a while the whole area and in contemporary buildings (the metro lines for example) the great economic boom and the cement of that period. Impressive yes, but sad and gray.
So, MONTREAL is where you are passing, if you have to visit friends or family and if you go there ... but no MONTREAL if you ever choose to go there.