We’re loving Montreal! It was a beautiful Saturday here and we had lots of fun exploring the city. We have some more time tomorrow to explore before we head back on a late afternoon train to Toronto. I think we’ve already decided that Montreal is a place we would come back and visit again.

We slept in quite late for us, but enjoyed a breakfast at a table on sidewalk … it seemed like a French way to start the day.

In the background and to the left in the photo above you see a row of bikes. The city has self-service bike rentals all across the city and since we enjoy biking so much, we couldn’t resist giving it a try. After charging $5 on a credit card, the bike is released from a series of bike racks and you’re on your way …

You can return the bikes to any other Bixi bike rental rack in the city. We rode our bikes down Rue Ste. Catherine …

… and then to McGill University where we turned them in. McGill sits at the bottom of Mount Royal (or, in French, Mont Royal). Mont Royal is where the city got its name (if you say it in French it sounds like Montreal … or at least the way Montreal is said in French). Even though it was a bit of a warm and steamy day today, we scaled Mont Royal and were rewarded with a great view of the city and the St. Lawrence River below us.

On the walk down, we passed through some nice parklands and residential areas.

Then we boarded the rubber-tire outfitted Metro subway system back to our hotel in the Old City.

Ryan was taken with the very 70’s style floor tile in one of the subway stations. I guess you’d love it or hate it.

Once back and freshened-up, we headed to dinner in the Old City to a restaurant that was recommended to us by our hotel concierge, Modavie. We had seen it on the previous night and thought it looked great. Fellow vegetarians, look away from what follows. After three and a half years of being a vegetarian, Ryan fell off the wagon. For some reason (maybe it was the gin martini) the filet mignon spoke to him. And yes, it was delicious. Oh, my, it was delicious. I probably won’t do that again until we’re in Buenos Aires in November. Everything about the meal was great. The restaurant was a romantic little French place with cozy tables alongside big windows looking out onto the cobbled streets, the server was cordial and didn’t rush us … and he endured our attempts at speaking French, and the food was fantastic.

After some gelato (see, I told you there would be ice cream of some sort in today’s story), we stumbled back to our hotel so we can rest for another fun day tomorrow.