What to do in Montreal

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I'm Johnny mac. I've got a
new car. Travel is back in this

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week. Let's head to Montreal.
Now from where I live, Montreal is

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a straight shot right up Interstate eighty
seven. I'll give you a little warning

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there. Once you get north of
Albanini, you York watch for the state

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troopers. My advice get in the
right lane, set the cruise control at

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whatever that speed limit sign says,
and not one mile an hour more,

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and just cruise. They've got nothing
to do but pull you over, and

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they will. It has not happened
to me, but I have lots of

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friends who have made the trip who
have warned me of this cruise control right

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lane. It's like three hours of
just steer the car, take your feet

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off the pedals because there's nobody else
on the road most of the time,

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and it's a straight shot now.
Depending where you live, I personally find

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it easier to drive to Montreal from
my place in New Jersey. It's about

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a seven hour drive or so,
but it saves me the hassle of going

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through customs and taking the bus ride
from the airport to downtown Montreal. I've

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also done that. It's not awful
if you are used to international traveling and

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you kind of know how to do
it. It's not bad at all.

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And the bus from the airport to
downtown Montreal really has its act together.

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So I don't want to scare you
away from that. But if you're in

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New York, New Jersey, maybe
even Philadelphia, Boston, I would just

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drive up to Montreal. Now.
When I get there, I stay at

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a downtown Montreal hotel and I just
park my car and leave it there.

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I factored into the trip. It's
not the cheapest parking, but it's not

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awful, and I just leave the
car there, don't worry about it.

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I find Montreal to be very much
a walking city and a bicycle city.

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We'll talk about the bikes in a
bit. So when I got out of

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my car, I head up to
Mount Royal. You'll see it rising up

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right in the middle of the city. Mount Royal is a symbol to the

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city's heritage, history, geography,
and inspiration. Inaugurated in eighteen seventy six,

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Mount Royal Park was designed by Frederick
law Olmstead of Central Park, New

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York City fame. It is a
magnificent urban green space featuring two hundred hectares

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of astonishing biodiversity and natural beauty.
You will see people doing all kinds of

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outside stuff, running, jogging,
cycling, tobogganing, some fabulous French Canadian

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women who take care of themselves,
out for walks, birdwatching, dog walking.

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I love Mount Royal. So what
I do is I walk up.

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There's a main path, you'll see
it, and I walk up that and

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then at some point you come to
this staircase shortcut and I walk up that

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staircase. It is something insane.
I want to tell you, it's like

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thirteen hundred steps. I might be
totally making up that number. But by

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the time you get to the top
of the staircase, you're pretty tired,

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but you're cutting several miles off your
trip. So you go up there,

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and then you come to this wonderful
plateau where you overlook downtown Montreal and it's

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just the most beautiful view. So
I spend some time there because you're a

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little tired from the staircase and just
the views. You get a lot of

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pictures, great for Instagram. You
hang out there for a little bit and

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then there's a trail that'll take you
up to the very peak. And I've

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done that when you get to the
peak, there's a bit of a loop,

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so it's a really nice, nice, fun nature walk. I do

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fashion myself a runner, and this
is a bit of a cheat, but

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man, I love running down Mount
Royal. You might not want to do

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this, but if you're a runner
and you've done all that work to get

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the top a nice six mile downhill
run, you will feel like you're flying.

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It is so enjoyable, you know, and it's a nice slow pitch,

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so you just zip down the entire
mountain. Ah one of my favorite

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runs ever. But if you don't
want to do that, you know,

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you can walk it and you'll come
across south there's like a pond or a

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little lake or something that's pretty nice
there, and then that'll take you down

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and then you might want to check
out the neighborhood of Plateau Mount Royal.

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By the way, for this entire
episode, my French is atrocious. If

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you were a French speaker, I
apologize in advance about that, you Yanks.

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One thing I really learned when I
went to Paris is if you make

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half an attempt, and the best
way to do this, and this was

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the tip I was given The tip
of then I used make half an attempt.

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When you walk into a store,
just say bonjour, and then the

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native French speaker will go this guy's
accent is a disaster, and more often

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than not they will switch to English
on your behalf. If you muddle through

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in French, people will appreciate it. That is absolutely it. If you

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just walk in and go, hey, yo, what's up Johnny Mack from

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Queens, New York City, you
know what's the menu here, then they

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just go stupid American. But if
you make half an attempt, they'll pick

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up the rxcent is wrong and they
will be nice to you do that.

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So the neighborhood of Plateau Montreal is
where you'll find stuff like Montreal style bagels,

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poutine, smoked meat. You can
do a historic food crawl. You

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might want to pop into Wilenski's Light
lunch, suck up the creative energy that

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flows through the Plateau's cafes, bars, bookstores, restaurants, and designers shops.

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This is one neighborhood that I need
to spend more time in the next

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time I go there. All that
is alongside former textile mills and churches turned

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into startup incubators or condo buildings.
And if you're looking for the hipster part

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and to the northern quarter the mile
end, we'll see carefully curated vintage shops,

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delicious bites, and next level lattes, not to mention the aforementioned authentic

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Montreal style bagels. You might want
to check out the Jean Talon Market in

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Little Italy, Open year round,
you can browse through stalls as playing farm

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fresh fruit and vegetables, artisanal bread
and baked goods, smoothies, yeah,

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locally produce honey, maple goods,
cider, and much more. Grab something

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to go, have a picnic in
one of the nearby parks, or find

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a place to hang out there.
I also love walking over to Old Town

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Montreal, Old Montreal over there.
You know it's got an old time field,

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the architecture. If you're an American
and you've never been in Europe,

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it's European enough, like you'll kind
of feel like you're somewhere different. If

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you go to Toronto, you might
as well go to New York City,

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no offense Toronto, but if you're
in Montreal, you feel like a little

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European. Montreal also has this wonderful
mix of architecture. It's got like that

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vaguely European style. Then there are
all these buildings that look like nineteen seventy

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sixes version of the future, like
if you were going to film I don't

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know a plan of the Apes movie
or something, you would film it in

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Montre All. It's just got these
futuristic buildings that look horribly dated. So

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those are next to the beautiful brown
stones in European architecture. And the other

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thing about Montreal is they don't care. There'll be a porn store right next

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to your restaurant, and the porn
store will have a name that I won't

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even do it here, doesn't even
try to hide that it's a porn shop.

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You know, it'll have a something
in the title with a wordplay on

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cats. You know what I'm saying. They don't care at all. So

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it's pretty, it's seedy, it's
everything. But back to old Montreal.

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Over there you'll find the Notre Dame
Basilica. You'll find riverside pathways with joggers

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and cyclists. We're gonna get to
the bikes. The Basilica represents Gothic Revival

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architecture built between eighteen twenty four and
eighteen twenty nine. This side of National

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Historic Significance features dual towers reminiscent of
Notre Dame in Paris. The West tower

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houses the famous ten thousand, nine
hundred kilogram Jean Baptiste bell, while the

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East tower rings with a killion of
ten bells. Three art statues, Saint

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Joseph, the Virgin Mary, and
Saint Jean Baptiste keep vigil over the entrance

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to this religious sanctuary that welcomes millions
of visitors each year. I think when

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I went, I didn't appreciate it
enough because I hadn't been to Paris yet.

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But now that I'm playing it back
in my memory, I'm like,

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oh, yeah, I probably should
have spent some more time here. I'm

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hoping to go back up to Montreal
later this fall, and if I do,

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I'll bring the port Will recorder and
do one of these episodes on the

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ground there. There's been COVID and
stuff, you know. The Basilica's interior

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is a site to behold, with
its blue colors, shimmering gold leaf ornamentation,

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intricate woodwork, religious paintings, and
colorful stained glass windows depicting over three

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hundred fifty years of parish history.
Wow. Then take a walk over to

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Saint Paul Street that was once Montreal's
main street. Many of the buildings date

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from the nineteenth century but have been
renovated and today serve as artisanal boutiques,

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designer shops, art galleries, artist
studios, and even homes. Again Old

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Montreal. You'll find a place to
eat Montreal. There's plenty places. There's

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nowhere particularly that I will recommend you
to see. Something looks good and you

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go, yeah, I'll eat there. Now make your way down on the

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waterfront. And one thing that I
find really neat is the clock Tower Beach

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at the old Port of Montreal.
It's a gorgeous urban beach. They just

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put some sand there and if you
don't turn around, you'd be like,

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oh, yeah, there's a beach. But it's pretty cool, soft sand,

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great beach fair courtesy of the nearby
food trucks. The food trucks are

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really good too. I had lunch
down by the river one day. That's

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pretty good. Great for people watching. Amen chairs and parasols that nicely make

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up for the fact that swimming isn't
allowed. Not sure you want to swim

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in the Saint Lawrence. Anyway,
relax in the sun, have a few

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drinks and do some Instagram hashtag MTL
moments. Let's talk about the bicycle scene.

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I have never been to a city
that has its bike act together as

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much as Montreal. Every time I
get on my high horse about how half

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ass New York City is doing it, I talk about Montreal. They have

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protected bike lanes. They got like
parking spots for your bike, Like if

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you want to go into store,
you put your bike in a stall and

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you basically pay a parking meter.
It's organized, you can get all over.

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They've got one of those city style
things where you can rent a bike

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for a couple hours experience Montreal like
a local by hopping on a bike.

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With over four hundred and thirty five
miles of bike paths, bike rentals,

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and a popular bike festival, it's
a breeze to discover Montreal's many neighborhoods,

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get to and from events, and
see the city sites. I often will

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rent over by Mount Royal and then
ride down to the waterfront and there's a

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nice path there and I just kind
of go out and go for an ice

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ride. It's great. I'm gonna
butcher my French here. But biking downtown

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is made easy by the mason Ouve
Boulevard and Burne Street bike paths, running

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from the Grand bibliot sick to shopping
and museums downtown to the city's west side.

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There's a stop in Westmount Park that
adds more greenery to the trip.

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Among the most scenic bypass is the
Lachine Canal Multi purpose Path. That's the

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one that I was just talking about
where I rode down by the waterfront,

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beginning in the old Port of Montreal. It runs from almost fifteen kilometers,

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so that's a five kse three point
one nine point three miles the Yanks along

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a still functioning boat canal, past
the atwater Market, all the way to

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a beautiful sculpture garden right on the
river. Once you're all the way out

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there, cyclists can continue on a
bike path through Lasalon Verdun along the Saint

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Lawrence Waterfront cycling Path, stopping in
a nature sanctuary and watching breave surfers tackle

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the Lachine Rapids. Another scenic go
to with views of downtown and the Saint

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Lawrence is Park Jean Drapeaux, located
just south of downtown on an island in

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the middle of the river. It
features twenty five kilometers of bike paths.

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I can do math again. Let's
see five k is three miles. There's

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fifteen miles of bike paths, plus
the Formula one Grand Prix circuit and over

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there you'll find an outdoor swimming pool
n L Lake. I mean, this

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is awesome, right. The pass
form part of Quebec's Route Verte, the

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longest cycling path in North America,
and the Great Trail, which is the

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world's longest recreational trail. Ride to
the park from the Old Port via the

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Concord Bridge, or from the South
Shore via the Victoria Bridge bike path,

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or for the more daring, via
the Jacques Cartier Bridge, or take the

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metro. Bikes are welcome in the
first car of each train. Montreal's got

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its act together with the subways as
well. Keep that in mind. Like

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I said, you'll find kiosks that'll
rent you a city bike for half an

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hour, an hour, whatever you
want to do, do it, just

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absolutely do it. Another thing you
should check out is Montreal's Underground City,

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a pedestrian network which links metro stations
to shopping plazas, for over twenty and

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a half miles. It's a lifesaver
when you want to get out of the

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hot sun or the freezing snow,
you'll find the Time Out Market, a

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food haul that brings together a different
counters by some of the city's best and

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most famous restaurants. I mean,
basically, it's just a network of underground

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malls and you can stay underground for
quite some time and make your way around.

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I did that one time, and
this was before we had like GPS

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on our cell phones. And I
did that and I came up and I

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was like, a I don't know
where I am and all those signs are

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in French, but I just navigated. I found Mount Royal and I'm like,

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okay, there's that, so my
hotels that way. It was quite

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a walk. I couldn't believe how
far underground I went without even trying.

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So check out the underground city now. Something I have not done yet that

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I want to on my next trip
is the Montreal Biodome and indoor zoo and

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aquarium, hosting recreations of four different
ecosystems found in North America, plus some

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Subantarctic islands originally built for the Judo
and cycling events of the seventy six Summer

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Olympics. The Montreal Biodome features thousands
of animals from over two hundred different species

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and five hundred different plant species to
explore. So if I had one day

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in Montreal, here's how I would
plan it. I would try and time

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it with the Montreal Comedy Festival,
which normally it's held at the end of

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July. I often go. In
another life, I host a podcast called

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Daily Comedy News. I make my
living doing comedy radio. Daily Comedy News

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podcast seven days a week, ten
minutes a day, tell you what's happening

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in comedy. So the Montreal Comedy
Festival is awesome. It's gotta be the

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biggest comedy festival in the world.
So if you like comedy, try and

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time it for there. And I
would recommend going to see some of the

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smaller shows, like if you want
to see Chris Rock, you can see

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Chris Rock on TV. Treat yourself
to the smaller shows. That's where the

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action is at. So try and
time it for late July. I know

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we just missed that window, but
they didn't have a proper festival this year

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because of COVID. Hopefully in twenty
two, we can all go together,

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so I would time it for then, but putting that aside, when you

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get to Montreal, whenever you go, and you know, maybe go when

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it's not going to be Florida.
Greese out, climb Mount Royal. If

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you're a runner, walk up,
run down, treat yourself. If you're

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not a runner, walk up,
walk down. I'm gonna take you a

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while, but it's a lot of
fun. Head on over to Old Montreal,

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grab something to eat, walk the
waterfront, and then go, hey

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Annie Mack telling me to rent a
bike, I'm renting a bike, and

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00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:09.120
go for a bike ride. You
can follow this podcast on Spotify, Google

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00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:13.080
Podcast, Apple Podcast, where you
get your shows new episode every week.

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00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:16.919
Hit that follow button. I'll see
here next week. Travels Back