Montreal, the Paris of North America

Montreal, Quebec, Canada is a beautiful place to visit. Because of its harsh winters, summer may be the best time to take a trip to this “Paris of North America.” French is the official language of this great city but retailers, hotel staff, and anyone else one might run into on their trip will speak both French and English, making it a welcoming place for just about anyone. Montreal is the largest city in Quebec and the second largest city in Canada, with a total population of 3,359,000. And a city with this many people is sure to have some of the finest attractions, eateries and culture.Montreal, Quebec is actually made up of two different parts, and visiting both areas will make for a fulfilled and wonderful vacation. The first part is Old Montreal. It is here that you can spend some time and feel that you have been transported back in time to the early 1700s. This part of the city consists of The St. Lawrence River, where the settlers first took up residence. The narrow cobblestone streets will make one feel especially nostalgic as they visit the small shops along the way and visit the Old Port, which is still a working marina with boats bobbing along the shimmering water on nice days. The Old Port also features many cafes, making it very easy to spend an entire day in this area alone. While there, one can also take a horse-drawn carriage ride for an extra bit of romance or to simply feel once again like you are living in the old world. Old Montreal consists of many grand, old churches, museums, eateries, and shops, bringing a touch of the modern world to an ancient world.

The next area of Montreal is just as beautiful and has just as much to see and do. This is the modern day part of Montreal. Here lies Ste. Catherine Street, one of the most famous streets in all of Canada. This street is full of shops, ranging from the high-end boutiques, to mainstream franchises, to funky little shops where one will find items that you won’t find anywhere else in the world. Ste. Catherine Street also has many restaurants and cafes where one can find just about any culinary delight from any culture or country that one could ask for! Ste. Catherine Street is such a popular street that people will wander up and down, exploring the different pubs, bars, restaurants, and shops, any time of the day or night. It’s also a major transportation network of the city, with the Metro System running right along this busy street.

There are many other wonderful amenities to enjoy in modern Montreal including art and science museums, and the wonderful Underground City. The Underground City really does lie right underneath the heart of the city, and is one of the most famous shopping centres, not only in Montreal but throughout the world. Not only is it easy to spend a day here, it’s necessary as the famous shopping centre is nineteen miles long.

When visiting Montreal, it’s important to visit both the modern day city and Old Montreal. Each is unique in its own right and each will deliver an unforgettable experience.

Dresden - hauntingly beautiful

Dresden is a Romantic’s city, with ghosts as hauntingly beautiful as the baroque masterpieces that have re-emerged from the ashes since the fire bombings of February 1945. The eerie spaces between buildings and the faint whispers of the ruins that still dominate the city are as much an attraction as the thriving cultural Mecca Dresden has worked so hard to become once again.

Enter the city by car and you will pass the gas stations, chain grocery stores, and concrete block apartment buildings that skirt almost every German city, gazing anxiously out of the passenger-side window, and waiting for a sign of the city once heralded as the German Vienna. Then suddenly you’ll find yourself right in the heart of the city, beige stone buildings lining cobblestone streets and the shy skyline peering at you over low Neustadt buildings.

The old city skyline—which has been completely rebuilt in the last fifty years—sits quietly by the river, stoically gazing over the serenely wild banks of the Elbe into dark memories. In spite of the scars and perhaps because of them, Dresden is breathtakingly beautiful. You’ll love the city for its stony-stoicism, for its distant, tragic air, even for its abandoned buildings and her shrapnel-pocked facades. You’ll love Dresden because you’ll never really be able to wrap your mind around what has happened to here. The city remains, like the dark, quiet stranger at a party, untouchable, mysterious, alluring, and beautiful. And that’s just by night.

By day Dresden is a friendly city, with a month’s worth of personalities to explore. There is the historical side where you can stroll down quaint cobbled streets flitting between churches, the castle, and the Zwinger’s ornate courtyard. There’s a classy side, where you can spend the day perusing the galleries of old masters and then, tipsy from a local vineyard’s wine, take in a night of opera. There is a hip young Dresden that can be found in one of the small locally owned pubs on the graffiti-smeared Neustadt streets. There is a burly, traditional side where you can spend the day hiking in the nearby Saxon Switzerland and the evening eating hot bratwurst, knödel and red cabbage with a large, cold glass of Radeberger beer, fresh from the tap.

Dresden is a city of contrasts. Where refined culture, baroque architecture, delicious wine, and fine art live comfortably among empty buildings, rambunctious idealistic bohemians, and fifty-year old scars. A capital city that combines a distinctly East-German attitude and ambience with an economy racing ahead to meet that of the West. An enchanting city, with a history as tenable as it’s rich cultural present. They even claim to have invented toothpaste.

London - The Big Pear!(?)

 

Start spreading the news,
I’m leaving today,
I want to be a part of it,
Lon-don, Lon-don.
Yep. It’s official. Frank Sinatra was threatened by the Mafia to sing about New York. He originally wanted to sing about London but they wouldn’t let him.

London, a place pregnant with business suits, ‘entertaining’ weather, and more languages, people and places than you can shake a stick at. A really long stick. The longest stick you’ve ever seen, actually.

Power to the People…
London, capital of the UK, is a great big melting pot stirred by over 7 million people. Yes. 7 million. And counting.

You only have to wait at the bus stop for just a few moments to hear the beautiful array of languages seeping through the air, hitting your ears better than any music ever could. Spanish, English, Yoruba, Hindu, Chinese, Welsh, Italian, you name it. Over 300 languages dancing round each other.

People are generally quite friendly, slightly reserved but mostly helpful, although this can depend on whether it’s a weekday or the weekend!

Are you Hungry?
…good because there’s a whole range of food for every minute of the day!

With diverse culture comes diverse range of yum-yums! Have some Thai cuisine for lunch and a Caribbean for dinner. Make a beeline for some English breakfast the following day and end the night in an Indian restaurant. Then, there’s Vietnamese, African, French, Chinese and so many other cuisines to try that you might need to cover it over two trips to London!

Work off your lunch…
…by passing through Trafalgar Square on your way to see the Queen’s corgis at Buckingham Palace. Make funny faces at the unsmiling guards in their bear-skinned hats and red tunics – see if they’ll crack a smile – you’ll be making history if they do!

Appreciate the insignificance of your wristwatch when you’re standing next to Big Ben, the world’s biggest chiming clock, then pass through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to check Big Ben’s got the time absolutely right. (Greenwich is where all time zones are measured. Cool or what?!)

Then there’s the famous Oxford Street which is one of the busiest high streets in London, Canary Wharf - the tallest building in London, and St Paul’s Cathedral which was one of the locations in the bestselling book, The DaVinci Code.

Visit the endless stream of markets: the soulful Brixton market, the culinary Brick Lane market, the bohemian Portobello market, the warm Green Street market, Columbia Flower market and more, each market with their own distinct flavour.

But how do you get from A to Brixton?
London has a very robust transport network, and with the Olympics coming in 2012, it’s becoming even more so. You can use the famous double-decker buses or the relatively-new long ‘bendy’ buses. Hop in a taxi, use the underground train or the driverless Dockland Light Rail. Yes. Driverless. But don’t worry. It’s safe!

Erm, can you swim?
Now, we’ve got to talk about the weather. There’s no avoiding it.

Britain is renowned for its April showers. It’s a phenomenon in its own right. Children love it. Adults dread it. Umbrellas hate it.

Decembers are fresh and stone-cold, autumns are leafy, the spring tends to be very bright and flowery, and the summers get by.

However, global warming seems to be working its charm on this cosmopolitan city. Last December was mild, February was freezing, April showers happened in January.

And last summer was the best ever. All 7 days of it.

London, I name thee ‘The Big Pear’…
Well, if New York can get away with it….

London’s weather might be unpredictable, but that hasn’t stopped the millions of visitors who pass through her doors every year. What it lacks in terms of climate, it makes up for in character.

Visit often. But don’t forget your umbrella.