Montreal is an island in the St. Lawrence River. Who knew? Not me! But it is a huge island, with 1,644  square miles and a population of 1.9 million people. It is much larger than Manhattan Island, which is a mere 22.7 square miles, but guess what? Manhattan has a population of only 1.629 million people, which means that Montreal is a larger city than Manhattan in both ways. Again, who knew?

Montreal is indeed a big island. While we (sister Mary, BIL John, et moi) were there, we drove to many of the spots we wanted to see. But they also have a robust subway and bus system, and we decided to try out the subways or Metro.

We wanted to go to the famous Underground City in downtown Montreal, so I fired up a wonderful app that my son-in-law Peter told me about called Citymapper, which gives detailed information about getting around in a new city. It is an award-winning app with over 100 cities around the world in its system. You plug in your starting place and where you’d like to end up, and it does the rest.  Peter used it for us in London, which I have found a notoriously difficult city to navigate, and we were never lost.  The best part? It’s free, unless you opt into a CLUB subscription, but I don’t know why you would need to.  It’s easy to use.

So we followed Citymapper’s instructions and went over to the Orange Metro station at Cote-Vertu, went three stops and changed to the Verte (green) line for three more stops and exited at the McGill University stop.  Easy. Sort of.

Of course, it was a bit of a comedy of errors on my part since I exited the station when all I needed to do was walk to the Verte platform.  But that’s all part of the mix when traveling, isn’t it?  Expecting mistakes but persevering is my mantra in a new city. Will I get lost? Probably, but there’s always a way to get there from here. That’s part of what makes travel a learning experience. I’m always screwing up and discovering new things.

As the Romans used to say, “Vincit Qui Patitur.” (She Who Perseveres Is Victorious).

But back to the Metro. The stations are large and lovely and clean.  The cars run on rubber wheels and the cars are a bit narrower than most, but again, very clean and quiet and fast. You can even hear the announcements of upcoming stations. It’s all quite civilized and enjoyable.

And here’s the kicker—sister Mary and I were offered seats by young gentlemen every time we rode the train.  How about that?  Apparently chivalry is not yet dead in Canada.

The trains are fast and efficient, and after exiting our station we made our way to Montreal’s famous Underground City in search of a way to spend our loonies, or Canadian dollars. The favorable exchange rate ( $1 Canadian = $.73 US) made it even more enticing. John found a nice polo shirt at Uniqlo for $9.99 CAD = $7.29 US. Good deal. But I was sadly unable to find something to purchase. 

Ah, well. I’m a professional shopper, and I know how to bide my time. Remember my motto.