Legends, luxury, and John Lennon - all for the cost of a regular hotel suite! Room 1742 is a suite unlike any other. Have you ever wanted to party like a rock star when you travel? Or live the life of a legend, sitting in the lap of luxury? Or follow in some of the most famous footsteps in the world? With a little luck, you can enjoy all three when you stay at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth and have a slumber party with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
In late May, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono arrived in Montreal following their first Bed-In for Peace in Amsterdam and a one day event in the Bahamas. The Fairmont wasn't their first choice of location but many other hotels had turned them down. As it turns out, I think the Fairmont was the perfect choice and a little bit of that musical magic is still felt in the halls today. The four adjoining rooms of the Bed-In (now configured as one large suite) were used to record Give Peace A Chance and played host to likes of Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, and dozens of other visitors. The Omni Montreal Gets Mornings Right.  How much money do you think you need to spend for a hotel to wake you up each morning with a silver carafe of homemade hot chocolate and fresh orange juice? Turns out, not nearly as much as you think!
I had never stayed at an Omni brand hotel before I visited their property in Montreal and it couldn't have come at a better time. I was beginning to think that all hotels were basically just about the same and it was time to shake things up. So when the Omni staff offered to register me as a senior loyalty member in order to more fully experience the Omni brand, I was appreciative but not necessarily overly enthused. That is, until I heard about the breakfast drink program. Harry Cohen was a hardworking Canadian immigrant....Harry Cohen lived a spirited, but rather ordinary life as a Jewish Canadian immigrant in 1930’s Montreal, doing his best to get by and teach his children the value of hard work. He traveled the back roads connecting Ottawa and Montreal and knew them like the back of his hand. As a poultry re-seller, he made the rounds for fresh chickens from the rural farmers to resell in Montreal’s Jean Talon Market. His legacy should have been one of farming or real estate or perhaps industry but instead Harry Cohen has the tragic distinction of being the only Canadian killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust. In 1939, Cohen travelled back to Poland to help settle family business affairs. While there, he suffered the horrific bad luck of being stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time as Poland was invaded by Germany. His exact fate remains clouded in mystery, but he is assumed to have died at Auschwitz. Against all odds, his prayer shawl survived and found its way back to Canada, to Harry Cohen’s son, and to its permanent home at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre.
Updated in 2022! There's a lot of old stories in the Old Port. Are you ready to go ghost hunting in Montreal?  This is what ghost hunting in Montreal looks like: Madeline gets us ready for spooks and spirits outside the Museum of Archaeology. A night out on the town is always a treat when I'm in Montreal, but when faced with a solo visit I had to admit I was a bit stumped on what I should do to pass the time. I decided to bring one of my favourite autumn activities into summer and go ghost hunting in Montreal with Fantomes Montreal.
Our tour guide, Madeline, was certainly in a festive, "spirited" mood. Dressed up in period costume, she brought centuries old decedents back to life with her animated storytelling. Our evening began outside the Museum of Archaeology, on the exact site of where the city of Montreal was founded over 350 years ago. As you can imagine, with so many centuries of history, Montreal has racked up quite a few murders and mishaps and Madeline was keen to share many gruesome details of torture and torment in New France. Montreal is indulgence, romance, and traffic. No trip to Montreal is complete without a feast of poutine. If you want the charm, sophistication, and excitement of a European city without leaving North America, look no further than Montreal. This beautiful, cosmopolitan city is home to the second largest community of Francophones outside of Paris and is a host to hundreds of other ethnic groups. This is a city not to be missed! Here are 5 of my favourite things about Montreal (and a few complaints as well). 1.) Indulgence.
Montreal residents drink, consume carbs, say yes to desserts, embrace leisure time and happy hour, and generally embrace the finer things in life along with a few vices. No one in this city will look twice if you order another bottle of wine, eat a bagel for breakfast AND lunch, or suggest taking an afternoon off to relax at the spa. Tales from the Anti-Adventurist: Vanessa Takes on the World’s Tallest Inclined Tower (and wins!)11/10/2013
The Montreal Tower Observatory is a world record holder... The subject of my anti-adventure awaits me! Move over, Leaning Tower of Pisa. Step aside, Towers of Bologna. I tackled the Guinness Book of World Records holder for the tallest inclined tower – and I won!
At 165 meters high, and angled at 45 degrees, the Montreal Tower Observatory is indeed a world record holder, and by quite a bit. Its more famous cousin, in Pisa, is only a paltry 3.99 degrees. Designed as part of the 1967 Olympic Park, the Tower is now at the center of a large recreation and tourism complex whose neighbours include the Montreal Botanical Gardens, the Insectarium, the Biodome, and the Plantarium. |
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