Montreal

With a bit of time to kill before the next park we decided on having a quick hour exploring Montreal and we chose the Old Montreal part of the city.

The city is the second biggest city in the country and used to be called Ville-Mary. 

I guess we're in a touristy area unless horse and carts are the usual mode of transport in the city. Never one to talk in tangents Christof loudly proclaimed that the city of Montreal smelt of horse-shit, and he was right but I'm hoping that's just this part of the city where the touristy catching carts reside. It would be terrible if the whole city smelt like this. 

Astral ducky!

This is the Basilica Notre Dame a gothic style cathedral in the city. I did go in and as expected its all quite opulent. One thing I missed but found out later is that the stained glass windows aren't documenting bible stories but instead cover the history of the city.

Had we been here at night we may have seen the light projection show that they put on the cathedral. Unfortunately our visit was a morning one, and fortunately the light show was temporary cancelled. As I write this that was changed to permanently cancelled. Not being able to see much about it on Youtube probably implies it wasn't very good.

This is the square opposite the Basilica and its called Place d'Armes. The statue is of Paul Comedey who founded Montreal and the domed building is a banking museum I believe.

Just further up the road is the rather stunning Montreal City Hall. This was built in the 1870s and is now a National Historic Site.

There's a rather pretty fountain beside the building. 

For those that have seen the latest X-Men film the building served as the location for the Embassy where Mystique aims to kill Trask. As she makes her escape she leaps from the windows of this building. The fountain is where Magneto and Beast have a fight.

Couple of art pieces opposite the building. The bloke is Jean Drapeau who was the mayor who managed to get the Olympic Games into the city. 

Montreal has a Nelson's Column just like we do in London. Our's is better though. We have lions for a start!

Joining us for the day was my China travel bud Kat who had travelled all the way up from Ohio to meet us. She was fortunate to get the Orient Express coaster the night before and was hoping to ride some missed credits at today's park.

Like Quebec City, Montreal seemed to be quite welcoming of urban art. As ever, I just didn't have the time to see exactly how much there was here. 

A short drive North of the city was the Olympic site. Montreal was home to the 1976 Olympic Games. This was the one where Nadia Comaneci clocked the scoreboards in gymnastics. 

It's a 10.0, not a 1.0 :)

As another piece of Olympic trivia Princess Anne who was in the equestrian team was the only participant not to be sex-tested. The building is still used and houses football and baseball games. There's a funicular running up the spine of the tower. Unfortunately it wasn't open when we got there.

A nearby sundial incorrectly reports the time. Apparently they're only ever accurate 4 days a year.

Nice car, a shame it isn't our's.

So that was the brief Montreal visit. It seemed like a nice place but it was time to head to the island next to the city for today's park.

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