Montreal Sightseeing

On our first full day in Montreal we loaded up with a delicious  breakfast and then headed up to Mont Royal, a large park on top of a hill. We were heading up there with the mission to see the St. Joseph Oratory, which is supposed to be a breathtaking chapel. After hiking up hill, asking several people, stopping for pictures and then finally getting someone who really helped us (everyone else said go that way, but in a nice way), this lovely couple basically told us we wouldn't be very happy if we walked there since it was another 45 minutes (uphill) from where we were. This oratory was definitely outside of the park! After deciding we can save that for the next trip, we continued on to see some other highlights of the park that were conveniently on our way out.

On our way back down we walked through McGill University, which had a pretty campus (not as nice as Bonas, though) and then stopped off at the Montreal Jazz Festival for a drink and show. I'm not a big jazz fan but the people watching was great.

After our stop at Jazz Fest we pressed on to see more of the city. Along the way we saw some cool buildings including St. Patrick's Basilica and Place Bonaventure - a giant expo center near our hotel. We decided that would be the perfect place for our annual SBU t-shirt picture, taken the next morning:

One negative thing I can say about Canada is that their fireworks shows stink! We saw the ones down by the water on Saturday night and it was not very impressive. I've never even seen fireworks that have no sound. There was no finale (or if there was, it wasn't impressive) and people didn't really cheer for the event. Maybe us Americans are just that excited to be free from the British that we do our fireworks in style!

Day two, Sunday, we decided to take a trip to the Olympic Parc and Biodome. We managed to hop on the metro (despite some minor complications to find the right line) and then arrived at the stadium area. There was plenty to do here and we managed to see most of it.

First stop was the top of the Montreal Observatory. The Montreal Tower is the highest inclined tower in the world with a 45 degree angle and 175 meter elevation. To get to the top you have to take a funicular up the curved inclined structure. It was pretty cool and had some nice views from the top!

Then we went on to the Biodome where you walk through four ecosystems, including a rainforest (complete with humidity), underwater observatories and even penguin time in the Polar World, which was my favorite. Some came right up to the glass to say hi while others sat in the corner facing the wall. I didn't see any dance like Happy Feet, but it was still cool to see them and hear all the kids know what penguin was what thanks to that great movie.

We also got to see the Botanical Gardens and had a great time in the Chinese and Japanese areas. There was a great amount of detail each one had an arts and crafts time for kids, which Rob had fun joining as well. Don't you love his hat from the Chinese area?

Next was a quick stop at the Olympic Stadium where we saw the pools and diving boards from the old events. We were surprised to see they even had kiddie pools - maybe they weren't there for the Olympic games.

After a relaxing break on the Metro Rob and I pressed on to Old Montreal. Despite trying to be clever and getting off two stops after where we got on, we realized it took us about 2.5 miles out of town. Always up for an adventure, we walked all the way back to Old Montreal and finally saw Notre Dame Basilica. It was so pretty to walk through the quaint streets and see the old buildings. Even city hall was beautiful!

On our last night we had dinner, walked around a bit for some souvenirs, and then decided to power walk it home to beat the rain. Unfortunately it didn't work out timing wise and we got dumped on. It actually got to be hysterical since the rain kept coming down harder and then even in waves. Our map served us well over the weekend, not only getting us from point A to point B, but also as a trusty umbrella for several blocks.

It was definitely a fun vacation with great friends. We had awesome weather, saw a ton and had some great laughs and meals. The only downfall is how fast it goes. Go Bonas!