Prior to going to Montréal, I did some investigating and found that for $80 CAD, we could buy a tourist passport that would give us entrance to five different venues or activities for the one price. Considering that most of the things we really wanted to see were included, this seemed like a great idea. So, I bought four and as Brenda was going to be spending time with us, she bought one too.
This morning, we went to the Biodome via the metro. To get to the metro, we walked right past the outdoor stage venue associated with Race Week, and there were a couple of guys in the sound booth. Brandt hailed them and asked what type of sound board they used. The sound engineer invited him to come up and check it out. They talked for a bit as he showed Brandt the sound board which had 144 channelse. Amazing! Brandt asked if he could come back later when music was happening. The guy in the booth said he wouldn't be there later in the day, but Brandt could come by and see. It was a really nice interaction.
Walking to the metro we passed lots of Grand Prix evidence,
including several hot cars!
While we have ridden the metro previously, when we were last in Europe, it has been ten years. The kids liked it. Isabella "surfed" as we rode. The metro train comes in hot and accelerates quickly between stops. We were at the Biodome in no time.
Consulting the map
The Biodome is super cool. It was originally built for the 1976 Olympic Games as the velodrome and hosted cycling and judo events. It was converted to an indoor nature exhibit in 1992, only a few years before Kent and I visited it the first time. This is one of the few things we did when we were first in Montréal and we remembered how cool it was and wanted to go again.
Within the Biodome are four ecosystems you can walk through: the Tropical Forest which is a replica of the South American rainforest; the Laurentian Forest which is like the North American wilderness; the Saint Lawrence Marine Eco-system which is an estuary habitat; and the Sub-Polar habitat that is divided into Arctic and Antarctic. You can walk through each ecosystem and see native flora and fauna up close. It's super cool! We took lots of pictures which will now follow.
*The bottom left word is supposed to say 'collision' but the 'c' got cut off.
Tropical Forest
"In this luxuriant environment, animals are there to satisfy your curiosity. Look at the water bodies, foliage and cave on the mountainside."
Scarlet macaws
Blue and yellow macaws were in the background
It was raining outside so we all had sweatshirts and jackets.
They were completely unnecessary in the tropical rainforest.
Goeldi's marmoset
There were two, chasing each other
Looking down on the rainforest from the top of the habitat.
It's so lush you can hardly see all the people.
We only saw this female bird; no male in sight.
I wonder if those eggs have been fertilized.
Broad-snouted caiman
Pirahna
Dyeing poison dart frog (in green)
Emerald tree boa
No pictured but seen, a yellow anaconda
Dyeing poison dart frog (in blue)
Yellow poison dart frog in the upper left and green frog in the lower left.
Jamaican fruit-eating bats
in a very dimly lit enclosure
capybaras
We did not see the Linnaeus's two-toed sloth, even though we looked and looked,
nor did we see the golden lion tamarin.
Gulf of St. Lawrence
"Dive in the rich world of the Gulf. Contemplate the fish in cold and salt water. Then smell the salty air as you walk along a 'marine garden' and listen to the chirping of bird on the cliff ledges."
The woman sitting on the rock in the middle of the pool
was answering questions about the creatures in the pool.
She told us all about starfish.
See explanation below.
Black guillemots
Birds like these flew freely around this space,
diving into the water to get mussels thrown by a worker.
This small estuary was full of starfish and anemones.
Also lots of mussel shells. The starfish eat mussels.
Here's a fairly weird thing we learned about starfish from the woman
sitting in the middle of the pool.
Starfish eat by pushing their stomachs out of their mouths, use their arms to hold the prey in place, then digest the food externally. The partially digested food is then drawn back into their bodies for further digestion.
So strange.
The starfish were beautiful.
In this section of the Biodome, we also saw striped bass,
big, huge sturgeon, and moon jellies.
Sub-Polar Region
"Amazing bird live at the far ends of the Americas. Penguins hop ashore or scuttle underwater like torpedoes around the Sub-Antarctic Islands, while puffins and murres fly or splash around near the Labrador Coast."
This is the entrance to the Subpolar Region.
It's an ice cave, in a building.
Brandt is filming, filming everywhere we go.
This northern rockhopper penguin looks like a grumpy old man.
King penguin
Lunchtime
They all liked this woman.
Atlantic puffin
In addition to the penguins listed above, we also saw gentoos, macaroni penguins, and common murres.
Laurentian Maple Forest
"In this deciduous and coniferous forest, the temperature and landscape vary greatly throughout the year. Observe the vegetation and you'll know what the season is. And smile, because right now a raccoon or lynx is watching you!"
We watched them too!
In fact, I think the raccoons might have been our favorite part of the forest.
Although there were also otters and there seems to be nothing
more engaging than an otter.
A North American beaver, sleeping.
Not super exciting.
Canada lynx
We tried to find the North American porcupine but it was,
like the elusive two-toed sloth, nowhere to be seen.
We did see the less elusive though regularly reclusive young woman
pictured below.
Sign on the bus
Menacer: Threaten
Frapper: Hit
Cracher: Spit
No threatening, hitting, or spitting on the bus
We got off the bus across the street from La Banquise and were disappointed to see a very long line of people waiting to get in. We were all hungry, especially the children, and we didn't really want to wait. We were, however, in front of a restaurant across the street that had a line, but it was much shorter. Blythe, Brenda, and I stood in line while Kent and Brandt walked down the street a bit to see if there was someplace else that might do. They didn't find anything, so came back and stood in line with us.
We made a good choice. There was a man in front of us who assured us we had made a better choice eating at Ma Poule Mouillée. He is originally from Montréal and told us La Banquise is for tourists and not very good. Where we were at had the best Portugese chicken in all of Montréal, and they made poutine with it. He assured us we would not be disappointed eating there. The man behind us had been in Montréal for thirteen years and was from Algeria originally. He also encouraged us to get the poutine. We did, and we were not disappointed. We got half chickens with fries and salad and the poutine with chicken and chorizo. It was yummy yummy good!
Long line we avoided
Grilling chicken
It smelled SO GOOD!
A long line, but we didn't wait nearly as long as we would have across the street.
Poutine.
Maybe it doesn't look like much, but it was delicious!
Brandt with a full tummy.
We were not too far from a part of town where a mural festival was going on, so Brenda suggested we wander around and see what there was to see. There are lots of murals all over Montréal (lots of graffiti too), but we thought it would be fun to see some being created.
As we were walking down the streeet, not too far from Ma Poule Mouillée, we passed a man who was eating a pastry of some sort that looked divine. I stopped him and asked what it was or where he got it and he said it was just a bit further on. Sure enough, within about fifty yards we came upon this sign:
It did sent bon and we went right in. Ol' Sweet specializes in a Transylvanian treat called, in English, chimney cake. A sweet dough is wrapped around a cylinder, brushed with butter and sprinkled with sugar, then baked in a roaster oven for ten minutes. What comes out it a delicious pastry with a crispy, sweet outer crust and a soft, inner bread. We got three to share (one for Brandt alone), but I felt sort of cheated out of my other half. We had ours straight, but you can get them cone shaped and filled with ice cream. Talk about decadent!
Wrapped dough rising on the cylinders
Baking in the rotisserie oven
Being topped at the end with cinnamon and sugar
The finished chimney cakes are standing in the tray cooling a bit.
Brandt is unrolling his to eat.
Doesn't that look yummy?
It was good eating while out and about.
We also saw this cute shop with a darling storefront.
We saw many cool murals before it began to rain and we turned for home. With some of them, I am amazed at how an artist can keep things in perspective when the project is so large and often so far off the ground. We were in an area of Montréal called The Plateau, one of the spots on my puzzle. Maybe by the end of our stay, we'll see and do everything.
This is a mural of "The Angel of Bordeaux."
"In France, between May-June of 1940, thousands of refugees from 48 countries arrived in Bordeaux (and the southwest) to obtain visas from the Portuguese Consulate to escape the Nazis and leave Europe through Portugal. Sousa Mendes was ordered by his government to refuse them. Following his conscience, he disobeyed orders. The consequences were terrible for him and his family. Sousa Mendes saved thousands of lives during the Second World War. Righteous Among the Nations, he was honoured by the Portuguese National Pantheon."
So funny!
We, and others standing on the corner looking at this work of art, debated whether it was a cat or a hedgehog.
Isabella is firmly in camp hedgehog, and having seen a picture she showed me of a hedgehog, I'm inclined to believe her.
We came upon angel wings on the corner of a street.
We all had our turn looking angelic.
Brandt took a series of pictures of me stepping off the dias and coming for the camera. He's a silly boy.
"Something beautiful unites us"
This was on the back of boxes you could step into for a photo.
It was a marketing campaign for a makeup company.
Doesn't he look beautiful?
We were all worn out and our feet hurt, so we headed home. We all five crashed as soon as we got back, napping for a while to rejuvenate ourselves. I pulled out the puzzle I bought at the Biodome, and Brenda helped me a bit. We had paninis for dinner and talked together. Brandt and Kent decided to wander back into the melee and hear the live band see if they could get into the sound booth. While it was super easy in the morning, Brandt was not so successful in the evening. Still fun to go down and mingle with the masses. We all felt like we made the most of the day, seeing lots of interesting things.
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