Montreal! The name conjures images of…well…nothing. When you live in southern California, you don’t know anything about Montreal.
According to the interwebs, Montreal is an island in Quebec, Canada. where you will “Witness a city that’s in love with festivals, the arts, good food, living well and enjoying life to the hilt.”
Our adventure begins.
Landmarks
The Montreal Clock Tower and the Jacques Cartier Bridge.
The Montreal Clock Tower (Tour de l’Horloge) — not to be confused with the Tower of Montreal — is located in Quai de l’Horloge. If you are willing to climb 192 steps, you can see a spectacular view of the St. Lawrence River. Or so we are told, because we are on bicycles and cannot ride to the top. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Behind the tower is the famous Jacques Cartier Bridge, named in honor of Jacques Cartier‘s first voyage up the St. Lawerence River. The bridge is a steel truss cantilever bridge connecting Montreal to Longueuil. And we can’t ride our bicycles on the bridge, either.
Surprisingly, this isn’t a ghetto
Habitat 67 shows what you can do with 354 identical concrete forms, if you are clever. Or bored. I don’t know.
Molson: it’s Canadian for “beer”.
We seem to be on the wrong side of the river to do cool stuff, but at least we are getting good photographs. Here we see the factory where they make Molson beer, brewed with natural spring water.
Trois disques? Ces canadiens fous!
This structure, Trois disques, symbolizes human progress and power, for some reason. At the request of the International Nickel Company of Canada, it is not painted, also for some reason.
A concrete thing fills the sky.
We don’t know what this is, but if you see it, you are there.
Strange and Wonderful Sights
A Canadian quilt shades a building.
We see a large quilt covering the side of a building and pose with it.
Psych!
Upon closer inspection, it’s not a quilt at all, but a bunch of storage bins strung together. Perhaps it’s a fire escape or a slide. We don’t know.
Beaver Hall restaurant, specializing in food other than beaver.
We consider getting a bite to eat in Beaver Hall, but are not hungry and decide to dine here next time we are in town. NOT!
Riding on a well-maintained bike path in Montreal.
The bike paths in Montreal are well maintained and safe. The Montrealeans thoughtfully provide a tunnel under the roadway.
Wile E. Coyote would have understood.
Those krazy Kanadians!
Bring it on, bro.
In the USA, Canadians have a reputation for being non-aggressive. We still have a lot to learn about the Great White North.
A Montreal lamp post fashion model hard at work.
An optical illusion: if you stare at this photograph long enough, you will see a photographer.
Mr. Tyzik’s relative, I think.
We find a statue that seems to want to hold something. We are happy to oblige.
Surfing
Surfing, Montreal-style.
In an ocean, the waves move and the water stays in place. In a river, the water moves and the waves stay in place. And that presents an opportunity to surf.
Canada: where the surf is always up.
Of course, if you fall while river surfing, you go downstream pretty quickly. I think I’ll stick to ocean surfing. 😉
Mount Royal
A view from Mount Royal.
We take a break from bike riding to hike up Mount Royal, about 200 meters high, to get views of the city.
A view to the mountains.
In the distance is Victoria Bridge, and beyond that are the Monteregian Hills, an erosional remnant of Cretaceous intrusive igneous rock and associated hornfels,
The top of the mountain is rather flat.
Because Mount Royal is an old volcano, the top is flat, and the Montrealeans have developed it into a beautiful open space.
City Sights
The Red Light District?
For reasons only they know, Montrealeans decorated their light post on this street with red. Pretty cool, eh?
Pointy roofs mixed in with flat roofs.
The Montrealeans preserve their eccentricity even with their roofs.
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
The citizens of Montreal are no strangers to cerebral ventures, as illustrated by this winner-take-all game of chess.
Montreal in summer is green!
Although Montreal gets over two meters of snow annually, when the sun shines, everything turn green and lush.
Panoramic Views
The view from our hotel window.
At night, the city is alight with light, lighting the distant clouds with light.
The view from the top of Mount Royal.
From Mount Royal, the horizon curves. Or maybe it’s just how Photoshop merged the images. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A river runs through it.
The shallows of the Saint Lawrence river provide food for gulls and other feathered friends.
Biodome
That’s no moon…it’s a biodome.
The Montreal Biodome (French: Biodôme de Montréal) is a facility located at Olympic Park that allows visitors to walk through replicas of four ecosystems found in the Americas. The building was originally constructed for the 1976 Olympic Games as a velodrome. It hosted both track cycling and judo events. Renovations on the building began in 1989 and in 1992 the indoor nature exhibit was opened.
Sadly, it is late in the day and the entrance fee is a bit too dear to spend only a couple hours visiting the exhibits, so we take a lot of photographs of the structure itself, which is pretty cool.
Balls
You can’t have a ball in Montreal without balls, and Montreal does, indeed, have balls. 180,000 of them in their gay district. And that’s not counting the gay people themselves, so that number is probably higher. 😀
Montreal has balls.
Why does Montreal have balls? We ask people, but no one knows.
Enjoy the ballsy slide show from Montreal.
Time for a Canadian beer.
Lest we forget, Canada is more than Terrance and Phillip and Bob and Doug McKenzie Canada is also about beer, so let’s drink to Canada.
O Canada! Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!
Car ton bras sait porter l’épée,
Il sait porter la croix!