I know that you think, we are traveling strangely. Being in the crappy apartment, sightseeing in the supermarket…
But that’s not true, we do some normal traveler’s stuff, too. So here are the evidences. ;)
Nocturnal Veggies
As KiKi works during the day, we go for sightseeing mostly in the evening. Actually, we don’t feel like going out during the day so it fits us. We didn’t expect that hot in June but it’s very heavy and humid in Montreal. It also rains often. We came for the Sun but we are betrayed by him. It is even cold here without the Sun. What a crazy weather! I might say it can beat the temperamental Swiss weather :P
So we decided to go for walking on the 4th day evening in Montreal. It was hot and super humid but we forced ourselves to be a good tourist. Isn’t it too shame to stay in this fantastic(-_-;) apartment all the time?
Sure it is. Go child to the world!
Today’s exploration
View Old port in a larger map
We were even very cool tourists. We could take a subway but decided to walk to see more stuff on the street on this HOT day. And we were rewarded.
- Mighty Squirrel
‘A squirrel !!!’
That was my shout.
I shouted loudly to make sure everybody on the street notices that I saw a squirrel. KiKi also shout to me ‘Camera, camera!’
I was so in a hurry as the squirrel was awesome fast so couldn’t get any clear shot. But we were very full in the heart with the feeling ‘Ah~ we have a squirrel in the camera memory… :D‘
But apparently, it’s very common here as nobody care at all. They completely ignored it even though it was totally middle of the city with a lot of car around.
- An old European construction among the modern buildings
And they have very interesting city view. What I want to say is a lot of old buildings and very modern skyscrapers are completely mixed everywhere. We were walking in the old European city 30 second ago and it suddenly changes to futuristic city.
But I couldn’t have much time to get some photos of those interesting view. Because it suddenly got dark and windy almost like tornado.
Oh…This country is also like the other countries. When it’s too much humid, it rains. (-_-;) But we couldn’t catch that simple truth at home so didn’t prepare an umbrella.
Le Vieux-Port (Old Port)
So we gave up to be cool (walking) and got on a subway. After short traveling by old, gloomy, dirty and small subway, we arrived at ‘place d’arme’ station. But when we came out to the up-world, it was raining cats and dogs. I missed so much my huge umbrella which was sleeping in our heavy suitcase :-(
After little waiting inside huge subway station which connects to underground metropolitan, the rain’s got quieter.
- Basilique Notre-Dame
The first thing we saw at the old Montreal was the Notre-Dame Basilica. Once upon a time, I believed there was only one Notre-Dame church in the world which is in Paris. But actually, it’s a quite common name for the church. We wanted to look inside, but the church closed at 6pm. And the worst part was to enter this church, we had to pay about 10 bucks. What…the…It was written that we should come on Sunday if we wanna see it for free. Well, we were not that interested in long Catholic mess, so we skipped it. But people say it is one of the most beautiful inside. Maybe we had to attend the mess…But it’s too late! We’re already in Vancouver now :P
- Science center. Basically, it was closed as we were late tourists. But we still could enter since they had some kind of private party or meeting in a hall of that building. So we entered openly like a party member and played in the science hall ;) Most of stuff was locked but still we could have fun with the the rest. The security guys saw us but they didn’t kick us out :D So we kept running everywhere.
- Old style buildings at old port. We felt like being in middle age France somewhere.
- One of science center exhibit. If you push a button, everything moves with weird noise. We were alone at that hall so the noise echoed whole building. :D I felt like a girl in the romantic comedy film who broke the door of amusement park by night.
- The port for small boats. We’re a bit early for the season, so the place was almost empty.
- Bonsecours Market. What a beautiful and huge public market! It used to be a main public market in the Montreal area for more than 100 years. But now it’s a multi-purpose facility.
- Beautiful building on St.Laurent river. It’s actually a totally empty night club :P
- The water goes to St.Laurent River
- The canon at the clock tower. We often see the canons and fortress near the river in Quebec state. It shows the war history between France and England in Quebec.
- Splendid night view. I prefer night Montreal than day one because we don’t see all the rubbishes on the street :P
- Coke ghost. We spent about 30 min in front of vending machines to catch this ghost.
- Appreciation for night view. My cucumber also looked liking here because he stoned for a while like part of buildings.
- It’s like the city I expected to see in Paris before going there. Small cafes in the stone building, the paved road with stones, old style sign board and the lamp posts…
- Chapelle Notre-Dame de Bonsecours. You see, Notre-Dame again ;) It used to be a pilgrimage site for sailors who visit Old Montreal. They expected to have bonsecours (good help) for their sea voyages.
It was a very beautiful place but was strangely empty. We don’t know it’s because of the rain or the early season. We will check it out 2 week later (they start school break at 24 June) on sunny day.
Old port, or actually old town, is definitely my favorite place in Monreal. Architecture is so special, so mixed or so old style. It really feels european yet it can be so futuristic. A perfect set for a movie of Caro–Jeunet.