Saturday, February 25, 2006
Late the previous day I had an email from Bryce which came in on my Blackberry. After a brief nap I answered the email, telling him that I was in Montreal, and was revisiting some of the places that we had both been to before – and that I had a better understanding as to why Montreal is not a major tourist town this time of the year.
This was all a way of psyching myself up for tackling my next goal while I was in the city: to buy genuine Montreal-baked bagels.
I had figured out that all of the major bagel bakeries were in the north-eastern part of town, all grouped together. As I wanted to get used to the Montreal subway system, I determined to learn more about it by navigating my way there. I figured out beforehand that the station nearest to the Fairmount bakery was Laurent, so I decided out the way to get there.
I noted several differences between taking a subway train in Toronto and Montreal. One of the most obvious ones is that the trains are very different, with Toronto trains using metal wheels on rails, and Montreal trains running on rubber wheels. This I already knew from previous visits, but forgot how bouncy the ride could be. A Toronto subway ride may jostle you back and forth as the train shifts between tracks, but you don’t get the bouncy up-and-down feeling when on a Montreal subway car. There’s also a distinct lack of ads which are plastered everywhere inside a Toronto subway car, instead replaced by emergency signage, which I noted was not always perfectly translated into English ("Use the fire extinguisher as apposed", which I think was supposed to be "approved" or more properly "approved manner"; more awkward but at least it is a valid word.)
Everything went well enough until I got the Beri-UQAM station, which is the central node for three different lines. There is a Sherbrooke station on the orange line, which was the one I wanted, and there is also a Sherbrooke University line. Guess which one I took? I also discovered that the waits between trains on the University line on Saturday evening could take a while...
I eventually figured out where I had to go when I got back to Beri-UQAM, and made my way to Laurent station. After an initial mis-start in terms of the direction I was supposed to head after leaving the station, I soon found my way to Fairmount Oest where the bagelry, open 24 hours a day, was located.
I bought six dozen bagels, then got a taxi back to the hotel.
Did some preliminary packing, watched an episode of Firefly ("Objects in Space", one of my favourites), that I had brought with me, then went to bed shortly after midnight.
I opted to spend an extra full day in Montreal in order to have a look around. But there is a reason why tourism isn't a big thing in this city in February, and this day underlined that fact: it was cold, and a brisk wind only made things colder. I was glad I had brought my warmest winter coat, though occasionally as I turned a corner and was blasted by the wind shear from an adjacent building (thank you architects everywhere!) I wished I had brought a scarf along as well. I was determined to learn more about the layout of the city, and for me that means being a pedestrian, so I was determined to walk to the Old City and find the Archeology and History Museum there.
After a brief, nondescript breakfast I decided to tackle my first goal however, which was to find presents for my girls. I ducked into a (warm!) mall, and found a dollar store that had plush animals as well as several French-language activity books, which I hope will travel with us when we head to France next month. For an armload of goodies I only paid about $10.
After much trudging (and after some non-disastrous slips on the sidewalk, wondering why Montreal businesses did not clear the accumulated snow in front of their businesses), I found my way to the maze of underground passages that led me closer to my goal. When I emerged from underground and found my way about the Old City, I noted that many places there were alive and hopping in the summer were understandably closed in the depths of winter. Only a few art galleries and the odd shop or two seemed to be open.
I found Pointe Calliere and paid my admission. It turned out that there was a special discount, which applied to visitors who came to museum when it was below zero. One of the people said that it was a "Saturday Night Fever" discount, and I replied that it was more like a "Saturday Morning Hypothermia" discount, at which he laughed, and then translated the joke to the rest of his colleagues in French, which drew a similar round of giggles.
The highlight of the tour was a traveling exhibit on the works of Jules Verne from a museum in Paris, which was done to commemorate the centenary of the writer's death. In addition to many copies of his work appearing in rich bindings, and the lavish and evocative illustrations (improbable flying ships, a giant squid grappling with its victims, and of course Captain Nemo and his equally-famous underwater craft the Nautilus), there were appropriate examples of invariably oversized and ornate Victorian-era underwater mechanical contraptions, sometimes accompanied by animations depicting how they were supposed to work.
Afterwards I spent my time having a good look around the archeological exhibits, as my time was my own and I could spend the time and linger over given exhibits at leisure (that and the prospect of heading outside again anytime soon wasn't something I was necessarily looking forward to). After wandering around the underground exhibits I also went to see a very "fluffy" exhibit on love in Montreal.
I picked up a small English-language catalogue of the Verne exhibition to peruse later, and then made my way over to the Science Museum that lay by the waterside, which I had never been to before. Had lunch there, then paid admission to get in. On the whole I wasn't that impressed, as most of the exhibits are computer-based, with much of the "hand's-on" experiences meant placing one-self in front of a computer screen. Other items were aimed squarely at kids. My timing was also not great, since by the time I had discovered where the complimentary movie on the Snowbirds aerial acrobatic squad was, the English showing was well under way and the next such show wasn't on until much later. The most fun I had was actually a tongue-in-cheek pataphysic concoction by Florent Veilleux that ostensibly turned electricity into water. Very much like Rowland Emmett's fantastic machines from "Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang".
In the end it was not a place I am likely to visit myself again on my own, but one I would definitely take the kids too.
I then trudged up the hill, which happened to take me by the basilica. More out of curiosity than anything else, I decided to go in. It turned out that there was an admission: $4. Upon entering the basilica proper I couldn't help but think of Dawkin's words ringing in my ears as to religion ultimately is useful to those in power. The whole of the building, with its statuary, stained glass windows and often ornate wood-work was beautiful to look at, but the various regional authority figures depicted on the windows, the garishness of the "miraculous visions" that were depicted and the signs prominently displaying the charge for lighting a prayer candle helped drive home to me how much of this is very much a human rather than a divine endeavour. Organ music dramatically crashed down from the upper floor, and people were scattered about; some in prayer, some gawking at the sights and others aimlessly milling about taking in the sights. I took many pictures of the place, but was happy to face the cold again in order to escape the suffocating atmosphere of the place.
I located the nearest subway station and made my way to Bonaventure, which is the station nearest to my hotel, and made my way back to my room.
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