Homecoming - Part V

So we finally arrived in Montreal. We weren't sure exactly where to go or what to do. My main goal was to visit Vieux Montreal, to see the old buildings and neighborhoods; Richel's goal was to visit some fancy department store in the main shopping district. Hmm...so we flew to Canada and drove to Montreal so that we could go shopping. Well, not that shopping wasn't interesting in Montreal, as we did hear about the famed Underground City, something we definitely wanted to see.

The first day there in Montreal wasn't a pleasant one to be sure; it rained the whole day. That being the case, we decided to try our luck with the Gray Line Tours, again so that we could be taken around and shown the interesting parts of Montreal. Then the next day we could go back and visit the places that were interesting.

The first interesting stop we made was in Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal). It was a square across the street from the Basilique de Notre Dame and it was statue of Maisonneuve. Maisonneuve? Maisonneuve. The only particular reason this statue and person perked my interest is because there's something called a Maisonneuve fracture in reference to severe ankle sprains and resulting tearing of the tib-fib aponeurosis and possible fracture. Okay, anyway, I thought it was neat that they had the same name and so I had Richel take a picture with him...



And of course right across the street there was the Basilique de Notre Dame, something we definitely had to come back and see on our own.




Until I started zooming up close with my point-and-shoot camera, I didn't even realize there were statues up against the walls.

The tour then took us to Olympic Village. The most remarkable thing about this was the Olympic Tower, something that looked like it was about to topple over. Without question, it was a masterpiece of architecture; how something so big could be leaning at such an angle without falling and without support was incredible. They even had elevators that could take visitors to the top of the tower. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a great picture of that. To do so would require one of us to stand in the middle of a busy street. And if drivers in Montreal were anything like drivers in Paris, there's no way in hell either of us were going to do that.



The next stop on our trip was one of the most spectacular. We went to the L'Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal. Without a doubt, this was one of the if not the most breath-taking spots on the tour. I can't believe pilgrims used to walk all the way up there on their knees. Walking up there on foot appeared to be enough of a challenge. ( But just to go off on a tangent for a bit, how did people know God wanted them to walk all the way up there on their knees? Wouldn't doing so ruin their knee joints? The very same knees that God had given to them? And so wouldn't that be somewhat sinful? To ruin God's gift?
Okay, anyway, back to Montreal. )




The rest of the evening was unremarkable, as the weather did not relent. It kept raining off and on all day and in to the night and so we didn't do much else except look for a place to eat and then return to the hotel. We were hoping for a nice sunny day the next day.