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Published: December 8th 2023
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Olympic Games
In 1976 Montreal was the host of the Summer Olympic Games. Leonard Cohen rules (and nobody cares about Barbie)
Our first stop in Canada was the city Montreal. Montreal is named after the mountain Mount Royal. We felt that we had to visit Mount Royal now that we were in the city. Both because we wanted to see the views from there and because the way we see things a visit to Montreal is not complete without visiting the mountain the city is named after.
Mount Royal We walked up to Mount Royal. The mountain is accessible on foot from downtown Montreal thanks to there being walking paths with stairs all the way up to the top. The views at the top were awesome. You can see what it looked like if you watch the panorama at the top of this page. But for some strange reason the entire place smelled of pee, so we were a bit disappointed. We don't know where the odour came from and we also don't know why they don't give the place a good wash or something. Because it was a bit off-putting.
Olympic Games In 1976 Montreal was the host of the Summer Olympic Games. We
Olympic Games related monument
In central Montreal we found a few monuments related to the Olympic Games. are too young to remember anything from those games. But in Swedish sport history two of the golds won by Swedes have become iconic. Anders Gärderud set a world record when he won 3000 metre Steeplechase. Bernt Johansson won Men's Individual Road Race in cycling and was given a mighty motorcycle parade the last few hundred of meters of the race. Below we have added clips on YouTube where you can view these events in the unlikely event that you would want to see what it looked like.
The Olympic Games related sightseeing we did were the following
=> In central Montreal we found a few monuments related to the Olympic Games.
=> On our morning run we went to the Olympic stadium and checked out the old sports arenas.
Barbie This summer the
movie Barbie premiered in the theatres and was instantly a huge success. It turns out that in Montreal there is actually a Barbie museum. Supposedly it is the largest Barbie museum in the world. When we heard about this museum we decided that we just had to visit it. Both because the timing with the
A-ha
But we are not in Norway...? (if you don't get it, Google it) successful movie being screened and because a Barbie museum actually sounds a bit interesting. When we came there we found that the museum was closed. To us it feels like really weird timing to have a Barbie museum closed the summer of 2023.
RÉSO - Underground city In Montrealcity centre they have connected a large number of buildings, metro stations and shopping centres with a network of subterranean tunnels. By doing this they have effectively created a large underground city with the formal name
RÉSO. This
underground city allows people to move around in downtown without having to venture outdoors. This is quite useful during the long and cold Montreal winters.
Leonard Cohen The singer-songwriter
Leonard Cohen for many years called Montreal his home and he is also buried in one of the city's cemeteries. While we were in Montreal we saw two large murals depicting Leonard Cohen and we also saw a poster advertising postage stamps depicting Leonard Cohen. So seven years after he passed away he is still quite popular in Montreal.
Expo 67 Montreal was in 1967 host to the world fair
Expo 67, or 1967 International and
Fountain
Fountain in a shopping centre Universal Exposition as the official name was. We decided to visit the former fair grounds hoping that there were interesting artworks or buildings left there. There were some things to see, but not much. We found that Flushing Meadows, the fairgrounds used for the
1964 New York World's Fair, was
far more interesting.
Walking tour The guidebook suggested a walking route we should take in central Montreal. We don't bother writing about the various things we saw then. It is easier to just look through our pictures to get the idea.
After Montreal we went on a little road trip to Ottawa. What we saw then we will tell you in our next blog entry.
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Sheri Schroeder
non-member comment
Another fun blog
I plan to visit Montreal in the future - perhaps in winter. Was good to hear about the underground city. Wondering what your favorite travel camera is these days? Happy holidays from Michigan!