About some bikes and a basilica

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Sunday:

Since we got Arden situated on her bike, we’ve been riding along the canal each day. Last night we rode to the Vieux Port (Old Port) and back, which is about five miles round-trip. This afternoon we rode about the same distance but incorporated some streets downtown to make it to the Planetarium de Montréal. Shows are offered in English or French, so you have to schedule your trip for the language you prefer. Inside is a display of designs submitted by dozens of architects for the new planetarium. The building we visited today is slated to close in November; the new and improved building (which seems to be a complete replacement of the current structure) will open sometime in 2013. It was really neat to see all the designs, and I would imagine the chance to design a building like this is probably an architect’s dream.

The show at the Planetarium was pretty cool – it was about asteroids, dwarf planets, and such. I certainly learned a few things. The best part, though, was the activity room experience afterward. The host of the show invited everyone to see the “comet” he had made during the show from charcoal, sand, water, and dry ice. Only about eight people showed up in the activity room, so it was a pretty personal experience. The host next set up a crater-making experiment using a box filled with flour that had cocoa powder sprinkled on top. The girls got to drop the marbles from different heights into the box to create the craters, which were then measured to see if the speed of the marble / meteor influenced the size of the impact crater. Arden is thinking this might be a cool science fair project in the future. After that, he brought out a half dozen rocks and one meteorite. The guests were to determine which one was the meteorite. Dan was the only one to guess correctly, and it turned out that the meteorite was from Meteor Crater in Arizona. The host was very personable, spoke very good English, and obviously really loves his job unlocking mysteries of the universe with the public.

The bike path along the canal is probably the nicest bike path I’ve ridden. It meanders on both sides of the canal, going over bridges and beneath roads, and traveling alongside current and formerly industrial areas. A lot of the warehouses and factories have been converted to condos with large windows facing the water. We watched a couple boats go through a lock today, which the girls found pretty interesting. There are lots of people out riding bikes, in-line skating, jogging and walking the paths, but it was never crowded or difficult to navigate. There are separate paths for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Monday:

This morning’s plan included the beautiful Basilica of Notre Dame in Old Montréal. We rode the Métro, which the girls loved. The interior of the church is very beautifully decorated, with painted columns and gold leaf everywhere. Oil paintings depicting various Biblical scenes adorn niches along the sides, and everywhere in between is either beautiful varnished wood or painted motifs. Even the high vaulted ceiling is painted, a lovely blue with stars. It was completed in 1829. Behind the altar is a more modern chapel – this part of the church burned in 1978, and was rebuilt after that. The chapel is all done in various woods, and unpainted, so it contrasts greatly with the rest of the building. It, too, is very beautiful.

We wandered around the Old City, finding our way to the white lions that guard the gate to Chinatown, and back down toward the port. We found shelter from an amazing thunderstorm, and then did a little shopping on our way back to the Métro station.

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Photos

Picnic Lachine Canal
Picnic lunch along the Lachine Canal

Tartelette
Madeleine loved this fresh berry tartelette.

Lachine Lock
Lock opening on the Lachine Canal (according to legend, Cartier could not navigate past the rapids on the St. Lawrence that this canal avoids - he was so fed up with his inability to find a passage to China via the St. Lawrence that he named the rapids La Chine, or China in French, and thereby essentially declaring them the end of the road.

Planetarium
Madeleine dropping a marble / meteor in the experiment at the planetarium.

Cooling off
Cooling off at a pond near the port.

Lachine canal bike path
Great biking

Lachine bike path
Bike path - note all the graffiti.

Metro
First ride on a subway.

Basilica of Notre Dame
High altar

Basilica of Notre Dame
Detail of a column - they are all this ornate, each sporting different motifs.

Basilica of Notre Dame
The Chapel, (re)built between 1979-1982.

Basilica of Notre Dame
Outside the basilica

Chinatown, Montreal
M & A before a Chinatown shop selling kites.