A Multi-Cultural Day in Montreal

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This is a weekend that had been planned for a little while, in part as a birthday gift for my mom. I say planned but by that I mean that the train tickets were bought and the hotel reserved but not much planning was done in terms of what specifically we would be doing and such. Mom and I had a general idea of what we wanted to do and I had bought a guidebook so that we would have some maps and general references but that was about it. It's not like we had never been to Montreal before but really one of the first times where the focus was to be tourists and not just go shopping, which we have done many times over.

We took the train at around 7:30 am and made our way into Montreal about two hours later. Having started a photo gallery of graffiti art, there were a couple of times that I would have wanted to jump out of the train to go take photos of some work on old train cars, underpasses, bridges and old buildings. But I refrained.

On arriving in Montreal, we bought our three day tourist metro card (from which we would ultimately get our moneys worth) and made our way to the Berri-UQAM station, which was directly across the street from our hotel, the Auberge Pomerol. The Auberge is nicely situated close to St. Denis and is as quaint as can be. Our room was not ready (which we were expecting having arrived so early in the morning). We were able to regroup a little, lock up our luggage and then were ready to be tourists in Montreal.

We hopped back on the subway and made our way to the Pie-IX metro station, which is a very short walk away from the Botanical Gardens. I did not realize that the gardens are directly across from the Olympic stadium. Apart from seeing it on photos, I had never actually seen it in person or at least I don't remember ever seeing it in person. The Montreal Tower is the largest leaning tower in the world. From that tower, you could see the large cables connecting to the tarp-like roof which can be raised and lowered as needed. The tower also has an elevator that goes up and down and from which you can apparently get a great view of the city. We did not go up. There was also the area where you had the large Olympic rings and apparatus that held the flame. Such an historic and iconic place ... albeit controversial in its time.








We then headed to the Botanical Gardens. As you entered, there was a beautiful photo exhibit of different exotic animals, some of which we knew and some which we did not. There were also signs scattered along the photo exhibit that had quotes as to the impact that we have on the environment and our earth. Some were quite sobering. The animal photos were just stunning and some quite surprising. A few stood out like the photo of a baby howler monkey, the box fish (it's actually square in shape) and this insect that had a contraption on its head to distract its predators that if bit off would still leave the insect intact.

The first area that we visited was the Chinese Garden. As you walked towards the entrance, the laneway was lined with ecchinacea flowers. The area is quite large and houses a number of pagodas, each displaying a different exhibit. One area displayed a large number of bonsai trees and a guide was explaining how they take a lot of work to maintain and are essentially passed down from generation to generation.




















One pagoda had an exhibit on the soy bean and we later saw soy bean plants in the gardens .... mmmm edamame! They were even giving out Natura Soy Milk, a nice little break during this hot day. In the center of this garden was a large lotus pond, which also contained water lillies. There were a number of ducks on this pond.

There was also a small rest area, a rock mountain with a large waterfall. The largest pagoda had a display of traditional Chinese musical instruments. The Chinese and Japanese gardens were the two that I really wanted to see and I was definitely not disappointed. What a beautiful garden.















We then made our way to the Japanese garden which was quite different in feel and look. You first entered a small building which housed a zen garden; large rocks with a "carpet" of small pebbles raked in swirling patterns.

You then exited out to a beautiful garden which also had a pond in the center. This time it was surrounded by water features, a lantern symbolizing the light of knowledge thereby dispelling the shadows of ignorance as well as a Peace Bell. This bell was given by the city of Hiroshima to the city of Montreal as a symbol of eternal friendship and peace following the twinning of these two cities. Bells apparently play a significant part in Japanese culture; not only to mark the hour, but to protect the people from evil and demons.











We then made our way down a small path and noticed that there were a number of large koi, each very colourful in their own way. There was also a small bridge that took you across the pond which was in a zig zag pattern. This is done in order for the person to slow down as they walk on the bridge and therefore absorb the moment and "gradually discover the many faces of the garden". The pattern of the bridge is said to also be used to confuse evil spirits which only travel in a straight line.

After the botanical gardens, we then made our way back to the subway and headed towards the Place D'Armes metro station in order to reach Chinatown.







It is very easy to see if you are heading towards Chinatown because there are large traditional gates as you enter.





We were getting hungry by this time and decided to stop for Vietnamese soup at Pho Cali. It was quite humid and hot, inside and out, so we decided on a nice vermicelli and a Vietnamese beer (Hue Beer). This was by far the best vermicelli that I had ever had. Oh just thinking about it makes my mouth water ... soooo good.








After this quick stop, we made our way down the couple of streets that make up Chinatown, stopping at the different shops and markets. There were older gentlemen reading palms, tourists and locals doing some shopping and vendors selling their wares. There were quite a few restaurants. We stopped by this one little shop and each bought a small charm with three Chinese coins, which the woman told us was for good luck. We also bought some Dragon Beard candy. They are small sweets made with different nuts wrapped in these incredibly thin strands made from sugar. I don't normally love asian desserts but these I just loved. They had a similar taste to baklava. The name comes from the fact that the strand like feel to them looks like a white beard. These used to be made for the Emperors in China during State Dinners.
























As we finished our rounds of Chinatown, the sky was darkening and you could hear the rumblings of thunder. After a couple of lightning strikes, the skies opened up and the rain just came down. We were luckily close to the Palais des Congrès so we could easily take refuge. The rain did not last long and we circled the Palais de Congrès until it cleared up.

We then walked towards Square Victoria and from there headed down towards the Notre-Dame Basilica. As we neared it, the bells started ringing. Across from the basilica is the Bank of Montreal, the oldest chartered bank in Canada, in a building designed after the Pantheon in Rome. Having seen the Pantheon, the resemblence is actually quite obvious with the columns but especially the dome towards the back of the building. We also made our way into the basilica. There was a mass taking place so you could not walk around too much. The ambiance and ornateness of this place is quite something to be seen.























We then headed down St. Sulpice and turned on St. Paul Ouest towards the Place Jacques-Cartier. This square is always quite lively with people, vendors and buskers. Our only goal was to find Chez Eric where we had had steak frites last year. I think that this is going to be a tradition for mom and I ... steak frites in Montreal. We enjoyed our supper on the terrasse, although we were seated so far into the terrasse that we felt like we were actually inside. By the end of our supper, the rain had once again started. A little travel weary and definitely filled to the brim with food, we made our way to the Champs-de-Mars subway station to head back to our hotel.

After a quick check-in, we headed down to the small dining area where they serve snacks and we enjoyed a nice herbal tea. I logged on to the computer for a bit (to start this blog for one) and mom went back to the room to watch Buddha's Warrior on CNN. I tried to watch some of this documentary but by this time I was in and out of consciousness ... sooo tired. We called it a night relatively early after a first successful day of sightseeing.

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