The Sights of Montreal

Nancy with front row seats

The city of Montreal has much to offer the traveler.  A few of the highlights from our recent trip to this island city in the middle of the St. Lawrence River includes:

Old Town Montreal:

Notre Dame Cathedral

Nelson's Column

Walking the narrow streets of Old Montreal

Food:
So many great restaurants including Reuben's Deli and Steakhouse.  Included on menus everywhere is, perhaps, the Canadian national dish, poutine.  Places serving smoked meats were plentiful as well. Some, like Reuben's, combined poutine and smoked meat.

Poutine with chopped smoked meat

Museums:
Montreal offers a number of museums.  We visited several but my favorite, by far, was the Montreal Archaeology and History Museum on the waterfront in Old Montreal.  This museum was built over the site of the original fort.  The foundation from buildings past is incorporated into and accessible from the museum.     

Fort Ville-Marie, 1642

Fort Ville-Marie, 1642

The old sewer in neon purple

A handsome collection of sailing ships from years gone by garrisons the perimeter of the second floor. 

A special treat to see a small display of sixteenth century Japanese armor.  These examples will be useful next time Feudal Japanese figures hit the painting desk. 

Montreal from the river:

Montreal from above:

Mont Real as seen from Olympic Tower

 Ile Notre-Dame:
On Ile Notre-Dame stands the Casino appearing to be straight from the Jetson's.  Encircling the casino is the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve which is the course for the F1 Grand Prix du Canada.  When not in use as a racetrack, the circuit can be used for cycling, rollerblading, and autos.  I would enjoy returning to Montreal to see the F1 race and take the bike out onto the track.  With stringent F1 regulations on surface conditions, this track was well maintained and quite smooth.     

The Casino

The Casino

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Michael Buble Concert
The primary reason for a visit to Montreal?  Not history, not food, a Michael Buble concert.  For Nancy, this was the highlight of the trip.  With front row seats to the secondary stage, we had an up close view of Michael when he performed at this end of the Bell Centre Arena.  To see exactly how up close and personal, please watch this short clip I captured as designated videographer.  Be sure to watch until the end of this 50 second clip.

Yes, Nancy is the blond to whom Buble made a hand grab.  She was so excited!

Montreal Fire Drill

No, not that kind of fire drill but an 18th Century musket firing drill performed by re-enactors in uniform and equipment of the French & Indian War.

This firing drill demonstration was conducted on a plaza across the street from Pointe-a-Calliere Archaeology and History Museum in Montreal, Quebec.  Nancy and I were visiting Montreal last week and as we climbed out onto the observation tower at the museum in Old Montreal, we were greeted by the sight of a firing drill below the tower.  A pleasant surprise and we had a perfect viewing platform from which to watch the proceedings. 

Nancy shot the following two videos from our observation post while I looked on and snapped off a few stills.  Watch for the NCO's equipment malfunction during the drill. 

After the demonstration, we scurried down the stairs and across the street to the plaza to catch the re-enactors before they dispersed.  The re-enactors were kind enough to pose for a quick photo.  Yes, I am small but these fellas are big!  Notice the distinct contrast between the gris-blanc of the justacorps and the white gaiters.  These coats are definitely grey.

Vancouver B.C. Weekend

After a week away for business and pleasure, I return home to hopefully pick up the brushes again after first getting the household activities caught up.

The work week was spent at the home office in the Seattle area for both business and to attend a workshop.  In my usual routine, I would be driving back to Spokane Friday evening but not this week.  My wife flew over Thursday night and after a half day in the office on Friday, we loaded up and drove to Vancouver B.C. for the weekend.

Why a diversion to Vancouver?  Well, we had tickets to a concert Friday night at Rogers Arena.  Coincidentally, the B.C. Lions held their opening pre-season game at the same time on the same block.  Interesting mix of concert-goers and football fans.  The hot dog stand at Costco was doing a brisk business with a line of hungry grid-iron fans queueing up around the block.  

Vancouver waterfront

Vancouver is quite a beautiful city.  The weather was perfect in the mid-70s F and public transportation is fast and easy.  The last time I was in Vancouver was for the World's Fair in '86.  I don't recall much from that trip nearly 30 years' ago but I do recall the Canada Pavilion which remains today as a waterfront icon.  On Saturday two cruise ships were birthed on either side of the pavilion.

Canada Pavilion

View across harbor to North Vancouver
with float plane coming in for landing

View across harbor towards Vancouver and pavilion 

On the hobby front, Vancouver (or Richmond) maintains a well-stocked Bricks and Mortar hobby store in Imperial Hobbies.  The shop is housed in a strip mall but the quantity of inventory stuffed into that store is amazing.

Now, I have not stepped into an actual hobby store in years but is was good to be able to browse up and down the aisles.  I saw many items of interest especially some fine JR Miniatures buildings and piles of Hotz Mats but the prices gave me a bit of sticker shock.  Yikes!  That store is expensive!  The only purchase I came away with was the latest issue of WSS and it had a sticker price $2 higher than the MSRP.

Even with a drive time of about nine hours, I won't wait 30 years to return.  Next time, we plan to bring the bikes along so that we can ride around the city and take advantage of the expansive Stanley Park.  We saw many transit riders with bikes on both the trains and ferries.  Should be fun!