We
had dinner in Reuben's deli (too bad the picture didn't come out well).
5/12/00
Montreal is pretty flat. It seems
like spring is just starting because some of the trees don't have leaves.
We
had dinner in Reuben's deli (too bad the picture didn't come out well).
Our hotel is on St. Mathieu and Sherbrooke.
Almost everybody here speaks English and French. I was able to figure out some words. French kind of looks like Spanish.
5/13/00
Today we had breakfast delivered to our
hotel room. Then mom went to her meeting (isn't that exciting). At
about 11am we visited mom at her meeting and had lunch at an underground
mall. Ruben told me that there is a whole underground city because it snows
a lot over the winter and they have to have a place where it is not very
cold.
Then
we went to the Biodome and saw all 4 exhibits, which were Amazon, Arctic,
Laurent's Marine and Laurentian forest. Amazon and the forest were
the closest to each other.
Then we went up a tower called the Funicular that's connected to the Expos stadium. I took a picture of downtown Montreal.
Then we came back and stayed for two hours. When mom came home, Ruben and I went to an Expos game. The Expos lost to the Cubs by 1 run, 2-1. We got there and back on the Metro. The subway was pretty fast to get there. It only stayed at a stop for 7 - 30 seconds. We got on at Guy-Concordia and got off at Pie-IX (mom's note: Pie IX stands for Pope Pious the 9th. Montreal is a very Catholic city).
The announcer at the game announced everything in English and in French. They did the Star Spangled Banner and Oh Canada in French and English.
5/14/00 - Mother's day
We spent the morning in the hotel.
Today we took the Metro to Old Montreal (Vieux Montreal).
(Mom's note: The Q will be happy to note that we saw this Q building in
Montreal, so I had to take a picture by it. The Q has been digitally enhanced).
We
had brunch in an outdoor restaurant.
Then
we explored some streets
and went to the new iSci Science center.
It was great. It was great. There were three exhibits on materials,
technology and biology and living things. I liked the binary counting
hands on exhibit the best.
Then
we went on a tour of a really big Basilicia - Notre Dame.
It was huge. There are 7000 pipes in the organ. It took 5 years
to build the outside. The towers were built later. There was a lot
of blue in the church because blue is for Mary. (Mom's note
- we lit a candle for our friend Elizabeth) Montreal was originally named
Ville Marie. Montreal was founded in 1642.
(Mom's
note: while we were wandering around, we saw a building that looked just
like Amazon.com's building in Seattle (the Pac Med building where Ruben
works.)
(Mom's note: Then Elias got tired....)
We took the Metro back and had dinner with somebody named Ryan (Mom's note: Ryan is the son of the people who had me out there for the meeting.)
5/15/00
We got up. At about 9:30, mom and
I went to a coffee shop to get breakfast. Mom forgot the thing she wanted
the most, a scone. Then we read and I did homework while Elias napped.
Then we walked from our hotel to the underground city. They have an underground city because it gets so cold there, they need a warm place to walk around. (Mom's note: the department store I wanted to visit, Eaton, had apparently closed down since the Fromer's guide we had was printed (1996))
Then we walked to Old Montreal, about 2
Km away. We tried to find a restaurant (Mom's note: also listed in
this same Fromer's guide), but they either went out of business or moved.
So we walked about another 6 blocks and found a place
to eat back near iSci (Crepes).
We took the metro home a new way that we'd never gone before.
Then
we read some more while Elias napped. Then we went to the Aquadome
and swam. Elias (my baby brother) chased me in the water).
(Mom's note: the Aquadome has a great kids pool - no more than 3 feet deep
with a couple of slides, a "shower" thing, and a really shallow, beach
like end. The other pool is your standard lap pool. The temp of the
pool was like bathwater).
Tonight we went to the French section of town. It looked a lot different (mom's note: it looked to me like what New Orleans looks like - from what I've seen in pictures. The houses were different from the places we are staying. We walked a long way to Fonduemental (which is like a joke on Fundamental) and had fondue for dinner. The fondue was really good.
5/16/00
In the morning we went up Mont-Royale.
The view of the city was pretty good, but it was hard going up.
(Mom's note: Ruben even "got up on the
cross" for us)
Then we ate lunch at Pizzadelic. Then we went to the Botanical Gardens and Insectarium.
(Nursing Japanese Garden)
(Ruben in the Chinese Garden)
Some of the bugs in the Insectarium were
gross (Mom's note: SHIVER!!!!! UGH). Then we went to the airport and flew
back to Michigan.