Melissa's Amusings: Road Scholar Trip-All Aboard the 'Ocean': Quebec To The Maritimes By Train : An Evening Stroll in "Old Montreal" And A Montreal's Bus Tour By Day

On Our Way

Our trip begins in Montreal, so we fly from Springfield to....

Great airport-free parking and only 20 minutes from our house :-)

Chicago. At Chicago

Great view of Chicago's lake shore from my window.

we switch to Canada Air.....look at all that legroom, and we are in the economy section!!!

From Chicago we fly into Montreal, located on an island in the Saint Lawrence River.

First view of Saint Lawrence River-an important waterway in Canada.

We arrive at out hotel just in time to check in and pick up our Road Scholar Tour package. We have less than an hour to relax before the welcome dinner and orientation session starts.

Evening Stroll

After the planned activities,our group leader- Nancy LaFontaine offered to take us on an evening stroll in Montreal's historic district. I almost let the fatigue from a full's day travel stop me from joining....I am so glad I didn't let this opportunity pass by. It was one of the highlights of the trip for me!!!

Nancy leading us on an impromptu tour.

Place D'Armes Square (parade ground), 2nd oldest public site in Montreal, dates back to the 17th century. The military would do maneuvers here and the local people would come and watch. This square is surrounded by a wide variety of architecture styles.

Notre Dame Basilica

A sampling of the architecture styles

The New York Life Insurance/Bank building (red stone one) is Montreal's first skyscraper. It was built in 1887/1889 with red sandstone imported from Dumfriesshire Scotland.It was bought by Quebec Bank in 1909. Next to it is the Aldred Building, built 1929-1931 from Indiana limestone.

Later,a clock tower was added to the Bank building, which added 3 more storeys. The Aldred building is an Art Deco style, it has 'setbacks'at the 8,13,and 16th floors. Setbacks were an architectural rule of that time, allowing more light onto the streets or square below.

The Pantheon like building behind the statue is the Bank of Montreal's head office. The oldest bank in Canada, which was founded in 1817.

This neoclassical style building was built by John Wells in 1847. The sculptured pediment was done by Sir John Steell, A Scottish sculptor.

' The 1893 Maisonneuve Monument was built in memory of Paul de Chomeday,sieur de Maisonneuve. He was the founder of Montreal in New France. The top statue is of Maisonneuve holding the flag of the King of France. A scroll , with the first coat of arms of Montreal, is just below him. At each corner is a statue of a historical Montreal person. (Jeanne Mance (1606–73), the first lay nurse in North America and founder of the first hospital in Montréal. Raphaël-Lambert Closse (1618–62), major of the garrison and the governor’s lieutenant,Charles Lemoyne (1626–85), who, after serving in Huronia, moved to Montréal, where he was made responsible for the security of Ville-Marie,and an anonymous Iroquois warrior. The adventures of Iroquois warriors, had caught the sculptor’s imagination since childhood, and were later used as themes in many of his works.'

There are four bas-reliefs that represent important events related to the foundation Old Montreal.

At the bottom of each face of the pedestal is a bronze mask covering a spout that pours water into the basin. These four mythical figures, inspired by different portrayals of the god Bacchus, symbolize the elements forming the environment of the people featured.

The Centaur Theatre , located in the old Stock Exchange Building.

Built in 1903 by George B. Post, the American architect for the historic New York's Stock Exchange.

Original piece of the wall of the old fortified City.

If this is not Rue Saint Paul , Montreal's oldest street, then it is very close to it :-)

Rue Saint Paul was paved in 1672 with cobblestones and was laid out along a path that had bordered a former fort.

The Old Port of Montreal stretches over 2 Km along the St. Lawrence river. This historic area was used as early as 1611,when French fur traders used it as a trading post.

Old Montreal Ferris Wheel

Old Port

Old Port, St. Lawrence River

Just a building I liked with all of the flower/plant boxes :-)

Thought of Geoffrey's parking skills, when I saw this :-)

Montreal City Hall was built during 1872-1878 in the Second Empire style. A fire in 1922 made it necessary to be reconstructed. Louis Parant used the city hall in Tours, France as a model for the new building.

In 1984 it became a National Historic Site of Canada.

The City's public squares/parks provides very pleasant places to just sit and and enjoy ....

listening to water splash in the fountains' pools.

Montreal's oldest monument and Canada's oldest war monument is Nelson's Column, in honor of Admiral Horatio Nelson was erected in 1809, after his death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

The statue was removed in 1997 for preservation and replaced with a copy.

The South face of the column with a brief description of Nelson's final naval battle and death in 1805.

Statue of Jean Vauquelin, a captain of a French navy ship during the Seven Years' War.

Erected in 1930

During the stroll we would come across different Cite de Memoir sites. Images, words, and music inspired by the history of Montreal are projected on the buildings, walls and the ground throughout Old Montreal, Old Port, and at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel. These definitely added a special touch of excitement to our enjoyable evening.

This design would alert one to a nearby projection.

This memoir is from the tragic tale of Marie-Josephe, a black slave to ......

the happier fate of Jackie Robinson (1734-1946).

A few video clips from the memoirs

Bus Tour

The next morning we had a bus tour of various areas around Montreal. Here are some of the sights that caught my eye.

Palais des Congres- a glass facade of 332 colored and 58 transparent glass panels

Just a cool reflection that I liked.

Marie Reine Du Monde Cathedral- a smaller version of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, built from 1870-1894. 13 statues of the patron saints of the 13 parishes of Montreal who donated them.

A 1986 Sculpture by Raymond Mason-'The Illuminated Crowd'- 65 figures confronting a new idea,the figures are a light ochre color with a dark blue background provided by the BNP building.The figures are of all ages, race and facial expressions illustrating the degradation of the human condition and the symbolizes the fragility of the human condition.

The Secret Bench Of Knowledge by Lea Vivot

Museum of Fine Arts- the City's largest museum with over 43,000 works from antiquity to today.

Saint Joseph's Oratory-Canada's largest church, a 1967 Italian Renaissance style claims to have one of the largest domes in the world.

View of the Montreal Olympic Stadium from Mount Royal.One of the world's largest leaning tower-574 ft.

Enjoying the view

Facade- limestone from quarries located in Montreal; stained glass widows, balconies and staircases-the finishing touch to the facade.

Red clay brick built for working/middle class because of it being inexpensive. However it was used in affluent neighborhoods of the Golden Square Mile because of the architecture flexibility it provided.

Wrought iron staircases originally on turn of the 20th century row houses for the working/middle class. Rules dictated a certain distance a building had to be from the street. In order to save inside space staircases were placed outside the building.Need to be very careful during the snowy,icy winters!!!!

Fancy spiral staircase

Lunch at a local restaurant.

Every time I looked up, I had at least 5 of me's looking at me :-)!!

Looking out our window we saw an interesting building.

Habitat 67- a cubist housing complex built for the 1967 World Expo. An Utopian idea of the 1960's; each cube has access to a roof garden built on top of an adjacent cube. The architect Moshe Safdie wanted to 'reinvent the apartment building'.

Pointe-a-Calliere Museum

A National Historic Site of Canada's since 1998. "The Pointe-à-Callière stands above several historic and archaeological sites of national significance, showcasing major periods in the history of Montreal. Some of the archaeology exposed during construction of the building has been left in situ as part of the museum's permanent display on the history of the city. The museum was constructed on pilings to leave existing finds undisturbed and protected.
The main entrance of the museum rises above the point of land where Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance,
and other French settlers landed in 1642."

Our group getting organized and hearing gadgets turned on.

The museum below the entrance

Cemetery 1643

ancient walls

North America’s first collector sewer, a feat of civil engineering built between 1832 and 1838.

Visitors are able to stroll through a section of the collector sewer extending for 110 meters.

Fancy 'dioramas' under our feet of what this place was like through out the years.

Outside the museum

Bus ride to train station

I believe part of a Batman movie was filmed here.

Bronze Statue-Tai Chi Single Whip by Ju Ming 1985

Train station

Buying our dinner for while we are on the train.

Looks like we beat the crowd :-)

"The east and west interior walls of the station feature two large bas reliefs depicting Canadian life, arts and industry, designed by Charles Comfort and executed by Sebastiano Aiello. Included in the bas relief are a few of the lyrics of O Canada (which was not the national anthem at the time the station was built). The lyrics are in French on the east side of the station and in English on the west side."