Day 4 - August 25, 2013
Thane and I started the day by walking three blocks to Second Cup - which is the Starbucks of Canada - to get lattes for Becky and I - and chocolate croissants for the kids. Apparently, the name "Second Cup" has been incendiary in Montreal at times - in 2001 one location was firebombed here because it incorporated english in it's name. My mother would probably have me avoid going there for this reason - or at least check to see if there are any State Department travel warnings for drinking coffee at a Second Cup in Montreal.
After breakfast, we hit the Metro - which reminded me a lot of the Paris Metro with the french movie billboards and advertisements on the walls. I also like the color scheme as it was very late 60s and early 70s.
Notice how my fashionable shoelaces pair up well with the Metro color scheme.
Emily enjoyed the loud passing by train.
I half expected to see the Eiffel Tower when we came up from the Metro at the Champs de Mars stop downtown. It was a ten minute walk to the bustling and touristy Place Jacques-Cartier (when you say these french names in your head - make sure you say them with an exaggerated French accents - because that's the way you must talk here - you don't want to sound like a tourist). We immediately did what all Americans do upon arriving at a famous (or even non-famous) spot: we sat down to eat.
Since this was Montreal, everything we ordered was French: frites and escargot. Poutine - frites topped with cheese curds and then smothered in gravy (I was not impressed). And of course that most famous of french dishes - cheese pizza. Only Becky and Nastassja were brave enough to try the snails. Nastassja even wanted seconds. For a girl with very narrow food tastes back home, she's always adventurous in trying the exotic food on vacation.
Don't eat Gary!
The kids wondered why we were all given sharp knives with our food. I explained that sometimes the snails weren't completely dead when served and would try to slink away. The knives were to be used in this event to stop them dead in their tracks.
As we wandered down the hill towards the river and really really old buildings (for North American standards), we had to get a photo in the cheesy photo frames placed at various spots around the city as we didn't want to look like tourists.
Doing as the locals do.
The main drag in Montreal's old town is the Rue St. Paul. The rue is lined with old buildings that conjured up your typical European pedestrian zone. And as with all pedestrian tourist zones the world around, tacky souvenir shops were abundant.
Typical souvenir shop on Rue St. Paul. Oh la la!
After all that cheesy tack, we needed to find some culture as counterbalance. So Becky, Thane, and I (Nastassja and Emily continued to peruse the souvenir shops) headed into Basilique Notre Dame de Montreal, an impressive cathedral built in the 1824. Most famously it hosted Celine Deleon's wedding in 1994.
At first Thane didn't want to tour the cathedral because he said it was against his religion (Pastafarian), but I think he was quite impressed upon entering - especially with the giant pipe organ which was blaring Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On."
A Titanic sized cathedral.
Once back outside, some tourists thought Thane looked like a good photographer and demanded that he take their photo.
Future Ansel Adams?
At that point, we split up for a while. The gals headed towards the underground city, which is labyrinth of underground tunnels, shops, and restaurants the locals use during the cold harsh winter. Some say that the Minotaur was really not slain on Crete but actually relocated to the underground city of Montreal. Whatever the truth, the gals were not impressed with the underground city so they headed to Chinatown and bought some nice yellow fans and purple chopsticks - items I always conjure up on my mind when thinking of Montreal.
Notice the firing squad in the background - Quebec has one of the highest use of capital punishment in the world.
Thane and I headed to the archeological museum where we took in exhibits on tea and the Beatles in Montreal, two items that are linked in most peoples minds with Montreal. At the museum, I found the rug for our living room:
Best rug ever.
And no visit to Montreal is complete without seeing the famous Habitat 67 building built for the 1967 World's Fair.
From the cube blocks, you can see that the building was an earlier version of Minecraft.
The happy family reunited for ice cream and then headed towards the Metro as it was late afternoon. However, Becky and Emily were concerned that we looked too much like tourists so they attempted to blend in with the locals.
Another wonderful thing about Montreal are the ubiquitous mansard roofs. A few years back Vampire Weekend came out with a song about mansard roofs in which the first lyrics are "I see a mansard roof through the trees." Now whenever I spot one, I sing that first line to Nastassja. What better city for Nastassja to visit with her papa.
As we entered the Metro station to head back home, we spotted Montreal's famous Nude Lady with an Electric Guitar statue at Victoria Station.
For dinner, we ate at a Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood.
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