Montreal: Thursday – Hilltop and Underground

Thursday, October 13th

Along the Montreal street Chemin Queen Mary there was a very ornate regal looking building with an impressively long staircase leading to an entrance; we passed it daily when we were on our way to or from our home base. We learned it was Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal, St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal.

It was an eight minute or so drive from where we were staying so we set out Thursday morning to visit the Catholic basilica. Rain was falling so it was good to have an indoor activity.

In an annotated bird's eye view, courtesy of Google maps, the yellow line is the main street in front, Chemin Queen Mary, that we traversed routinely and the red dashed line shows the extent of the long staircase. I believe on pilgrimages, faithful followers climb that staircase on their knees with pauses for praying. The overview accentuates how the domed facility is truly nestled within a hillside. 

Inside, in an area behind the small Votive Chapel, it is much clearer how some areas were carved out of the rock of the mountainside.

Over to the left in the next photo, above my shoulder near the top, is an arched support between the building and the rock face.

Here is a closeup of that support showing how integrate  building and mountain are.

The main large basilica area is call the crypt-church and seats 1000. The church is also called a crypt because its vault is supported by flattened arches and because it is at the foot of the basilica. It was the most impressive size-wise of the portions of the oratory. Here is the grey silhouette of Saint Joseph's Oratory at 124m tall compared to other world renowned churches.

In the crypt-church area were four confessionals with bible phrases in French carved in the granite (maybe marble) on the wall next to each confessional. Margaret and I, with our limited few years of French, were puzzling out bits and snatches of the phrases. Probably the most amazing part of our tour for me was when Joe used his iPhone camera with a Google translation app. All he did was focus the camera on the wall area next to the confessional with its chiseled phrase and it appeared in English with the same font and same background. It was amazing. It was like a real life Harry Potter and a magical Marauders' Map coupled with the ability to translate parseltongue. I did not get a photo of our particular example (I was busy struggling to close my mouth from when my jaw had dropped open) but here is an example I screen-grabbed from the internet of what a translation would look like on a iPhone.

The previous example is from Russian, not French nor parseltongue! Should you wish to try translating an image from a language of your choice, here are the instructions to do so. (On the off chance that you should desire to expand your linguistics repertoire to include parseltongue, check out this link https://sites.google.com/site/parseltongue101/lesson1.)

After St Joseph's Oratory we went back to home base to check on Frank. He had opted out of this side trip because he was still feeling sick; but, after resting some, he was up for an afternoon outing. We would be checking out the underground city of Montreal.

We accessed the Montreal Underground City (La Ville Souterraine) from within a Metro station. Apparently the subterranean area is very popular with the locals in inclement weather so they never have to go outside. Wall decor going from the Metro station to part of the underground city varied by tunnel. This one I thought was attractive with several different styles and textures of bricks; but one side is in beige tones and one side is in red tones. Other tunnels had displays of art work behind clear acrylic panels. Daily pedestrians probably no longer notice but for tourists there is a fair amount to see beyond just a route.

Once emerging from a tunnel via an escalator, the skylighted ceiling still provided a view of the outdoors. Even though offices towered on either side of the walkways, it did not feel claustrophobic.

I must admit the shopping was not very appealing. Many of the shops were high end – far beyond my price comfort zone and exceedingly outside my design style comfort range. But there were other items of interest besides stores. There was the occasional statue or oddity to see. If you think Frank is pointing to the man on the staircase you do not know him very well. He is performing the classic Vanna White gesture toward the lovely naked lady to his right. Imagine working in one of the offices in the background and having such fountains and stonework and scenery right out your office window all the time.

A piece of history was right there in the underground city, a section of the Berlin Wall, within tangible range. The East Berlin side is pretty bleak.

The opposite West Berlin side is much more artistically adorned with colorful graffiti.

There were a few scenic reflective pools and cafe-like restaurants about. The one with red umbrellas in the background was too busy to seat us so we walked on. Someone at the information booth in the underground city recommended a restaurant to us. It  was nearby but not within the tunnel system.

Although it was against the whole raison d'être of the underground city, we ventured outdoors to find a place for a late lunch / early dinner. We exited this rather architecturally striking building through an otherwise nondescript pair of doors. The emblem above them reminded me of something, but I just could not quite put my finger on what it was.

After a closer look I made the connection.

It reminded me of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. logo from the popular television spy show featuring Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series ran from 1964-1968 and it was my favorite TV show during its hey-day. Even in the days before VCRs I never missed it!

Then I noticed that the brownstone building that sported this two door portal and the overhead sign also reminded me of the subtle tailor shop that camouflaged the headquarters of one of the world's largest law enforcement agencies (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement). Who suspected what lurked within that tailor shop on the streets of New York? Who would suspect that an entire underground city lurked behind that double door portal in Montreal?

We left the allure of the underground and continued to walk directly across the street to go to the restaurant Steak frites.

This restaurant had a unique concept. They welcomed you to bring your own wine, sparkling wine, champagne, and beer and there were no fees for the wine or beer bottle opening service.

Their website advertises:

Wine lovers, we have a challenge: finding the best value wine at the best price! Share with us your choice of wine with a photo on Instagram to #lesteakfrites with your geolocation.

The most spectacular Instagram pictures staging you with your choice of wine could be on our Instagram mosaics of our website.

The wine price is not important. YOU are the sommelier, surprise us!

The place had a comfy feel to it. We happened to be there during a retirement party on the upper level so the noise trickled cascaded down. But it was a very jolly type of noisy with cheering and laughter so it created a happy mood for us. I had a filet mignon ka-bob and it was excellent.

After our meal we went back briefly to the underground but decided that we preferred to go back to home base. Once back in California I researched where we had been that day. The Underground City of Montreal was much more extensive than the small, fractional, possibly even non-representative, area we visited. La Ville Souterraine consists of over twenty miles of underground tunnels so there is no way we could have visited it all. The link http://montrealvisitorsguide.com/reso-underground-city-la-ville-souterraine/ displays a much different tone from the area we visited. But we were not there to be product consumers so we were content with what we did see and had no regrets about skipping the highly retail section. After six consecutive days of travel and non-stop tourism, we were OK to slow down a bit and rest. The gently falling rain made the mood conducive to do so.

Montreal: Wednesday at Parc Olympique

Wednesday, October 12th
We set off to take the Metro to the site of the 1976 Summer Olympics, getting off at the more northern of the two stations (bright turquoise M-squares on map) near Parc Olympique de Montreal called Viau, right after Pie-IX, neither of which we had any idea of how to pronounce. We attempted peeu•ex for the first one only to hear the train announcement say pee•neuf. That IX was actually a Roman numeral for nine. Silly us. The street of the same Boulevard Pie-IX was named in honor of Pope Pius IX.

Immediately upon exiting the station at Viau, we saw the tower, "La Tour" with a small observation car halfway up its journey to the top. Riding that to get a grand overview was our first planned activity. In the foreground in the Bio Dome.

We were entering the tower building at its base, walking along the track lines, when a friendly passer-by offered to take our picture. I was poised to start a race, but the others were not playing along.

We entered the lobby and bought our tickets for the tram ride and the other attractions we planned to visit within the park. In this view we are inside the building in the loading area at the base looking up, awaiting the arrival of the car on its trip down from the top.

Here we have already boarded our car, This is our view looking outward and downward from within while traveling up, the bottom opening where we entered, receding in the distance.

We have cleared the interior of the building here and are nearing the top of the observation tower. This view looks north. The yellow framing is a crane which I assume is there only temporarily. It did not occur to me to ask until just now, but how do they prevent rain and snow from entering the building through that open slot where the tram car travels?

This view is looking north-northwest before we got off.

An overview map showcases Montreal as truly an island.

From the observation tower are views in the other three compass directions. I am 80% sure this view is toward the west, with the water of the Prairies River in the far distance. The site of the Parc Olympique is much closer, just a few blocks, to the broader St. Lawrence River.

The gift shop at the top of the tower had souvenirs sporting the Canadian symbol of the beaver embellished with the logo of the 1976 games.

The lobby area at the top of the tower also displayed this striking photo of the complex with the Olympics rings, flags of the nations, and the torch when it was aflame in 1776.

After the return trip down from the tower, the guys chilled for a few minutes in the café-like setting in the lobby. We opted not to visit any more memorabilia within the tower structure.

It was fun however to soak in some of the legacy landmarks form the 1976 Olympics. There was a circular area where flags of the nations had once flown.

We had a closeup view and could actually touch the bronze plaque commemorating Romania's Nadia Comaneci's unprecedented perfect 10 in gymnastics.

I Googled and found some interesting trivia in Wikipedia and other sources about the 1976 Olympics in Montreal:

• At age 14, gymnast Nadia Comăneci of Romania became the first person to score a perfect 10 at the Olympics, recording seven 10.00 scores and winning three gold medals, including the All-Around. The scoreboard could hold only 3 digits and the score was shown as 1.00.

• The U.S. men's swimming team won all but one gold medal

• After a rainstorm doused the Olympic Flame a few days after the games had opened, an official relit the flame using his cigarette lighter. Organizers quickly doused it again and relit it using a backup of the original flame.

• The Olympics were an economic calamity for Montreal, resulting in costs of over $2 billion (1976) and leaving the city in debt for three decades. The debt was finally paid off in December 2006, thanks to a tax placed on the purchase of tobacco.

We looked at a map of the park and chose to visit the Biodome next. The Biodome had been in the foreground when we'd first exited at our Viau Metro stop.

Frankly, the Biodome architecture reminded me Kresge Theatre from our MIT days. But Kresge has a three point suspension and I believe the Biodome is different. The Biodome was formerly a velodrome, the stadium that was used for cycling events in the 1976 Summer Olympics. Four sections of the velodrome were repurposed to house four ecosystems.

The ecosystems are two forests in one half, an estuary area, and an arctic quadrant representing both north and south poles. A tropical forest replicates a South American Rain forest and you can feel the heavy humidity as you enter. There are birds and monkeys camouflaged among the greenery and even two crocodiles that barely moved. Here I am with a frog statue. I love his colors. We almost kinda match.

The Laurentian forest is like the North American wilderness. We saw owls among other creatures and plants. There was a estuary habitat modeled after the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. There was a polar area divided into the Arctic and Antarctic. This was a wall poster along our way to eat at the cafeteria. I am not sure which ecosystem this creature should be in – estuary because of the water, or rain forest waterways, or possibly even arctic waters. John thought the ray looked quite friendly though and wanted a picture of the two of them bonding.  

In the central area where the four quadrants of ecosystem met was a resting area with red velvet seating and walls paining red and covered with an entire series of animal crossing signs. I was amazed at the variety, and I made a collage of pictures of them from several walls and hallways. Half of us met there to rest a bit and decide our next course of action.

John & Sue and Joe then headed off to the Insectarium. Alternatively Frank, Margaret, and I opted for the Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan instead.

My memories of planetarium shows in the past are of a projected image of the night skies and a narrator or taped voice-over pointing out where the constellations were and which images in the night sky were planets. A huge, highly-evolved projector was typically used for these shows. In the lower level of the Montreal planetarium was one of these projectors, retired from service.

Margaret and I are standing next to one of these optical projectors to give a sense of scale. Astronomy has come a long way from those type of simplistic stars/planet displays. Though the displays may have been simplistic, the equipment to project those images was hardly so. It was HUGE. 

The most memorable and awe-inspiring experiences in the Montreal planetarium were two shows we saw in each of two theaters there. One show, in the theatre de Chaos (love the name) was a 3-D projection that portrayed the process of mining the asteroids for minerals. The seating in this small, round theatre was creative. It consisted of centrally located bean bag chairs, so viewers could lounge and slouch into the free form shape and look up. Alternatively, around the perimeter, were low Adirondak chairs with high slanted backs to allow the viewer a firmer seat, one in which to rest his head back while looking up. We chose the chairs doubting our ability to climb gracefully from within the amorphous blob of those bean bags upon the show's conclusion. I was the first to bend my knees and sit in one of the chairs. Ker-plunk and Ouch! That hard wooden seat was about 12" lower than my butt had anticipated. Margaret had watched me seat myself plus I warned her, "It's lower than you think...". She too dropped into position in a not entirely planned nor pleasant manner. Apparently, forewarned is not forearmed. Frank had seen us both sit and had heard the accompanying sound effects. His equally ungracefully descent was punctuated by a loud "Ooomph" and an exasperated hastily-modified expletive.

The 25 minute show projected on the dome was one of the mining of asteroids for minerals and how to modify the trajectory of any asteroids that might be headed on a collision course for earth. It was fascinating how the mining could be technically feasible. We hesitated to believe that such an endeavor could ever become economically feasible, but who knows what challenges the future may hold. Mining asteroids could prove to be a viable task.

We had 35 minutes to spare between shows. We used part of the time to discuss our process and sequence for assisting each other out of bean bag chairs in the next theatre. We thought we should at least give bean bags a try in lieu of the hard, way down, Adirondack seats. With a well thought out process and sequence of assistance, we could minimize the number of us floundering about down on our hands and knees after rolling out of the beanbag onto the floor. We also used the break in time to stop off at the restrooms. Here my penchant for signs led me to think these were worthy of a photo. These stylized figures call up images of rocket ships and boosters to me.

The second show was in the Milky Way Theatre. We walked into the dimly lit interior and were delighted to find tall, padded theatre type seating - no bean bags or Adirondack chairs! Aah, comfort...

The show in the Milky Way Theatre was a consolidation of data take from Mars probes and satellite photos and digital simulations. The viewer became immersed in a typical day on Mars and how surviving a sandstorm would feel. The geological evolution of the surface of Mars was also shown in a time lapse format. This show was 40 minutes long and every moment was absorbing, diving the viewer deep into ravines and canyons, driving through dunes and winds. It was not a prerecorded voice-over. The narrator talked his way though the show, not reading a script. He spoke in English with a lovely French accent that gave the show a real personal touch. The music for the multi-media presentation was composed by Dumas, a Canadian songwriter who is also a fan of astronomy.

After a full day at Parc Olympique de Montreal with tours of La Tour, the Biodome ,and the Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan, Frank and I headed back on the Metro to go to home base for the evening. John & Sue and Joe & Margaret got off the Metro midway to catch a French cuisine style dinner back in Old Montreal. Frank, a bit under the weather with a bad cough, opted to head to home base with me to rest. After emerging from the Snowden Station, the large red brick building to the right, we made an expedient stop on the corner opposite for a dinner that was convenient, quick, and effort effective. We dined on a superbly prepared meal of "nuggets de poulet" and "frites".

🐔🍟

Along our leisurely stroll from the Metro stop we took time to appreciate the gorgeous weather and I added to my sign collection. The fire hydrants are marked with a high up sign in addition to the plug itself. I wonder if that has anything to due with visibility when there is an accumulation of snow curbside in this northern climate.

The four-way stop signs have an additional bit of information beneath the red octagon itself. Similar signs throughout the city indicated when they were three-way stop intersections.

Once at home base Frank and I relaxed, put up our feet and read our books. When the rest of the crew arrived later, we browsed through the lateral thinking situations cards in a game called MindTrap We read them aloud and try to come up with the solutions without keeping any score. Oddly enough, I could not remember the title of the game for entering into this blog post. On a long shot, since I could remember the name of one of  the characters, I googled "card game with Sid Shady" and up popped MindTrap. I learned that this card game was originally released in 1991 (whew, a quarter of a century old) and was invented in Canada, of all places. How apropos! It was fun to play in a co-operative, non-competitive manner. I am providing two sample puzzles to end this post. The first one is easy. The second one was hard.

1)  A worm is at the bottom of a forty meter hole. It can crawl upwards at a rate of four meters in a day, but at night, it slips back three meters. At this rate, how long will it take the worm to crawl out of the hole?

2)  What word from group B belongs to group A and why? 

A) FRONT, SKI, MELON, FALL
B) ROAD, TIRE, TOWER, CLIFF                                                       

ANSWERS:

1) 37 days for the worm.

2) All the words in group A can be preceded by the word WATER. TOWER from Group B.