… the disasters were quite limited today and I had something of an interesting day.
One of the things that I’ve been doing each time that I come here is to go to the end of the line of a different metro line to see what goes on there, and I’ve exhausted them all. But I’ve been a regular traveller on Bus 202 when I was out in the sticks and never seen what’s at the end of that. And so that was today’s plan.
I’d had a reasonable sleep, which always seems to put me in a better humour. And I’d been on my travels too. I was teaching an “English as a foreign language” course and at the interval I had some goodies to share out. But for that I needed some spoons and the ones in my drawer were so dirty – so I went off to wash them. It took ages too and in the end the person who was supervising me suggested that I abandon the treat that I had lined up, went back to my classroom and re-started the lesson a little early so that we could finish early and go home.
Breakfast was at Tim Horton’s as usual and I made full use of their internet. I noticed on one of these mapping sites that it’s possible to download maps for off-line use, so I downloaded a map of Canada just to be on the safe side. I’ll download a few others too while I’m at it.
After spending a few hours back here doing some work I went out to hit the Metro. And here I had quite a major surprise too.
Regular readers of this rubbish will remember that the metro trains here were old, filthy things from when the lines were built 50 years ago and had received nothing in the way of upgrade ever since then.
Well, all of this has changed.
There are still plenty of the old trains knocking about on the system but there are also some shiny new ones and I was lucky that the one that I wanted was one of those.
They are clean, nicely illuminated with “traffic lights” on the doors and you can walk the whole length of the car.
With them being open like that you can see some interesting views as the trains snake their way around the system and it occurs to me that at some point I might do a video of it.
I found a nice length of track that would be suitable.
Regular readers of this rubbish will also recall that last year on my travels I saw a really nice church and took a photo – but forgot to note the name.
That was on my list of things to do and so I went off for a little perambulation; seeing as I was in the vicinity.
And my luck was in too, and doesn’t that make a change?
Some guy was loitering outside doing stuff and seeing me admire the building he came over for a chat
He told me that it’s the Eglise Ste Croix and its claim to fame, because it certainly has one, is that it was moved here stone-by-stone 80 years ago (1931 as I was to find out later) during some redevelopment work.
Today it’s a museum and as there was some kind of event going on there, I was allowed to enter it for a look around.
I couldn’t take my bag (or my camera unfortunately) in there with me but I managed to smuggle in the telephone, and the results aren’t too bad, I suppose.
Although I wish that the stained glass windows had come out better.
There were all kinds of exhibits in there, mostly relating to works by local craftsmen through the ages.
Lots of carpentry – 18th and 19th-Century furniture and the like but it wasn’t possible to photograph them.
Here in a quiet, discrete corner there was the possibility to photograph this group of religious statues which I found quite impressive.
And so back to the DuCollege metro station down the road and the Bus 202. And off we set down to the end of the line, with me making careful note of where all of the bus stops for the interesting places like IKEA were.
You can do that now because with the modernisation of the Montreal Public Transport system that seems to be taking place, they have a stop-announcement system as the bus is driving – “prochain arrêt Cotes de Liesse Cavendish” which is where you alight for IKEA.
There are roadworks going on all over the motorway network here in Montreal right now, and when we were here last year I showed you why.
This year, our bus stops at the traffic lights right by another fine example of Quebecois motorway engineering.
The whole system is like that.
Our bus stops at the Dorval railway station – which I’m determined to try out one of these days – and then turns off into “Dawson”, which is the street where it is supposed to finish. And I prepare to alight.
But instead, the driver changes the headboard sign and we continue on. I wasn’t expecting this.
We skirt the huge Lac St Louis which is absolutely beautiful and where I was expecting to go for a walk, but we still carried on driving. For hours, it seemed.
But all good things come to an end and we fetch up at a huge shopping centre on the edge of the city.
And I’ve been here before because there’s so much that I recognise. And the funny thing is that we aren’t all that far from the airport. but what a road we took to get here.
I go off to organise lunch and then for a good prowl around the Walmart and the Home Depot down the road. Couldn’t find a Canadian Tire but there must be one somewhere in the vicinity.
I have two choices of going back to the city – one is to retrace my steps on the 202 and the second is to find the express bus 485 that operates in the vicinity.
I eventually track that down and leap aboard. A few stops around the immediate area and then onto the motorway into town, with a stop at Dorval railway station and the persistent queues in the roadworks and rush-hour.
I’m dumped at the Lionel Groulx Metro Station and take the metro to the Place d’Armes.
It’s a different way to the Old Port from the one that I usually take and I’m glad that I came this way.
There’s not much left of the original dockside buildings of the mid-19th Century when the port was in its heyday but I manage to stumble on one of the very few surviving areas.
This is just how the place – or any Victorian city in the British Empire – would have looked 150 years ago abd I bet that it won’t be here much longer.
And bingo! I strike it luck down on the Vieux Port.
We passed the ice-cream van yesterday and I hadn’t paid much attention to it. But today, in the heat, I give it a close examination and there we are! Vegan ice-cream!
Of course I cannot let an opportunity like this pass me by, can I?
Several ships in the harbour too; including our old friend Manitoba who still seems to be there from last year
I couldn’t read the names of most of the ships but this one seems to be the Federal Spey.
Although she’s in the colours of the Canadian Shipping Lines she’s another one of these that’s registered in the Marshall Islands, something possibly not unconnected with the fact that Corporation Tax for maritime activities in the Marshall Islands is just 3%
And people are so upset about refugees receiving a couple of hundred dollars!
And we had a miracle in Montreal too.
As I was walking by St Pauls … errr … I mean – the docks; the sun suddenly appeared through the clouds right between the arms of Jesus outstretched on top of his church or whatever it is.
Nothing wrong with a bit of divine intervention every now and again.
I carried on to my usual spec at the clock tower to sit on the steps, watched a young girl of about 3 playing with her parents, and admired the Manitoba and the Pont Jacaues Cartier.
They say that a good many historical places in the New World are named for the Europeans who discovered them.
And I’ve often wondered what Jacques Cartier must have said when he arrived here on 2nd October 1535 and discovered this bridge.
My road back into town took me past the Marché Bonsecours.
This is one of the most spectacular buildings still remaining in the old city and we’ve visited it a few times.
In fact on one occasion last year I crashed out in the coffee bar when I had a funny turn when I was out a-walking.
Luckily I’m feeling a little better this year than I did back then.
This group of people caught my eye, all dressed in white.
And if you want to know what they are doing, you have to ask them. And so I did.
It’s one of these crowding things, apparently. They all assemble at a certain spot and these are off to eat a sandwich somewhere in the city -in the street.
They’ve even brought their chairs with them
It’s not possible for me to come here without going to see the most beautiful building in the whole of Montreal.
This is the Gare Viger – the old Canadian Pacific railway station that was abandoned when they CPR pulled out of the east of Canada and is a sad reminder of the collapse of the Canadian railway system.
Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that it was in a very sorry state and threatened with demolition at one time – which would have been a tragedy.
It has however been undergoing a programme of renovation and as luck would have it, a workman had nipped outside leaving the door open.
It goes without saying that as he nipped outside, I nipped in behind him and took a few photos before I was thrown out.
I have to say that I don’t think all that much of the renovations, but at least it’s been saved for the future – something that 5 years ago was looking very unlikely.
Now I’m sure that I can’t be the only one who sees the total irony in these two signs next to each other at the Chapelle de Notre Dame de Lourdes/
One of them reads “this church was erected in the Glory of Mary thanks to the generosity of her Friends” and the second one reads “it is strictly forbidden to loiter or to seek alms whether inside or outside the Chapel”
It’s this kind of thing that gives the Catholic Church the kind of bad reputation that it has today.
On this point I went off to a Lebanese restaurant that I’d noticed the other day and they served an excellent assiette falafel with diced potatoes. And didn’t that go down a treat?
Now it’s off to bed for an early night. My last day in Montreal tomorrow and I need to be on form because I’m on the overnight bus tomorrow night.
No sleep for me!
