Sunday, June 1, 2025
We headed to Tim Hortons to get a quick cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Tim Hortons is a fast food chain and they are everywhere in Canada and are a part of the Canadian culture. I try to stop by one every time I go to Canada. Although it is the first day of June, it was a cold, windy and wet morning.
We decided that we were going to try to navigate the Metro. The tour guides had mentioned that the same people who designed the Metro in Paris helped in the design of Montreal’s Metro. I looked at a map and thought I could navigate my way to the Biodome. I also learned that google maps gives step by step instructions.
The Metro was clean, safe and smooth; our previous tour guide mentioned that it uses Michelin rubber tires as opposed to the rails making it smoother and quieter. We had no problem getting to the Biodome.
The Biodome is housed in one of the Olympic Stadiums in the Olympic Park. Montreal hosted the Olympics in 1976. It was the year that Nadia Comaneci scored a perfect 10. At any rate, the velodrome was converted into a Biodome that houses 5 different habitats in North America – including the habitats of the gulf of St. Lawrence habitat, a tropical rainforest, a maple forest and a sub-polar region – complete with trees and animals.
I was very impressed. It was worth seeing. The only downside was the number of small children who were melting down.
As we left, I followed the signs to the Olympic Stadium tours but when we got there, there was a sign on the door that said the stadium was closed for repairs. Part of me was a little disappointed, I remember watching the Olympic on TV when I was young.
We took the Metro back to the area we were staying and as we get off the subway, we needed to use the restroom, so we went into a department store called “La Bais”. Things suddenly got weird, the clothing racks were all empty, some of them were disassembled, mannequins were stripped and lined up. People were buying mannequins, along with display cases.
As we headed out, I realized that the signs on the doors were in French and said something about going out of business. Later that day, I read a NYT article saying that the Hudon Bay Company was the oldest company in North America, it was founded in 1670 and after 355 years, it was going out of business and closing 80 of their remaining department stores. Part of me felt like we had stumbled onto a sad but historic moment.
We walked to Le Central, a food court where we shared pizza and poutine. I began to wonder, if I lived here, would I get sick of poutine?
We relaxed during the afternoon and later in the day we went back to TimeOut, a upscale food court in the mall around the corner from the hotel. We have seen a lot of Portuguese restaurants. We had tried Piri Piri Chicken in Bangkok and didn’t like it. We decided giving it another chance and we really loved it.
Recent Comments