Well, there is the city you can tour on two wheels, and the portion that can only be toured on two feet.
After sleeping in and simultaneously treating Susan to a surprise visit by our eldest son, his girlfriend Vicky, and our daughter Lauren, we devoted the day to man-tasks in the garage and driveway.
Cars and Vespa were washed, and Bob prepped his BMW R1200R for the ride west to Vancouver. I offered to wash Bob's bike, but I think he liked the look of the road grime. It fit in well with the ADV stickers on the side cases. When he wasn't looking I wiped the side cases clean.
Copyright 2013 Bob Leong |
Copyright 2013 Bob Leong |
We unanimously decided that dinner could wait until after the show, and after whatever Bob and I would be doing.
The five of us piled into the car and headed downtown, where Bob and I dropped the movie-goers off. We parked the car in the underground parking lot at Place Montreal Trust and set off on foot.
No visit to Montreal is complete without a visit to the underground city. Since it was Saturday evening, some portions of the underground were closed off, but there there was enough that remained open to give Bob a good understanding of the scope and scale of the underground that has been growing and growing since the underground city began in the early sixties centered around Place Ville Marie and Central Station.
We walked indoors from Place Montreal Trust to Place Ville Marie as I tried to explain to Bob just how vast the network of malls and passageways had become. After emerging at Place Ville Marie, we backtracked north on the surface to Ste-Catherine Street, the age-old shopping district. Bob was very impressed with the flagship Birks' store and took a photograph of the massive forbidding doors.
Copyright 2013 Bob Leong |
The Quartier des Spectacles is now a vast pedestrian mall, with outdoor theatrical lighting, acres of outdoor space, the opera house, the museum of contemporary art, smaller theaters, restaurants, and fountains.
Bob determined parts of the entertainment district to be photo worthy.
Some of the fountains are of the leap-out-of-the-ground-uplit-programmable variety and we just couldn't resist getting our feet wet.
Copyright 2013 Bob Leong |
Copyright 2013 Bob Leong |
Copyright 2013 Bob Leong |
Copyright 2013 Bob Leong |
Copyright 2013 Bob Leong |
Copyright 2013 Bob Leong |
A long walk later, having gone from the Palais des Congrès, to the World Trade Centre, to the International Civil Aviation Organization, to Place Bonaventure, to Central Station and back to Place Ville Marie, we ended up basically back where we started from, having done a rather large loop. By rather large, I mean miles, and miles.
To be honest, I was a little concerned that I had committed Bob's feet, and his pink crocs, to a much longer walking tour than he had bargained for. I don't think any harm was done. Besides, how else to prepare for a late, late, late, dinner?
Now that we were once more above ground, it became somewhat clearer what was happening on McGill College Avenue that had pre-empted my parking and strolling plans on Friday. It was some kind of weekend-long fashion event. The pulsating techno beat reminded me more of Berlin's hyper-cool night scene than anything I'd ever seen in Montreal.
Bob took a little video that captures the mood reasonably well. A light rain was falling but it didn't seem to dampen the festivities, whatever they were.
We chatted, ate the pizza, and headed home.
Another fantastic (and final) day on the 2013 Blogger to Blogger Tour in the bag.