Our third day in Montreal took us up to Olympic Stadium and the Biodome!
The Montreal subway system is really nice (at least what we saw of it). And as you can see, VERY clean and very empty, even in the mid morning.
The metro drops you off right here at the stadium, but there is construction in between the stadium and the metro stop so you have to walk around it.
We had pre purchased tickets which was a smart idea on my part because there was a long line to buy them. There are four sections to the Biodome and the first we visited was the Tropical Rainforest where we were immediately greeted by some beautiful Scarlet Macaws!
Behind Grant, we discovered a golden lion tamarin taking a snooze!
There's also a small section for creatures that need to be kept behind glass. LIKE THIS GUY. He is a beautiful emerald tree boa!
There was also a big room with what seemed like a billion bats flying around (the kids called this the "COVID room" as they are convinced COVID started from someone eating a bat, which I will never hear the end of the incessant questions about why a guy would ever want to eat a bat!)
But then we saw THE most amazing thing - capybaras! This is by far Grant's favorite animal!
He was even asking if there would be any capybaras in the Biodome, and honestly, I said I doubted that there would be. BUT THERE WERE! (Can you see the one in the water behind the fallen tree?)
He was super excited when they got up out of the water and started walking around.
We also spotted a sloth walking (VERY SLOWLY) along the ceiling!
He was moving from one tree to the other and the ceiling provided a convenient pathway for him.
It was VERY warm in the tropical rainforest - I think Natalie might be melting here.
All the Baileys in the Biodome tropical rainforest.
Natalie was melting so we promised her that we would go see the penguins next. They were located in the Sub-Antarctic Islands ecosystem area and you literally walk through walls of ice to get to it.
This penguin walked around and came up real close to the window near Grant. This is a King Penguin and they live to be about 25 years old in the wild.
I don't know why, but this King Penguin reminds me of my grandpa!
This Northern Rockhopper Penguin must have thought we were gonna give him some snacks through the glass. He came right up to us and hung out for a while.
Grant got very excited when we realized there were puffins in the sub Antarctic zone because we had seen some of those in Iceland on our trip last year!
This puffin was HILARIOUS. He was putting on a show for us - he was swimming and spinning around, going crazy. It was so funny!
The Biodome has a virtual feature in many of the rooms. You can scan a QR code and your phone camera will automatically include an animal in the picture with you! Look out for that polar bear! It's hilarious because the three of us had no idea WHAT the animal would be or where it would show up in the photo (as you can tell by our expressions!)
Our next stop at the Biodome was the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The Atlantic Sturgeon spawn in fresh water (and live there for about 4 years) before moving to the north Atlantic along the St. Lawrence. A lot of people think this guy is a shark, but he's not!
The moon jellyfish were SO cool! Did you know that they are 98% water?
My favorite creature of the day- a purple crab! (If you're a member of the BTS ARMY, then you know!)
You can check out the Gulf of Saint Lawrence area from below, or from up above!
The Biodome makes it feel like you are on the hull of a ship when you are checking out the Gulf of Saint Lawrence ecosystem. My kids look like they're on a boat!
Our next ecosystem stop was the Laurentian Maple Forest where we spotted a busy river otter running around his habitat.
Nailed it with the wolf ha ha. He's sniffing Natalie!
TRASH PANDA!
Alas, we finally made our way out of the Biodome, stopping to have some lunch at the cafe on the way out. Which by the way, is a vegan cafeteria! I never really thought about it but how weird would it be if they were selling like, sushi at the cafeteria??? We eventually went next door to Olympic Stadium, but the Montreal Tower is currently closed for renovations!
Inside, there is a fantastic Olympic (!!) sized swimming pool. There is also a kids swimming area, a diving area, a pool with lifts for people who are physically impaired, and up above and to the left, there are full sized gyms.
Natalie is obsessed with the winter Olympics - particularly figure skating. She actually takes figure skating lessons!
One more view of the competition pool from the 1976 Olympics in Montreal!
I often feature pictures of Todd holding his beer in front of my face, but now I may have to start including all of the selfies Grant takes when he steals our phones!
Outside, there is a small memorial to the 1976 Olympics with the names of all of the athletes circling the Olympic rings. We even found Bruce Jenner's name on there! I actually snapped this picture as Todd was walking in front of me ha ha.
It was a legit bummer that the Montreal Tower was closed because it is the TALLEST leaning tower in the world! It leans at a 45 degree angle, is 165 meters tall and has a hydraulic system that keeps the cabin horizontal at all times. Unfortunately, it won't be open again until the fall of 2024. When the little girl in that picture above will be a senior.
Although it was finally paid off in 2006 at a cost of 1.46 billion dollars, this structure has had a HOST of problems throughout the years. The roof has ripped and been replaced multiple times (one time during a tractor pull!), 50 ton concrete blocks have fallen onto an exterior walkway, ice damaged the roof several times in the late 90s and most recently in 2012, a concrete slab fell down in the underground parking garage.
The area around the stadium seems really desolate. They have the Biodome, Insectarium and a planetarium, but they really could do so much more with it! There's very little in the way of restaurants for many blocks around the area.
We hopped the green line back to the downtown area where our kids wanted a few hours off, so Todd and I took off to do our own sightseeing! We really wanted to visit the Canadian Olympic Experience here at their HQ but it was closed because of COVID. Boo.
Todd took a picture of us in the mirror of the statue in front of the Canadian Olympic building.
Well, this is as far as we got!
Todd looks like he is trying to hold up the Olympic rings here. These rings were installed in 2015, and commemorate the three Olympic games that Canada has hosted (Montreal, 1976; Calgary, 1988; Vancouver, 2010) and the 42 medals that Canadians won during those three games.
Totally unexpected, but after our failed attempt to learn about the history of the Olympics in Canada, we stopped by St. Patrick's Basilica which was just right around the corner and it was BEAUTIFUL.
St. Patrick's was opened in 1847 due to the overwhelming number of immigrants from Ireland that had moved to Montreal because of the famine.
While Notre Dame is known for being the French speaking home to Catholics in Montreal, St. Patrick's is the English speaking Catholic church.
Well, my mother DOES call him Saint Todd...
St. Patrick's has many saints lining the entirety of the walls in the church.
We continued our stroll in search for colorful things, like Marc Sequin's H Anima...
...which was right across the street from the equally colorful Montreal Convention Center!
Ah. There he is. Good old Leonard Cohen (aka: NOT Frank Sinatra, for those of us who are visually challenged!)
We spotted the Love symbol in front the the LHotel, which bills itself as, "A marriage between boutique hotel and art gallery in Old Montreal."
More colorful art work featured in front of the LHotel in Old Montreal.
We stumbled upon the Centre de Commerce Mondial (aka: The World Trade Center) which was stunning, but billed itself as a place with "shops, restaurants and services" but we didn't see much of that. Perhaps we didn't explore enough! But we needed to get back to the kids so wouldn't miss our dinner reservation time.
But then we got sidetracked by a colorful parade of nations!
This parade went on FOREVER. We stopped and watched for about 15 minutes, but then went back to get the kids for dinner. When we came back out, it was still going on with no end in sight!
So many colorful flags of the world!
There was lots of colorful clothing, and plenty of music, singing, shouting and banging of drums.
We went to the Time Out Market for dinner, which was great because it provided everyone with options for dinner. Do you want Thai food? Sure. Sushi? Why not. Pizza? Of course, Grant. You can have pizza. Only here, we were reminded that we are absolutely NOT in Europe, because none of the food stalls sold beer or wine with their food. You could purchase beer or wine from a separate vendor, but only if you drank it in a special area (not in the main dining room.)
After dinner, Todd and I went up to the roof for a little post dinner happy hour before calling it a day. Another great (and very colorful!) day in Montreal!
