Montreal Botanical Garden July 2013 trip

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The family took a vacation to Montreal, Canada this past week. Montreal is a very pretty and vibrant city. A mostly French influenced culture. Architecture was european-like and although English is widely spoken, French is the dominant language. Here are some photos from the half day visit to its botanical garden.

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It was a very warm day. Temps were in the 90s (F). A strong cool front moved through later in the day and it relieved the heat wave. However, the next few days the temps were very mild and cool at night (High 70F, Low 50F). Many of the locals were complaining of the heat. Some relished it however and said they don't get many hot days like that. But, to me it was very much an uncomfortable Florida-Hot day.

Montreal hosted the 1976 summer olympics. Here is the stadium still standing. It was very amazing to look up at this thing throughout the whole garden. It was like a dark overlord alien looking down on its minions. It was right outside the botanical garden. Montreal has a great subway system and these parks were right next to a substation.

Click on thumbnails for larger photo:

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Anybody feel like a puppet on a string?

Walk up to main entrance of botanical garden.

This structure was pretty crazy looking. You can go up to the top and they say its a good view. We didn't make it up there but I talked to a friend who has and he said its an amazing view. The elevator is at a slant as well.

Beautiful scenery was everywhere. A good place to tug along a camera.

You can check the wiki page of Montreal Botanical Garden for the detail, but there is an extensive greenhouse exhibit here along with acres upon acres of outdoor plantings. It was one of the top botanical gardens I've ever been to. Its also a great place to get some excercise. Its a long walk and we wear fitbits and recorded over 5 miles in about 3 hours.

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A trip thru the greenhouses:

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The greenhouse's were separated according to growing requirements. Above photos were obviously desert plants. The next were tropical.

Begonia

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They had a small palm collection.

A very tall Syagrus schizophilla

screw pine

A Mister Stinky

Tallest spindle palm I have ever seen. In Canada no less!

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Bromeliad section...Well done Montreal!

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Tropical fruit section. I didn't take many photos in this one. But, they had mango, lychee, fig, jakfruit and a ton of other fruit trees in here.

A cocoa tree in bloom

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That bottom photo was a artful mobile made with plastic waste products.

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Outside shots now. They had a ton of topiary in the garden. Also, different sections were dedicated to gardening styles. A french, chinese, japanese, and rose style gardens. There was a lot to see. We mostly walked through quickly and planned to enjoy the garden through photography later as it was WAAAAAAY too hot and humid this day. LIke mentioned a strong storm moved through in the afternoon and downed many trees in parts of Montreal.

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Interesting use of bismarck palms

Old Man Planting a Tree

End of Montreal Botanical Garden photos.

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The architecture of Montreal is a mix of old greek, some gothic, victorian, red brick, renaissance, with some modern. There were a lot of grafitti tattoed on the buildings. Some of it good, most of it bad. Montreal has a grafitti problem and I get the sense they try to control it as much as possible. There are a lot of artistic people who live in Montreal. I guess tagging buildings is a show of that. They need an outlet so... go paint a building. Like I said some of it was interesting. But, mostly grafitti is an eyesore in my opinion.

Walking the streets of Montreal and I got a feeling that it was slightly european with more leanings towards manhattanish. There were a lot of young and beautiful people walking through the streets. Especially at night. Our hotel was obviously right in the middle of downtown party central as there were free music festivals, discos, and major party events taken place.

Here are my photos of the old churches in Montreal. There were a ton.
It seems on every turn of the corner there was another interesting
building.

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I should of made a video of the two guys in the above shot playing the pipe organs in that church. The sound was amazing!

This Statue was for King George. Old statue. I would have to google to date it. Although Canada is an independent country it is still a commonwealth of Great Britain. There is a lot of history here. Battles against the French, England, Indians, and ties with the American Revolution, etc...Montreal has a great mix of people. It seems like everyone is living in peace with each other. I did feel some riffs between English speaking and French speaking Canadians. But, overall it is just seems like a mild rivalry now.

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I'm sorry, I just read the caption on the statue. It was for King Edward VII. Built in 1914. So, not for King George.

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from wiki:

Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. He was the first British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Before his accession to the throne, he served as heir apparent and held the title of Prince of Wales for longer than any of his predecessors. During the long reign of his mother, Queen Victoria, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite.

The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including powered flight and the rise of socialism. Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet, the reform of the Army Medical Services,[1] and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War. Edward fostered good relations between Great Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII

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This roman catholic church was amazing...

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Just some buildings and some random scenery shots in the same vicinity of that church above. That church was amazing to walk through. Photos don't do it justice.

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Walking down to the metro (subway) was kind of like being in a matrix movie...

We being "subway-newbees" had a funny episode here. First off we stumbled in and not knowing anything about subways had to study a map, speak broken french to the attendent, purchase tickets and figure out what we are doing. To say the least, we were a little intimidated.

Well, the train pulls up and we jump in. It was crowded and no seats available so my wife decided to jump off and get into another car. Well, zoom...the doors close and she is left behind. All we could do is just wave at each other as the metro pulled away. It was a surreal feeling. Would we ever see her again?!? It was like being in a movie (sort of). Like when people ditch others in spy movies. Bye Bye, as we waved to each other!

We finally were reunited down the rail and a the wrong sub-station (of course). But, we survived our first subway ride. We were old-hats the second time we did it though and the metro is a great way to get around the city.

photo of our hotel:

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A short walk from the hotel is Old Montreal. This is where the city was first founded and built up along the St.Lawrence River. The buildings are really really old and european like. Lots of tourism in this area. Sidewalk cafes, shops, and old architecture. A nice place for a stroll and photography.

Gourmet food was easy to find here.

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Montreal is home to many summer time music festivals. An African Music festival was happening when we were there and a short walk from the hotel. Best thing was it was free and the music was good.

Angélique Kidjo Montreal's African Music Festival, July 2013

youtube video I made:

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We hiked up Mont Royal. Mont Royal is how Montreal got its name. Its a short mountain that overlooks the whole city. McGill University sits at its base.

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here is quick video on youtube of the view on top of Mont Royal:

I'll post photos of the very photogenic Quebec City later tonight.

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We took a 3 hour train ride to Quebec City. It was a relaxing way to travel. However, we were a little aprehensive after hearing about the terrible and tragic runaway train accident that happened in Quebec the week earlier. Also, that train wreck in Spain just happened while we were boarding on the way back. So relaxing, yes, but that thought was always with me on being in a train wreck. Luckily we survived though.

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Here is our first look of the hotel we stayed at. Its a fine hotel indeed. The Chateau Frontenac is a famous place and holds a lot of history. It was like staying in a castle. We had the cheap rooms, but it is was still top notched.

I'll throw all the hotel photos in one bunch so you can skip them easier or check them out. Yes, hotel photos can be boring. But, this hotel bills itself as the most photographed hotel in the world. I can see why. Actually the whole section of the walled city of old Quebec City is very photogenic. I'm sure there are better photo albums you can check out from professional photographers with better equipment than my cheapo point-n-click one !

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Some random street photos. The ones with a lot of people in it are from the night Sir Paul McCartney played an open air concert in Quebec City. We were too cheap to buy the $100+ tickets to the show so we just set up a blanket right outside the gate and heard him perfectly. It was a long show and went past 11pm so we left early and it was surreal walking the streets back to the hotel while listening to old beatle songs. "All the lonely people...where do they all come from..." was one such song I heard. It was interesting to say the least.

We really didn't know what to expect from Quebec City and were all ready impressed with Montreal. But, I would recommend this city for a romantic getaway. It is very scenic. Quebec City was icing on the cake for our family vacation. Weather was cool and one night I actually needed to wear a sweater...in July ?!? It didn't seem like Quebec City was into landscaping as much as Montreal was but they have the old school european architecture down. If someone plopped you down here blindfolded, you would think you were in some ancient city of Europe.

Look up the history of the city. It goes back to the 1600s. Quebec City is much more French speaking as well. In Montreal it seemed everyone spoke engish. Signs were in both French and English. Quebec City not so much. I got the feeling English was frowned upon here. But,whatever, that is part of its charm. Beer translates in French as Biere...so I managed some how!

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A few more photos and I'm done. Right outside Quebec City is a short bus ride to Montmocery Falls. This was a neat waterfall to check out. Supposedly its taller than Niagara Falls, but in my opinion no where as impressive. Two summers ago we did Niagara falls for a family vacation. Niagara is very impressive and should be on everyone's bucket list to check out up close. Montmocery was neat in its own right though. A few photos and a video at the end...then I'm done boring you with family vacation photos. Sorry there weren't more palms in it...but, its Canada...eh?

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The End. And, as a reminder click on the thumbnail for a larger photo.

[Harry]

Wonderfull tour !!

Thanks for posting