Day 46 - Old and Underground Montreal

No rain was forecast for today so we wandered back through Old Montreal. A shop selling gourmet foods and tourist trinkets also served pastries and coffee. My decaf latte was the best I have had in 6 weeks!

We walked to the St Lawrence River through the western side of Old Montreal. The Lachine Canal was opened in 1825 allowing ships to avoid the Lachine Rapids about 10kms upstream. The canal is now only used by small craft which can navigate the 14km waterway and 5 remaining locks.

The city is deciding what to do about the historic silos and malting factory which were used for storing barley and processing it into malt. They were built in 1905 when all ships headed for the Great Lakes passed through the Lachine Canal. These days cargo is off loaded from ships further downstream and moved out on goods trains. This one was so long it took 15 minutes to pass.

I went to the touring World Press Photo Exhibition 2019 at Marché Bonsecours, a former market building now housing restaurants and boutiques. The collection was pretty depressing, focussed mostly on tragic situations around the world. The poster advertising the exhibition suggested a more light hearted collection - that's Trump pulling Macron by the hand like a little boy.

There are so many wonderful historic buildings in this city. Here are a few we admired during our often aimless wanderings.

Montreal also has an extensive underground city connecting many downtown buildings and Metro stations. There are 30kms of passageways and 1600 shops and restaurants under hotels, office buildings and roads. The Underground was called the Réseau (network) but has been renamed the Reso, adopting a commonly used phonetic spelling. We found it challenging to navigate the Reso and Google maps was no help.

 

The glass roof and walls conect several buildings. This wonderful statute is positioned facing a large infinity pool inside the complex of old and new buildings.