Montreal--day 6

This morning, we made a lucky mistake. We walked into what we thought was a Metro station, and, indeed, it used to be one, but it is now part of the University of Quebec at Montreal. The halls of the old station now contain bookstores, school supply stores, coffee shops, activity registration tables and information centers.

Later, we walked through the beautiful campus of McGill University up to Parc du Mont-Royal, Montreal's "mountain." We were not able to see that much of the park--that would have taken a few days--but we did have a great walk, saw Beaver Lake and the impressive sculpture garden, and visited the old chalet. We never made it to the spot where the giant cross is located, nor did we see the monument to Sir George-Etienne Cartier; it was very cold and windy, and there was only so much walking we could do.

The views from Parc du Mont-Royal are lovely, and the air is crisp and clean. The park, by the way, was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. During the summer, people come to the east slope of Mount Royal on Sundays and play tam-tams.

Late this afternoon, we returned to Old Montreal so we could be there when the lights went on. Old Montreal has a lighting plan that enables major buildings and monuments to light up at various times, until the entire area is filled with light. Or so they say. We went to some of the major spots in Old Montreal, whose lights look so impressive in photographs, but--as far as we could tell--not much happened. We did admire the lights of the Bank of Montreal and of Hotel DeVille, but we failed to see any particular lights come on in other key places. I am still puzzled by this, and we were, needless to say, disappointed.