This weekend, Rosa and I went back to Montréal for a weekend of shopping and sight-seeing.
We arrived on a sunny Saturday afternoon and went immediately to the Saint-Laurent shopping area. Rosa went off shopping and I walked around with my camera, although I didn’t take very many pics. I had a nice snack and a drink, walked up and down the street and popped into a few of the interesting stores. I was looking in the used-clothing stores for props that I could use in future photo workshops. Although I did not buy anything, I did get a good idea what was available.
Rosa and I met later in the afternoon and she continued to shop until the stores closed. We had planned to visit Saint Joseph’s Oratory on Mount Royal, but we ran out of time during the day.
We went out for dinner at Ferreira Café Trattoria, a stylish Portuguese restaurant. We both had fish.
After dinner, we checked in at the Loews Hôtel Vogue, which was only feet from Sainte-Catherine, although Rosa did not do any shopping there as she found more on Saint-Laurent. The hotel was exquisite, but was a little more expensive. The location would have been fantastic, had we spent more time in the area shopping.
Sunday morning was dedicated for visiting Le Biodôme de Montréal. This was something I wanted to do, and Rosa was interested as well. Originally built as a velodrome for the 1976 Olympics, it was converted into its current biological exhibition facility in the late 1980’s. It houses four main ecosystems from the Americas: Tropical Rainforest, Laurentian Forest, Saint Lawrence Marine Eco-System and a Polar area (with both North and South Polar regions represented). There was so much to see, from marmoset and macaws in the trees to caimans in the water, a busy beaver and sunbathing river otter, lots of fish, the iconic East Coast puffin, shorebirds, and penguins. I really enjoyed the visit and could go back again to take more pictures!
After Le Biodôme, we went back to Saint-Laurent and had lunch at another Portuguese restaurant, Casa Minhota. It was quite good and we enjoyed the meal.
The afternoon was spent shopping, shopping and more shopping.
At the end of the day, we had a bite to eat in a café. We saw a lot of people walking out of a side street, so we investigated. It was some sort of Portuguese festival. There was a singer on a stage, lots of people walking around or listening. We watched for a little while and then we left for home.