Canada: Museums galore!

Bonjour! Although, really, I should be back to saying hello now, since I'm back in anglophone Canada. To be precise, I'm in Ottawa, Ontario, capital of the country. It is disgustingly gloriously warm and sunny. I also have no more problems with language barriers. Hurrah. Here's what I've been up to since last week.

I'm English! I'm used to it!

In stark contrast to the current weather here in Ottawa, my time in Montreal began with rain. Lots of rain. Rain which just didn't stop. For about 24 hours. It drizzled a bit in the morning and I thought, this is fine. It's just drizzle. I'll go to a museum for a bit until it dries up.

So I went to the Chateau Ramezay, which is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city. Very interesting. They have the first registered car in Quebec, with the helpful reg number Q1. See - that's how you know it's the first.

I also overheard an excellent conversation between an English couple in which one had completely messed up his French. Or rather, misunderstood something relatively obvious. OK, so there's a little display about medicine in part of the museum and the game is to try to match the cure to the illness. One of the illnesses was epilepsy, another malady was menstrual cramps. Yeah.

The English chap had clearly muddled the two up and thought he was being super clever in telling his girlfriend that, to his amusement, a French term for period was "grand mal". "Haha," he says, "they call it the big bad." Technically, yes, I suppose that is what grand mal means. Unfortunately for him, grand mal is also a type of seizure. It had nothing to do with the woman on her period. I wondered if I should tell him, but he clearly thought he was being super smart and I was sort of enjoying smirking at his misunderstanding.

Random aside aside, the museum was great. Unfortunately, by the time I emerged from it, the rain hadn't stopped. In fact, it had got heavier. Fine, I thought. I'm English. I can deal with a bit of rain. So off I went, striding out into the downpour. This isn't so bad, I thought, just a bit more drizzle.

I wasn't in such a good mood by the time I made it to Pointe-a-Calliere. I was dripping. Actually dripping, to the point that there was a small puddle on the floor around my feet by the time I paid for my ticket.

Fortunately for me, Pointe-a-Calliere is a pretty big place. It's the museum of archaeology and history in Montreal and includes some exposed archaeology in the basement. Said exposed areas include the earliest cemetary in the city, dating back to the time of the first settlement there.

The museum also currently has an excellent exhibition of equestrian related things, courtesy of Hermes in Paris. Yes, that's Hermes who make the bags, but they began (and continue) as a saddler and as such have a huge collection of horsey things. Very cool.

And then, finally, it stopped raining. I had mostly dried off by then and I figured, instead of risking staying out and getting soaked again, I'd head back to the hostel. Woo. I live such a thrilling life.

What on earth is he doing to that goat?!

My second day in Montreal was dry, much to my relief. I spent a large part of it at the Musee des Beaux-Arts, at the suggestion of Renee who I met a couple of weeks back in Digby. They have the most amazing Pompeii exhibition on at the moment. Plenty of interesting bits, including this egg pan.

Yep, the Romans got there first. This rude statue, which was in a little room with a lot of other equally (and some even more) rude things.

Yeah, that was probably at the less rude end. There was a big statue in the middle of the room of Pan copulating with a goat. Yup. Romans.

Anyhoo, the exhibition also has some of the body casts. Pompeii has been on my bucket list for a while, but I figure seeing these guys will tide me over for now.

Although, it's probably not great that my first thought on seeing them was "holy crap, Weeping Angels!"

The museum also has a great section dedicated to African and Islamic art. They're not huge collections, but there were some beautiful pieces. Like this bowl from... Iran? I think?

I love the colours. And in the African section, this odd statue made by the Dogon people of Mali.

I see trees of green. Red roses too...

The next day was also beautifully sunny. I had initially planned on walking up Mont Royal and taking in the views of the city, but... I had a 3 day pass for the Metro and I figured I might as well make use of it. So instead I headed up to the Botanical Gardens.

The Gardens are right next to the 1976 Olympic Stadium, but I wasn't really interested in that. I figured I'd spend a few hours roaming the gardens and then head back to the city for some more exploration.

I ended up spending all day there. The gardens are huge and there was so much to see. First stop was the Insectarium which, yes, is like a miniature zoo for insects and other creepy crawlies. Spot the stick.

Then I had a wander through the trees and found a beautiful little clearing with some nice warm rocks to sit on. I spent a while enjoying the quiet and while I was there, this little guy joined me.

He seemed to be quite content to warm himself in the sun while I farted about with the camera trying to get something approaching a decent shot. Unfortunately, as I got up to leave, a little bird swooped on him. I think I saw him fluttering away and the bird took up a perch nearby, apparently not eating anything. I hope.

I was evidently in the mood for a lazy day, because a few minutes walk further through the gardens, I found a pond and spent another 20 minutes or so soaking up the sun before my knees felt like they were burning through my trousers and I moved.

After that, I wandered the arboretum and found some beautiful trees, like this pine of some sort which looks just like those Christmas trees with the fake snow.

On the other side of the garden, I found the tiniest little poison garden. A friend gifted me a book about poisonous plants a few years ago, so I thought this was fascinating. Fortunately, I am sane enough to know not to touch and moved on to the most amazing veggie garden. I want a garden like this.

Made me miss my veggie patch.

Only the greenhouses left after that. Highlight was probably these beautiful penjing trees. Penjing is the Chinese form of bonsai and actually predates that Japanese art.

Pretty good day all round. Plus, no sunburn courtesy of slathering myself in factor 30. I'm getting good at this.

Tourist Central

My final day in Montreal began with a trip to Notre Dame Basilica. I might not be religious, but I find churches fascinating and this one... wow. We don't really have churches this brightly decorated in the UK (y'know, what with it being mostly Anglican etc).

I spent a good hour or so in there, mostly just sitting and watching other people. It was very good for people watching.

After the relatively tranquility of the church, I braved Rue St Paul, otherwise known as Tourist Central (at least to me...). Quaint little cobbled streets, crammed with cafes and tat souvenir shops.

Not entirely to my liking. So I headed out to the Old Port complex, which also had little to keep me interested, but at least there were green spaces. And the river, of course.

Then I managed to be very organised and spent the evening booking accommodation and transport for the next few legs of my trip. This means I've managed to get a nice little AirBnB room booked in the small city of Kingston, because said city does not appear to have a single hostel. This is great because I now get to have a room to myself, even if it is only for a couple of nights.

I'm English. I don't do warm.

The next morning it was time to get back on a bus and head to Ottawa, capital of Canada (as I'm pretty sure I mentioned above...). My bus days seem to be becoming somewhat regular and also seem to leave me lethargic once I get to my new destination, which means I did nothing once I got to Ottawa.

This may have been at least partly due to the heat. I'd thought it was warm in Montreal. On stepping off the bus in Ottawa it was like stepping into a sauna.  Urgh. This was not helped by the relatively short walk to the bus stop to get to my hostel. The bus driver fulfilled the stereotype of "friendly Canadian" and helpfully told me a) when to get off the bus and b) directions to the road the hostel was on from the bus stop. Lovely chap.

Unfortunately, as soon as I stepped off the bus in downtown Ottawa, the heavens opened. And I mean, opened. It was a 5 minute walk at most to the hostel and by the time I got there I was dripping worse than the incident in Montreal. Water had got into one of my bags, so my favourite book (the only one I brought with me) now has slightly squiffy pages.

Land of Dinosaurs and Obnoxious Children

On the plus side, I'm lucking out with hostels so far and aside from not providing breakfast, this one is great. Yesterday, it being so very warm still and not wanting to get drenched again, I spent a large part of the day in the Canadian Museum of Nature. I am a massive science geek. This is well established. Surrounded by dinosaurs, stuffed critters and assorted madness, it should have been bliss.

And it was, save for the hordes of screaming children. I'm sure every single holiday club in the city must have brought their kids to that museum yesterday. Fine, when they're actually engaging with the exhibits. Not when they're just running around getting under my feet and generally being obnoxious.

I know. I'm being grumpy and unreasonable, but I like to enjoy my museums with a bit more peace. I found said peace in the Earth Gallery because small children have no interest (it seems) in rocks. I, on the other hand, do. Especially when they look like this.

Or this.

Or when they glow in the dark like this glorious lump.

Yup. Geekery ahoy! I also discovered, to my glee, that the special exhibition on the top floor was nearly deserted. Possibly because it was an extra $10 to get in, but I can deal with that when there are interesting dinosaurs galore and I have the place nearly to myself. This one had a mouth that looks like a vacuum cleaner. Don't ask why. Apparently it might have eaten low growing things. I'd say grass, but grass came after the dinos.

And this is Giganotosaurus, T rex's bigger, badder South American distant cousin. Oh, and me, because I'm told there are not enough photos of me being included in these things.

Having complained about the children on the lower floors, I made the most of them not being on this one and had great fun collecting all the stamps for the kids' "Dino Challenge" activity. Because I am cool like that and have no shame when it comes to museum activities even when security are giving me funny looks as I gleefully stamp my card yet again...

Ahem. Moving on.

It still being dry once I'd eaten, I decided to make the most of the National Gallery's late (and free) opening on Thursday evenings. This meant I got about an hour and a half browsing the galleries, which was great, plus it was a lot quieter than the museum earlier in the day. Some really gorgeous pieces, including a few Canalettos.

I love Canaletto. I don't really know why. There's just something about the way his work looks so... real, I suppose. I spotted that one from the other end of the gallery, peeping through the little archway. Then, to keep my sister happy, I went in search of some Pre-Raphaelites. I nearly walked past this one, before something in my brain went "I've seen that redhead before."

It's a Rossetti, who seems to have just painted the some redhead over and over again. I'm not sure which of his muses this one is supposed to be. My sister might be able to tell you. I think I was more amused that an artist named Dante had painted a scene from Dante's Divine Comedy.

[Google tells me the model is Jane Morris, by the way]

And then I found this bust of Nietzsche, which made me laugh purely for the ridiculously huge mustache.

Finally, outside the Gallery is this sculpture of a giant spider. I remember this from the last time I visited Ottawa nearly a decade ago. Still sort of creepy now.

I had considered walking back up to Parliament Hill for the light show, but the heavens opened once again and we got hit by an insane lightning storm. I tried and failed to take any photos of this. Well done me.

Did he just faint?

I did, however, make it to Parliament Hill this morning, where I got to watch the Changing of the Guard ceremony. Of course, this is something that happens in the UK as well, but hey, I'm a tourist and it's fun to watch.

I'm not sure it was as fun for the guards themselves in those heavy uniforms and ridiculous hats. Especially the young lad who had been second from left before I took this photo.

You might be able to see there's a gap in the front rank there. That's because the poor guy second from left fainted during the inspection. I saw him fumble with his rifle a minute before and then he just pitched face forward onto the grass. Poor bugger.

Anyway, having fulfilled my duty as a tourist and an English one at that to go and watch some weird English tradition being continued in Canada, I headed across the river and back into Quebec to visit the Canadian Museum of History. Another place I visited on my first trip here, although it was called the Museum of Civilisation then.

It's still amazing. This is the Grand Hall, which is pretty much the first place you go once you get in.

Totem poles galore. The museum presents a history of Aboriginal Canada, which stretches back thousands of years. I was intrigued to find that some of the West Coast cultures made use of nephrite jade tools, a similar material to the pounamu used by the Maori in New Zealand.

Oh, and I had lunch overlooking the river, just before it chucked it down with rain again.

Glad I spent most of the day inside again! Having piled my brain full of random facts about Aboriginal Canada, I moved on to the special exhibitions. Three of these on at the moment. The first is about carriages. I'm pretty sure I've seen Sherlock Holmes using one of these.

That is of course, the best Holmes, Jeremy Brett. Moving on. The second is about the gold rush in British Columbia in the mid 1800s. Some beautiful artefacts from other gold-mining areas, including this gorgeous, well made necklace of cast frogs from central America.

The detail on it is amazing. According to the scales on the way out, I would be worth over $2,000,000 if I was made of gold. Ah well.

And finally, an exhibition about Napoleon and his relationship with Paris. Some interesting drawings, none of which came out very well in my photos.

I resisted the urge to go in the Children's Museum, partly because it was pretty much only kids in there and apparently I do have some shame and partly because it was only about an hour until closing and I didn't fancy rushing it.

Well, I think that's everything up to date now. I have a couple more days in Ottawa and then I'm heading to Toronto via Kingston.

Someone point me in the direction of interesting Torontonian things.