Our Second Day in Montreal

Today we took a Hop On Hop Off bus tour of the city.  We started doing this in Dubai about ten years ago and found it a perfect way to get an overview and a feel for a place.  Then if we want to go back to an area we can, or we can "hop off" and see it right then and there as we did with the St. Joseph's Oratory.

A five million dollar Chihuly right in the middle of downtown Montreal.   Soon it will be dismantled for the winter because it wouldn't survive the brutal weather;  then it will be re-assembled in the spring.  The city has been doing this since it picked up the option to buy after the glasswork came on exhibit in 2013. Seems like a gargantuan task, but they are very proud of it. 

This is the St. Joseph Oratory--oratory yet another building designation of the Catholic Church.  In this case it is also a basilica and the third largest dome of its kind in the world after one in Cote d'Ivoire and St. Peter's in Rome.  The inside, while not as beautiful as Notre Dame Basilica, is austerely majestic.  The main Church holds 1,000 people.  Brother Andre Bessette founded the Oratory in 1904 but it didn't achieve its present grandeur until the 1950's.  Frere Andre achieved sainthood in 2010 due to thousands of miracles healing the blind, sick and infirm which were authenticated by Pope John Paul II.  Andre attributed the miracles to the intercession of St.  Joseph, thus the oratory's name. There is an entire wall covered with crutches and other memorabilia left by the cured; and a reliquary holds St. Andre's heart which he requested as a protection for his basilica.

This is a good view of the city from the appropriately named Mount Royal (Montreal), the highest point in the city.  The St. Lawrence River is in the background.

I was beginning to think there were no skyscrapers in Montreal, but there are.

Me, looking blown and bedraggled from sitting on the top deck of the tour bus.  We didn't have lunch until 3:00, back in the charming French charcuterie we had discovered yesterday.  A small snack of onion soup, pate sandwich and ham and brie crepe staved off starvation until dinner.

Tomorrow we begin the cruise!