Another massively long day for all concerned yesterday - although it actually hasn't finished yet. I'm writing this in our friends Craig and Anna's flat in the Petit Patrie district of Montreal. I took this photo many hours ago of Paul looking out of the window at the flat grey water north of Seattle, several thousand miles away on an Amtrak Cascades train to Vancouver. Our whistle-stop visit to the USA ended with a very pleasant 4hr rumble along the Pacific Northwest coastline, with sea views like this almost the entire way. Travelling by train in America can be infuriating at times, as they go so slowly, but also hardly anybody uses them so you're always guaranteed a spacious and comfortable ride.
So the next stop was Vancouver again, which was interesting given the recent comparisons we could make with it's near neighbour to the south. A few weeks before Christmas, the famous Stanley Park was heavily affected by a series of crushing storms. The much-vaunted seawall walk was still partly closed off because of the dangers of falling timber, and many of the inland woodland trails looked as if a tornado had passed through, shredding large trees and spilling branches everywhere. This old tree, which given the age of the city itself, could have been very significant, was one of many toppled. Telethons were in place to raise money for the lengthy restoration.
I was walking through Stanley Park as I had a grey wintry afternoon to kill before the next leg of the journey - the overnight redeye flight to Montreal. Obviously for those of you that know me, if I have a few hours to kill and an aquarium is within sprinting distance, I'll be there like a shot. Vancouver's is pretty good, large tanks of the usual suspects - although no giant spider crabs, so they lose a mark there. I got there quite late - our plane wasn't due to go until 11:30pm so there was no hurry - and I had the place almost entirely to myself. They had a great display of jellyfish, large Amazonian species, and an interesting walk-through aviary with bright pink ibis (ibises?) and parrots of every squawking colour.
However, the big draws were outside as a large concrete pool held four large sea otters, several assorted seals, four Pacific White Sided Dolphins, and four Beluga - the white whale. I have a hard time with this kind of thing. Admittedly it's slightly hypocritical given I'd just enjoyed hundreds of other marine animals in captivity, but the 'beluga show' was too much and after a couple of minutes I had to leave. Checking the aquarium's website, I found some are rescue animals and can't be released - indeed one of the sea otters is the last known survivor of the Exxon Valdez oil spill - but I've always found making them do tricks unpalatable. The trainer dropped a fish into their mouth as they revolved in the water - it just isn't right. So I left the aquarium, and headed back downtown to pack my stuff for the flight.
And later that day, here we all are in Montreal - the 77th biggest city in the world, and the second largest French speaking one, after Paris. This was taken on the docks in a piercingly cold day of around 0°C and windchill on top. The cold I'd developed over the last few days made it all the chillier (I always seem to get one on my travels). Our Quebecois friend Craig (although he's from Oswestry) is pointing out something of note to Alison, as Paul and Craig take photos in the distant background. Our flight over was pretty awful, short and cold, yet the 4hrs was extended to 7hrs by the time difference to negate any sleep I tried and failed to get. We landed at 7am this morning, and it was straight into another full day of holidaymaking without respite, although the fruity pancakes at the Coyote Cafe gave a welcome boost.
According to Wikipedia - Montreal has 'a daily average January temperature of −10.4 °C (13 °F)', so 0°C has to be something of a lucky escape, although it is still noticeably colder than Vancouver - and expected to drop to -8°C over the next few days. That's not as bad as some though, I saw a Canadian forecast for Yellowknife in the far North which they reckoned would get to -43°C when the windchill was included. Now that's parky. Plenty of excuses to nip inside to places like this - the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal on the Place d'Armes in the old quarter. Wandering around looking at things like this is great, but takes it's toll, especially when you haven't had much in the way of sleep over the past 36hrs. I'll be lying in tomorrow. Probably.
