Robot Claw

We were going to climb Mount Royal today (the mountain from which the city is named) but it was hot and we decided the effort may have been a bit much after the last two days so we returned to the Olympic park to visit the Insectarium, which we overlooked yesterday.

I visited this place with Jim when I was here 11 years ago, but the place has changed quite a bit. It’s a small museum/zoo dedicated to insects with only a few displays, but the quality of what they have is very high. After a walk through a simulation of an anthill, you enter a large dimly-lit circular room with dozens of displays of mounted insects, and it was mesmerizing.

The top row of displays were sorted by colour, from white to brown through the entire rainbow, and the bottom was sorted by category (size, wings, long legs, camouflage etc). It was fascinating seeing the incredible variety, and there must have been thousands of different insects in total. Our favorites were the metallic bugs and iridescent butterflies, which in some cases looked like they were fashioned of precious metals or gems!

As beautiful as the insects in this room were, the fact remains they were all dead. This made the next section – a massive butterfly ‘house’ – all the more impressive.

This was a large space with hundreds (thousands?) of butterflies. Everywhere you looked there were butterflies flying, sitting on a leaf or eating from a fruit buffet. There were dozens of species and sizes, and they even had pupae on display since they breed some of the butterflies on location. On average they live for only a month, and they track the lifespans by keeping track of individual specimens via stickers attached to their wings (bottom right in above pic).

While the Insectarium was small and (possibly) overpriced, I’d say it was worth it for the butterflies alone, especially if you’re a fan.

In the afternoon we explored some more of the Underground City (the above was part of a large fresco we found in a dead-end corridor), did some more shopping and ate some delicious food. And yes, that includes poutine, although you can guess which of us declined to sample that famous Canadian speciality!

That’s Kristin’s vegetarian breakfast skillet, which she said was great. We went to a breakfast restaurant and somehow avoided eating too much since the food was plentiful and delicious. As it turned out we’d need the energy!

The subway here is artistic and retro-futurist and reminds me of Paris or Berlin, which I’m happy to say since it makes me sound cosmopolitan. We took a train to the old 1976 Olympic stadium to visit the Biodome, which is an indoor zoo occupying the old Olympic velodrome.

In four large biomes animals can be viewed in convincing approximations of their native habitats. Some of these – like the tropical rainforest seen above – are so cleverly engineered it’s not at all obvious how the animals are kept in their enclosures since there’s no visible fences (and indeed some, like a sloth, are free to wander where they like in the vast space).

We saw lots of birds (including penguins in a very cold Antarctic biome), fish and many different mammals. It’s a wonderful attraction, probably the best of its kind I’ve ever visited, and definitely worth a visit if you’re ever here.

In the afternoon we explored the ‘underground city’, which is an expansive network of shopping centers and tunnels running under much of the downtown area. Apparently there’s a total of 32 km of tunnels, and although we didn’t explore them all we managed to travel about 2.5 miles underground as we made our way to the Old Port area on the St Lawrence river. This is a tourist destination full of restaurants and souvenir shops and – right on the river’s edge – this:

I’ve never seen a Ferris wheel I haven’t ridden, so naturally I had to ride this one as well! Kristins not a fan and waited down below as I threw them my $31.50 and hopped into my own private car (which normally seats 8).

The wheel was very tall, very smooth, and very comfortable. The weather was wonderful and I got lovely views of the city and the river. The ticket included three rotations and although I’ll admit it was on the pricey side I’ll say for me it was worth it. Recommended if you like Ferris wheels 🙂

Shortly afterwards the skies became threatening and we ducked back into the underground city for our return walk to the hotel. Our timing was fortuitous since a heavy rainstorm soon fell, but since we’d found the underground pathways we stayed nice and dry.

It was a long and tiring day. Will we have the energy for tomorrow’s plans? Wait and see…