Brennan's Adventures in the World of Science: Montréal Day Nine

I was running a little late this morning as I woke up at around 10 and was meant to be meeting everyone at Sherbrooke metro station at 11!! However, I managed to have a shower, get dress and ready to be out of the door but 10:45, meaning that I arrive just a lil after 11 (but not too late!). We headed up from Sherbrooke station to a park nearby called Parc Fountannie, stopping at a bakery on the way to pick up some fresh baguettes and some goat cheese. At the park we headed to a bench by the lake and on the way noticed a white/albino squirrel!! It looked very out of place! As we started eating we started getting a lot of interest from the local bird (pigeon & seagull) populations, as well as one rebel squirrel which kept come and running around us. At one point he actually jumped on to Garry’s leg!! He seemed to disappear for a bit, however before we knew it he was on the bench next to us, crawling along, ready to pounce!! It was most funny yet scary. We fed the squirrel some broccoli, which it wasn’t very interested in... and then some bread, which he squirreled away up a nearby tree.

Albino Squirrel

Ready to Pounce

Hayley, Jenna and Garry

After our picnic brunch/lunch we said our final goodbyes to Garry who was off to catch a plane to France as part of his climbing world tour. Hayley, Jenna and I headed down Rue Berri in search of the UQAM-Berri Bus station. At the bus station Jenna and Hayley grabbed their bus tickets for the airport – at this point we then said goodbye to Hayley who was off to Cleveland.

As Jenna had a few more hours to kill we decided to head up Parc Mont Royale. After lots of map consolations we managed to find a park entrance and started headed up the ‘mountain’. It was actually quite a hard trek up the paths, and then we were had to tackle the long flights of stairs to the ‘top’... well actually it wasn’t even the top, it was just a lookout and afforded us a fantastic view of the city. We stayed out at the top there for quite awhile, just letting the views sink in and watching numerous joggers and walkers running on the paths and up and down the stairs. I felt pretty tired just from watching them. We then headed down back into the city and stopped into a juice bar, reminiscent of Boost Juice.

View from the top lookout

On the metro I said goodbye to Jenna who was leaving that afternoon back home to London town. I instead headed back to downtown to see the Basilique Marie-Reine-Du-Monde Cathédral, which is apparently based on St Peter’s Cathedral in Rome but at a one-quarter scale. The outside is the fantastic gothic looking building with I think about 13 statues out the front and the inside is again very decorative and amazing.