Day 74: Montreal - Two - Grampies Iberian Inquisition Spring 2023

May 14, 2023

Day 74: Montreal - Two

Biodome

The dramatic stadium from the the 1976 Olympics still remains, and it situated in the middle of the Olympic Park, which includes a planetarium, insectarium, and our objective today, the Biodome. The Biodome occupies the former velodrome from the Olympics. It has been developed into four ecozones - a tropical rainforest, a sub-artic - with penguins, and two more local ones - the Laurentian maple forest, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. None of these is exactly huge, but they do take you into the environment and display some of the more significant land and aquatic plants and animals.

It's a challenge to move from zone to zone. The tropical one is really warm and steamy, while the sub arctic has ice walls.

It makes no sense in this cycling blog to do a review of a biosphere, but there were some nice photo ops, worth sharing:

The dramatic architecture of the Olympic installation.

This is a great place to come in a cold Montreal winter.

Just like the Macaws we met in Portugal, these bird are not good at posing for photos.

We assumed these would be piranhas, and maybe they are, but Google identifies them as "Myleus". Most are vegetarian, but of course there is the piranha fame for ripping apart animals, like capybara. A sign said don't put your hand in, but that probably was so that people would not bug the fish.

We take this to be a green tree python. Sure looks comfortable!

Although the tropical section was almost mandatory, the biosphere devoted most space to nearby ecosystems - the nearby maple forests and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The penguins are so funny. I think this is the first time we have seen them in person. There were several varieties in the display.

That's all for today folks, he seems to say!

Postscript: Sabrina and I took a walk to one of the excellent local bakeries, this one called Arhoma. Among the goodies on offer was one they called a "Chocolatine". "What's that?", I asked, because I am sure I had never seen this name before. But it turns out there is a story to this. A "Chocolatine" is nothing more or less than a "Pain Au Chocolat", a standard in every French bakery on the planet. But Sabrina maintained this is and always has been a "Chocolatine".

Wikipedia sheds some light on this, reporting that the term "Chocolatine" is used in south west France, and Quebec. In Paris, and the rest of France, "pain au chocolat", of course. It's strange, because the links of Quebec are to Normandy, and not the south west.

To add to any confusion, apparently in Belgium this is a "couque au chocolat" and in Germany "Schokoladencroissant". If you are in Netherlands, though, ask for "chocoladebroodje". To bring this back to Portugal, had we seen it there for sale rather than in many hotel breakfasts, it would have been a "napolitana". Go figure.

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