2 posts tagged “beethoven”
Well, I'm back from Montreal. It was a quick but lovely trip. Money was no object as there really wasn't any money to spend but that's OK.
First stop was the Biodome - not to be confused, although it always is, with the Biosphere. The Biodome is located in the old Olympic Velodrome beside the Olympic stadium. It is, of course, right on the Metro.
There are several ecosystems to enjoy. We started with the Tropical Forest. After the incredibly cold weather outside this was a welcome shock to the system. The birds and plants are easy to see and as one allows the eyes to scan about for creatures you soon begin to feel you are really in their environment.
This was followed by the Laurentian Forest which is actually the local wild habitat. This is more interesting than I thought it would be and I can't believe a saw a Lynx even if it was behind a screen. It was so close and it's fur is incredible.
We then moved into the St. Lawrence Marine Ecosystem. Wow. One can begin to appreciate rains and little streams flowing into rivers that, in turn, flow into the mighty St. Lawrence which itself meets the Atlantic Ocean. The interrelationship between the different animals seems so obvious when they are observed up close and thousands of square kilometers of nature are compressed into just a few square meters.
The last section puts the Arctic and Antarctic environments beside each other. Here the many varities of Penguins 'steal the show'.
The Biodome is fun for families and just fine for the lone visitor. It's a jewel. If you're thinking of going, there is a shuttle bus between the Biodome, the Insectarium and the Botanical Gardens.
After this it was time for something completely different. Located by the Place des Arts Metro is the Musee d'art contemporain de Montréal. Here we saw kinetic works by Jean-Pierre Gauthier, amazing paper 'assemblies' by Jérôme Fortin and an installation work called Tree House Kit by Guy Ben-Ner. Also on general view were recent additions to the museum's collection.
After this a break was taken followed by an early supper, certainly by Montreal standards, of Japanese food on de la Montagne - no poutine or smoked meat - and an early return to the hotel.
The next morning was window shopping on Ste Catherine although I did allow myself a small purchase. I went into HMV and picked up Beethoven, The Piano Sonatas, by Vladimir Ashkenazy. That's 32 sonatas for thirty dollars which is quite the deal, I hope. I'm not really familiar with Ashkenazy with the exception of his recording of Musorgski's Pictures at an Exhibition.
After lunch it was time to return home which was done by train. I believe a good time was had by all. It's still sad, however, to be at the Olympic Stadium and know the Expos will never play again - you see I can sneak baseball into anything.
Man, I miss Montreal.
Book: Show us the latest book you bought, borrowed or received.
"... a brave attempt to fathom the world of deafness as well as the high-strung milieu of performing artists." Reed Business Information, Inc.
This is one of the books I received when I was in the hospital. I'm just getting to it now. So far so good ...
Update
Finished this yesterday and was sorry to see it end. I will look for more books by Vikram Seth at the local library.
