Tuesday 27^th November

  
Today we felt more comfortable with our orientation and were ready and rested to tackle Montreal and enjoy some more tourist spots.

The Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount-Royal is situated on a hill overlooking much of the city.  

This Basilica was founded in 1904 by Saint Brother Andre and his friends.  The original tiny chapel gradually grew over the 20^th century into the impressive structure it is today.  

This is the largest construction in the world dedicated to Saint Joseph. It is a place of pilgrimage and a flight of 99 wooden stairs is reserved for those pilgrims who climb on their knees.  

Two million visitors and pilgrims visit this Oratory every year and it has the capacity to hold 2200 people.  Interestingly enough Saint Brother Andre was made a saint on the same day as the Australian nun, Mary McKillop.

The city hall stands regally upon Rue Notre Dame and while my understanding of French is passable I was stumped by this building as on the front was written “Hotel de Ville”.  I immediately imagined it to be a hotel and dismissed it as the building we were looking for. We re-confirmed our suspicions that it was indeed the correct building and entered to find a bust of Peter McGill, the first English mayor of Montreal. 
I am guessing the street and university of the same name was also named in his honour.

We walked quite a distance to find the Redpath museum at the McGill university  - one of Heide’s recommendations.  This museum is one as we remember from childhood with original display cabinets and a stuffed gorilla looking high on the stairway. 

The cultural exhibits focus on Egypt, Africa and Oceania.  We were surprised to see an old Australian 10 shilling note in amongst other knick knacks. The mummy exhibition captivated me and I was in awe at the intricate detail on each one. By the time we left the museum it was dark outside – 4.30 pm but life was still bustling – it was only us who noticed the darkness I think.