Olympic Park, Montreal

Our next destination after the Thousand Islands was the the former Montreal Olympic Park. 

To many Montrealers who lived after the 1976 Olympic Games, the Montreal Olympic Park is their pride just as much as their curse. Earlier on in May 1970, Montreal won over competing bids from Moscow and Los Angeles to be awarded the Games of the 21st Olympiad. The Montreal Mayor, Jean Drapeau who fought hard to win the right declared : "The Olympic can no more run a deficit than a man can have a baby".

Preparation to build the Olympic Park started soon after.  The 1970 estimate for the Games was CAN$120m in total, with CAN$71m for the Olympic Stadium itself. The Mayor himself took a personal hand in the stadium design.

In the end, despite years of planning and spending of billions, Montreal Olympics would end up as a disaster and nightmare for the Montrealers. In the final months before the Games, 3,000 workers were mobilized and worked in teams 24-hours daily to make it possible for the Games to proceed. Even on the day when the Olympics was declared opened on 17 July 1976, workers were still frantically clearing the path for the athletes to proceed with the Parade of the Nations.

When the Games was finally over, Montrealers discovered they had to shoulder a debt of CAN$1.6bn. The final cost was 13 times of the original budget. It took the Montrealers 30 years to finally pay off the debt. It was a Games that almost destroyed Montreal! It was said that when Jean Drapeau died in 1999 at age 83, many Montrealers chose to celebrate his death in the pubs rather than to be sober to remember his contribution.

In 1989, renovation work was underway to convert the Velodrome into the Biodome. Indoor nature exhibit was opened in 1992. There are now five ecosystems inside the Biodome that support thousands of plants and animal species, including reptiles, birds, mammals and amphibians.

After the tour of the Biodome, we took the one-of-a-kind funicular car on inclined tracks to the Observatory at the top of the Montreal Tower. The Montreal Tower, at 165m high (equivalent to 55-storey) with a 45-degree angle is the tallest inclined tower in the world.

From the Observatory, we had a breathtaking view of the whole Olympic Park as well as the areas beyond.

A stunning view of the Biodome from the Observatory.

Jacques Cartier Bridge, a steel truss cantilever bridge 
across St. Lawrence River.

The Original Olympic Village used as athletes residences 

are now residential quarters and offices.

Sturgeon.

Puffins.

Penguins.

Hyacinth Macow.

The Stadium.

The inclined Tower.

Part of the roof covering of the Stadium seen 
from the Observatory.