We went to Marietta to check out the stern wheel boats and found a car show too. This is another post featuring the unique styling of the grills of the cars and trucks.
Marietta, Ohio – September 2019 – Grillin’ On a Sunday Afternoon
Category: Uncategorized
Buenos Aires – August 2019 – Retiro Train Station Tour
A quiet Saturday morning was a great time to take a guided tour of Retiro Station – in Spanish!
The station actually is comprised of 3 separate terminus’. The largest and most grand is Retiro Mitre, named for the line that terminates there.
The center concourse has an excellent vaulted ceiling.
Nearly all of the trains departing from here are commuter rail, so they come and go frequently. It is easily one of the busiest in South America (but not so much on a Saturday morning).
Why are we outside a Burger King?
And why is our tour all looking up?
At this amazing skylight in the middle of Burger King. Obviously it used to be a much more grand restaurant than Burger King, but at least they have retained it.
The second, much smaller terminal is Retiro Belgrano.
The final is Retiro San Martin – graced by a statue of the father of Argentina, General San Martin.
They have kept a great old schedule board.
But it is time to kiss this place goodbye.
Buenos Aires – August 2019 – San Telmo Market
Another trip to Buenos Aires had me arriving early on a Sunday morning, so I headed over on the subway to the San Telmo neighborhood.
San Telmo has a famous Sunday market.
A former mission is now a gathering spot for the community.
The Nuestra Senora de Belen Church is the center of the neighborhood.
Back to the market. It went for blocks with antiques, trinkets and souvenir stands.
Along with a great collection of street performers were throughout the market.
Being winter (although it was about 15 Celsius) you could get coffee from the mobile coffee vendor. San Telmo Market warrants a second visit in the future when I have more time to really check out the sights.
Lowell, Massachusetts – August 2019 – The Early Textile Industry in America
Lowell, Massachusetts was an early center of the textile industry in America. It was one of the first real industrial centers, with large cotton mills being built along the waterways.
By diverting the river into numerous canals they could power the machinery for the mills. The canals remain to this day, in various states.
One of the former mills houses a museum that shows the power plant that used the water to generate the power to run the machines.
Because of the flammability of the dust, they used wooden gears that didn’t create sparks.
It is when you go into the main production floor exhibit that you get a true feel for the sheer size of the operation.
While we were there they ran 2 of the looms, which was incredibly loud. One could only imagine what these young ladies went through with 200 of them running at the same time, while working their 12-14 hour, 6 day a week job.
The National Park Service runs a replica trolley around town to shuttle visitors between the sites. A visit to Lowell is educational, and worth the visit if you are in Massachusetts.
Montreal – July 2019 – Random Views of the City
We end the visit to Montreal with the random views of the city starting with this stylish building – once a gas station designed by none other than famed architect Mies van der Rohe. Today it serves as a community center.
Montreal has an efficient subway system, built in the 1960s and 1970s. This station is on Ile Notre Dame.
This island, and one next to it (Saint Helen’s) were greatly expanded to be the grounds of Expo 67, a World’s Fair. Today it is the home to a very large Park Jean Drapeau as well as the Formula 1 race track.
The city has recently started tours of the island on electric carts. We opted for this tour where Sonya and Andre provided amusing and interesting information about the island, and Montreal in general. Unfortunately we didn’t get much over 20 MPH on the track.
Unlike most World’s Fairs, Montreal has retained many of the pavilions that were built. This one was the French and Quebec pavilions, and now serves as a casino.
This geodosic dome is known as the La Biosphère de Montréal. Today it serves as an environmental museum, but during the expo it was the U.S. pavilion.
From the island you have a nice view of downtown Montreal.
Montreal is the 2nd largest French speaking city in the world, and at times they like to take their cues from Paris – like this retro (but accurate) Metro sign.
We say adieu to Montreal with some random scenic views of the city.
Montreal – July 2019 – Vieux (Old) Montreal
Montreal is a very old city for North America, and as such has many outstanding vintage buildings. Most are in the Vieux (Old) Montreal section, but some, like the Mary Queen of the World Cathedral, is downtown.
The main train station has reliefs depicting Canada culture with the words of the National Anthem ‘Oh Canada’ written underneath.
There are numerous vintage buildings throughout the area, with the usual cool details.
The Old Montreal tourist area has numerous shops.
Some very narrow passages.
The Port of Montreal Clock Tower dates from the 1920s. It is also known as the Sailors Memorial Clock, dedicated to World War I Canadian Sailors.
The original sections of Bonsecours Market date from the 1840s. In addition to serving as a market, it also housed government functions.
Place Jacques-Cartier is the center of Old Montreal tourist activities.
Finally a stop at Notre Dame Cathedral, and an amazing (but brief) light show.
Looking for Something to Do
After hundreds of posts I have realized that it is at times difficult to find information about a particular location. I have attempted to simplify that by creating a Google Map with pins for all of the information in all of the posts.
A post might have multiple pins if different venues were featured. In some cases a single pin will have multiple posts as I have revisited many locations and featured them more than once.
There are pins throughout the US and Canada, as well as a a few in Europe, India and Argentina.
The link for the map is https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?hl=en&mid=1Gb2Bta7cEq6SFkZpEDN9uni6uBjwANsR&ll=18.50690923595228%2C-108.85707795000002&z=4
Below is a screen shot of the map
Different browser behave differently when a pin is selected. In Chrome it brings up something similar to:
If you select the link it will bring up the posting.
IE brings up a different look. It has the link to the posting but includes additional links to photos off of Google as well. Other browsers may function altogether differently.
Good luck and happy travels.
