A Personal Amateur Photography Blog
The museum at Park City also has a collection of medals pins, starting with a bronze and silver example from those 2002 games.
Over the years all participants in the Olympics received a medal, regardless of their finish. The museum at Park City has a great collection of those for the various winter Olympic venues.
Another tradition at the Olympics is the trading of pins from your respective country with your competitors from around the world.
Park City was one of the centers for the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. It remains a training facility, as well as a visitor center with a museum celebrating those Olympics.
In addition there is a section of the museum celebrating skiing in general, and the life of local legend Alf Engen.
The museum has numerous artifacts from the 2002 games, including art pieces from the opening ceremony as well as other memorabilia.
A collection of the snowboards, ski’s, jerseys and other items used in competition.
Bienvenue au Québec
Quebec is 2 1/2 times the size of Texas, and nearly as large as Alaska, stretching from the USA border to past the Arctic Circle, with nearly all the people living within 100 miles of the American border.
With French being the primary language it truly feels like you have arrived in Europe, only it looks ‘North American’. I have always enjoyed visits to Quebec and look forward to going back.
Quebec City is the capital of the province. It is one of the oldest towns in North America, having been first settled in 1535, and founded as a town in 1608.
Nearby is Montmorency Falls, one of the largest volume waterfalls on the continent.
Canyon Saint Anne is another impressive natural setting, with a series of waterfalls dropping over 200′ through the canyon.
Pohenegamook is a small town on the Maine border, where some houses literally are sitting in both countries.
Montreal is the 2nd largest French speaking city in the world.
Old Montreal was the original setting for the town. Today it is the tourist center.
Montreal is home to a number of impressive cathedrals.
Parc Jean Drapeau is on a couple of islands in the middle of the St Lawrence River. It is home to, among other things, the Formula 1 racetrack. It is easily accessible via the Metro.
The Montreal Botanical Gardens is one of the finest in the world.
Montreal was host to the 1976 Olympics.
Olympic Stadium was home to the Montreal Expos until left town to move to Washington DC
The city has a great collection of architecture.
Au revoir du Québec, c’est parti pour l’Ontario
The city of Montreal was the host of the 1976 Summer Olympics. The area that most events were held still exist in the east side Olympic Park.
A number of the venues are still used for sporting events.
While it has recently been remodeled, the pool complex dates from the 1976 games. It is used for competitive events, with seating for 3,000, but is also used as the neighborhood pool when not in competitive use.
The Montreal Olympics are the poster child for cost overruns often associated with hosting the games. It is estimated it cost 720% (not a typo) more than originally planned.
Much of the cost overruns was due to the construction of Olympic Stadium.
Today there is a small museum dedicated to the games and the construction of the stadium.
The stadium looks like a 1970s sci-fi movie space ship. The large tower on the left was originally built to remove what was to be the first retractable stadium roof in history. Unfortunately it was not completed in time for the games, and when it was eventually completed it didn’t work.
So for the first 12 years or so of the stadium it was open air, and after that a permanently closed dome.
Walking around the large concrete plaza on this day with very few people gives one the feel of desolation in the middle of a large city.
Many North American stadiums used to sit in the middle of large concrete plazas like this – the newer generation of stadium more integrated into the cities are far nice, even if one can question the cost for holding so few events a year.
After the Olympics the stadium became home of the Montreal Expos baseball team. Unfortunately in 2004 they left town, moving to Washington DC. leaving the stadium largely quiet, except for a few concerts and other events like monster truck racing.
The cavernous domes stadium echos with the smallest noises. I did have the opportunity to attend a couple of baseball games here (one with the open stadium, the other with the roof in place). It was a great experience, baseball in French, with passionate fans using their own unique to Montreal style of cheering on their team.
Hopefully some day major league baseball returns to Montreal (but to a more appropriate venue).
The tower is now a tourist attraction. The inclined elevator is billed as the longest in the world.
The top of the tower offers panoramic views of Montreal.
The view of the Olympic Pool, and other venues in the park.
The Olympic Village apartments are still used. The soccer stadium is a recent addition.
The day was a bit hazy, but made the views towards downtown interesting.
Montreal’s east side is a working class neighborhood with numerous row houses.
The view of the islands in the middle of the St Lawrence River, as well as some of the bridges crossing the river.
Because much of Europe is fairly far north, the port of Montreal is the shortest route between a European port and North America.
Olympic Stadium cost the city of Montreal and all of Canada significant money, but as with most things Canadian, they have made the most of it.
RDZ Photography 