As newly minted Canadian Citizens, we get a Canadian cultural pass. This allows free access to a whole host of attractions and parks across the country, as a way of helping new Canadians to see and access the country. One of the places we can get into for free is the
Upper Canada Village. This is only about an hour and a half from Montreal.
I can remember going to somethign similar as a kid, with the Canadian branch of the family on one of our many visits to Toronto as a young 'un (I think it may have been
this one), but I can't remember a thing about it, other than some pigs, people in costume, and it being really muddy. Fortunately, that was not the experience we had today (the blistering sun for one kept the mud at bay). Furthermore, there were two added bonuses to the visit. First off, they were holding a
Medieval Festival today, replete with vikings and jousting (not at the same time) amongst a host of other events. This we knew of before going, and was one of the reasons we went today. The second bonus was that the village is sited right beside
Crysler Farm,
that of 1813 fame.
Firrstly, some pics from the Medieval part of the day.
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| ...and got to try out some others |
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| We got to see all these warmachines in action... |
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| Big'un gets to go for a ride on the knight's horse. |
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| Full contact jousting. |
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| A dragon and minstrel show. |
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| Vikings marching to battle. I was surprised how easily the lil'un followed the chevaliers! |
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| I was sorely tempted by the one with the wings! |
Then it was back to the 1860's era village. A great mix of buildings with many roles within the village. Unlike a lot of this type of place, where you just look in and see old stuff, each one of the buildings had a volunteer playing the role of the owner of the building, and each one had very interesting stuff to pass on, as well as was able to answer any questions we had. The last little surprise, was, when looking at the map of the village, I
noted one of the homes was named the Robertson House. Made me feel
right at home! If you're in the area, I cannot recommend this place more highly.
In the end, the three things in one place was too much
for one visit, and we didn't make it round the farm memorial site, so no
pics of that. That plus the gorgeous weather all day left those of us with a soft northern complexion in need of retiring back to the air conditioned car before sun-stroke set in. The good news is that there was enough of the village
still to see (and a train we didn't manage to go on), that we plan to
come back another time (as it's still free for us for the rest of the
year), at which point I intend to get a look at the site.
