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| - I'm a big hockey fan so when I visited Canada, I tried to do as many hockey-oriented activities as possible. When my friend and I decided to visit Montreal, I insisted on getting a tour of Bell Centre. Technically this place is not the old, historic Montreal Forum that hosted the famous Montreal Canadiens from 1926 to 1996, but I enjoyed seeing it anyways.
Apparently, for the 100th anniversary of the Canadiens, one of the entrances was redecorated. There were four statues of famous Canadiens including Maurice "Rocket" Richard and plaques on the ground commemorating the top 100 Canadien moments. The website said nothing about where you're supposed to meet for the tour, but we figured out that one needs to buy tickets in the Canadiens gift shop and wait for the tour guide there. There are two English tours a day. The gift shop was quiet nice. You could pick up a lot of historic Canadien gear. I bought a 100th centennial puck.
The tour itself was pretty neat. We got to see the reporter's lounge, a view of the arena (where they were setting up an French version of American Idol), luxury box, alumni lounge, etc. The big deal was seeing the Canadiens dressing room! That's the advantage of taking the tour in the summer when there's no hockey. Our guide was very well informed and had worked for the Canadiens organization for over 20 years. Our tickets were discounted because we couldn't see a few dressing rooms (due to the American Idol-clone show). Aw, who cares... I got to see the Canadiens dressing room!
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