Canada, Oh Canada

Come 8 July we flew to Canada via Vancouver, landing up in Montreal. Montreal has surprised us with its bike riding culture and the many many kms of shared and separated paths. We climbed to the top of Mont Royal to get a great view of the city and Leonard! 

One of the huge Leonard Cohen portraits on buildings in Montreal

View of Montreal from the top

Michael, Maureen, Maggie, Janice, Des on Mont Royal

The ride up Mont Royal is a lovely ride of benign gradient through the trees, squirrels darting round about. 

We then tackled downtown where there are both separated bike lanes–Copenhagen lanes we call them in Melbourne–and marked lanes on roads. Knowing which street goes which way is critical in a city of predominantly one-way traffic. After some friendly assistance near McGill College, we cycled down Atwater Street to the market where we enjoyed a delicious lunch from the many food stalls operating there.

Michael enjoying a charcuterie platter

After lunch we rode down the Lachine Canal to the Saint Lawrence River, a quiet ride through both industrial and ritzy housing. During this Michale helped with some minor bike issues like Maggie's handlebars collapsing and my brakes. We didn't pick up the fact that neither Maggie's nor Maureen's back wheels were housed properly, though! 

A bit of bike fixing

Michael and Maggie

In the team so far are Maggie, Maureen, Des, Michael, Janice and Kendy so far. We are being joined by more fellow riders in Alma where we start our 2,600 km ride, first circumnavigating Lac Saint-Jean before riding down the northern shore of the Saguenay Fjord. Then onto St Johns in Newfoundland by traversing parts of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.
So far we've ridden about 65kms in Montreal's perfect summer weather of blue skies and warmth.