Monday September 14, 2015

It was raining when we got up, it was raining after breakfast and it was still raining an hour later. We booked an extra night in the hostel.

It was a good relaxing day, I read a book and Ralf worked on the pictures.

Sunday September 13, 2015

It was raining when we woke up. However, the forecast was for it to be showers on and off all day. Matin had told us yesterday that if the weather was wet and rainy the wind came from the east, if it was sunny the wind came from the west. We were going to have headwinds again today and it was chilly. I wore my leggings and socks today and I wore my merino wool cycling top, it was chilly but the rain had stopped by the time we left the B&B at 9:45!

We headed for HI hostel in Riviere du Loup. It was really windy again, this time Ralf took the lead for the whole ride. It was a nice route but we didn’t stop because we didn’t want to get cold.

We did stop for about 20 minutes when we spotted Lisa’s trailer on the back of a pick-up truck. We had met Lisa on Manitoulin Island, she had her dog Sage with her in a trailer. We waved to the pick-up truck, and it pulled over. We was expecting to see Lisa and Sage in the passenger seat. Lisa’s head popped out of the driver’s side. She had run out of time to be able to cycle the rest of the way to Newfoundland. Her original plan was to rent a UHaul to drive back to Alberta, but she couldn’t get a one-way rental. She was going to buy a truck anyway so bought one in Quebec. Lisa is now continuing her journey by truck and will then drive back to Alberta.

I am so glad Ralf and I do not have a dead-line to keep. It has been so nice to stop an extra day whenever and wherever we have wanted to and not had to worry is this going to put us behind schedule. The only thing we are concerned about now is getting to Sydney and Halifax before it gets really cold.

We arrived in Riviere du Loup and settled into the hostel. We have our own room and bathroom, it is very nice. We had paid for dinner which consisted of squash soup, lasagna and salad and cake with ice-cream, very nice and only $11.00 each. Room, dinner and breakfast for the same price as we paid last night in our small auberge and a great evening chatting with fellow travellers.

We asked someone in the hostel what these signs meant. We have seen them often along the routes. I had translated them as do not pollute our place. They are protests signs against the pipeline from the tar sands in Alberta to New Brunswick.

Joy asked me about how we “lost” our food in the other hostel. Most hostels have shelves and fridges where you can put your food. The hostel will often provide a basket that you put a label on with your room # and the date you are going to leave the hostel. That way the hostel can clear the shelves and fridges on the date people leave the hostel. That food then gets put into another basket labeled “free food”. This basket often contains things like half bottles of oil, herbs, open packages of pasta etc. If you put the wrong date on your basket of food you may lose the food.

Saturday September 12, 2015

Another tough ride again today. Today was another day of a full-on headwind and again we alternated ten and ten.

We met up with three guys who were cycling to Quebec City. They were all smiles because they had the tail-wind.

The route was a little hillier than yesterday and at lunchtime we knew we weren’t going to make it to Riviere du Loup. There was a campsite at Riviere Ouelie but that would mean cycling 4kms off-route. The campsite was along the St. Lawrence and it would have been a cold night. We opted to continue on the route and see what came up for motels etc.

There were a lot of small farming villages we went through with very limited services. Although the route did have a lot artists, sculptures and wood carvers.

Obviously a nice Sunday ride for people who live in Quebec and wanted to see different artisans.

I kept looking for a sign that said Gîtes (B&B) or Auberge.

We stopped in St. Denis opposite a large historic house. A man was dressed in period costume and watched us for a while. He came over to chat to us and told us that there were lots of B&Bs in the next village. Which is one of the prettiest villages this side of the St. Lawrence according to him.

I asked him about the historic house and he said it belonged to Monsieur Chapais one of the founding fathers of confederation. The house is set out as it was when Monsieur Chapais lived there in 1867.

He said that if we were ready to stop, he could arrange for us to pitch our tent in the gardens of the house. It was tempting, but we decided to carry on for another 10 kms to Kamarouska.

As we came into the Village we noticed that the first motel was full, as were the next few B&Bs. I was beginning to get a little concerned that there would be nowhere for us to stay and we were both battered by the wind and ready to stop for the day. I spotted a little sign welcoming velos (bicycles) and vacancy. We stopped and were trying to find the piece of paper that said “Avez-vous une chambre pour ce soir?” Do you have a room for tonight? When this tiny little French lady came out and welcomed us in French. She told us she had one room left and it was $80.00 with no breakfast. Ralf and I looked at each other, how would we be able to cook dinner in the room. Her daughter came out and she asked in English if I would like to see the room. The room was lovely and there was a big kitchen that we could utilize. Perfect, we took the room. As I came downstairs there was another couple asking about the room, too late we just squeaked in.

After we had settled in, we walked into the village, it is a very pretty village with nice restaurants, cafés and small auberges, very quaint and very French. We went into the patisserie and bought some wonderful sundried tomato bread and blueberry streusel for dessert.

This Village is also the home of the Chaloult family. René Chaloult was one of the main drivers behind the adoption of the Fleurdelisé flag.

When we got back to the auberge with the fixings for our dinner we chatted to Nicole and Matin (sp). The two ladies usually get together with two other women for a week-end away a couple of times a year. They had all met in the Yukon where they all lived about 8 years ago.

Matin’s son is about to start a small bike adventure of his own – cycling from Rimouski to Halifax.

We had a nice evening with them.

Friday September 11, 2015

A tough cycling day today, which is why we only managed to do 64 kms. We had a strong headwind and sidewind buffeting us all day. We left the hostel at 9:30 am and wound our way around the old city and the road closures to the port. Nobody would let us through the barricades so that we could take a short cut. The race didn’t start until 11:00, but I guess they wanted to make sure that the course was completely clear. As we approached the ferry dock, we saw the ferry being unhitched and we missed it by a few minutes.

We bought our ticket $3.50 one-way and waited for the next ferry. They run every 20 minutes. The ferry can take cars, but as a lot of the roads were closed around the ferry dock there was only one car on the ferry.

Of course, there was a big hill to climb as soon as we came out of the ferry terminal. I think all ferry terminals should have a moving sidewalk to get bicycles up and down the hills, similar to the one that we used in Spain, near the Portugalete Bridge outside of Bilbao.

We eventually found our way out of Levis and stopped at a gas station to make sure we are on the right road. We had left the hostel two hours previously and only travelled 9 kms. This was going to be a long day.

We followed Highway 132 and Route Verte 1 towards Riviéres du Loup. We had looked at two distances 60 ks and 80 ks. The 60 ks distance had the nicer campsite, but I was hoping to get to the second campsite. With the constant wind, that didn’t happen.

Although Ralf and I were doing ten and ten, we both had to work hard because of the direction of the wind. Sometimes I would get a break, other times I had to work hard even when I was behind Ralf. After Levis the route was farmland and rolling hills, no major hills to climb but the wind was relentless.

We stopped at a little casse croute (fast food) for lunch, and then headed back out into the wind. The only saving grace for today was the sun was out and it was comfortably warm.

We arrived in Montmagny at about 3:00 pm and Ralf went into the grocery store to get sauce for the pasta (pesto) and some juice to have with breakfast. We agreed that we would find the campsite in Montmagny and called it a day. The campground is located next to the St. Lawrence and our pitch is overlooking the river. This area is a migratory route for snow geese.

The campground is very nice and costs $25.00 for a site with water but no electricity, plus 0.25 cent for a shower, wi-fi is free for 30 minutes – no blog update today. The laundry facilities are cheap as well, but we don’t need to wash anything.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day – 130 kms to the hostel in Riviere du Loup, but we should have a tail wind and a bed to sleep in again. There are no warmshowers from Riveres du Loup to Fredricton along the route we are taking. Aynsley has already spoken to a friend of hers in Fredricton and we have a bed for the night when we get there. Thanks Aynsley and Kayla.

As usual when we are camping we are in bed as it gets dark, which is around 7:30 pm. We are definitely getting shorter days. Although the sun does come up at 6:30 to 7:00.

Now I have a confession to make. I stole a Brooks seat cover worth about $10.00. Ralf needed new covers for his panniers, his old ones had been ripped by a dog, chewed by squirrels and generally got battered around. This great little bike shop in Quebec City had the size pannier covers he needed. I also needed a new seat cover for my brooks saddle (I lost the other one a couple of days ago). I spotted one in the bike shop and put it on the counter. We were chatting to the guy behind the counter about the bike race and I asked if I could pay with the two remaining visa gift cards I had. Yep not a problem. He printed out the receipt and I stuffed it in the bag along with the pannier covers and the seat cover. Merci beaucoup and off we went.   When we got back to the hostel last night I checked the receipt the Brooks cover was not on the receipt. I can’t send the bike shop the money because I no longer have the receipt.   I feel really bad. Ralf says I should just pop into one of the catholic churches say a few \”hail mary’s\” and I will be absolved.

Wednesday and Thursday September 9 and 10, 2015

Two excellent days in Quebec City. Yesterday (Wednesday) we took a “free” walking tour around the old city. The guide was not as good or as funny as other “free” tours we took in Europe, but he did give us a good history of Quebec, Quebec City and some ideas of what to see and other places to visit in Quebec City. After the tour we decided to spend another day in Quebec City, although we had been here before it was 15 years ago.

Although we are in a dorm room, we are the only two people in it. This is a good thing because Ralf was snoring up a storm last night and probably woke up the rest of the inhabitants in the hostel. He would have definitely woken up any one else in the room.

Quebec City is a beautiful, historic city.

There are some great buildings.

One more interesting thing to note is the Cirque du Soleil started in Quebec City.  This sculpture is from the Alegria performance.

We were asked by a British couple why the Plains of Abraham didn’t have a better description of the battle that took place! The Plains of Abraham is where the British beat the French in 1759. They may have won the battle, but they certainly didn’t win the war. Quebec is still very much a French Province and very proud of it.

They are doing some major renovations to the citadel and the walls.

We had a nice lunch in a small restaurant around the corner from the hostel. It rained all afternoon, after lunch and after we had booked into the hostel for an extra night, we got the boring stuff done – washing, shopping etc. We planned our route for the next few days and sent out emails for warmshowers. Although there is a hostel in Riviere du Loup, which we will stay in, if the warmshowers come back as negatives.

Today (Thursday) we had a lovely breakfast of brie omelettes. Then we headed out to the old city and just wandered around. It is really nice to have the time to do that.

We spotted a couple of the riders that are taking part in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec and I overheard an American saying that it looked like the Tour de France. I told them about the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec that was going to happen tomorrow. Deb and Joe seemed really interested in watching part of the race. They were from South Carolina. It occurred to me we should find out from them when their weather changed to winter weather. Deb said that the weather had been changing and they couldn’t say when it would get cold, but cold to them is about 60 degrees F and that is now happening around December time.

We had a great chat with them, Joe asked lots of questions about our trip, the funniest was “how do you manage to not argue on a trip like this?” We both admitted that we do have our off days, but if we notice the other is not in a good mood, we let them be in a bad mood. If I know I haven’t done anything to annoy Ralf and he has just got up on the wrong side of the bed, I just leave him to it and vice versa. Joe laughed and said \”we haven’t learnt that yet, we argue for half an hour to find out what is wrong with the other person\”! They have been married for 44 years and we told them we were married for 30 years. They were a really nice couple.

Maybe if we can get past New York and Pennsylvania before it starts to snow, we might be able to get to Florida and complete the “square” of North America. I think we have almost decided to carry on. Ralf said last night if the weather turns against us we just get on a plane and fly to Toronto.

A lot of the cyclists were cycling the route today. Ralf really wanted to join them on his loaded touring bike, especially when we saw three teams heading up the hill back to their hotel the Chateau Frontenac.

All the teams are staying at the Hotel Frontenac, basic price for a room is $300.00 going up to a grand price of $1,200.00.  I wonder what you get for $1,200.00?  It is an amazing building.

As we were coming back to the hostel, we spotted another sculpture, of three fat ladies. The first one we saw in Montreal was called the \”Talking Ladies\”, this is one called \”The Letter\”.  I think they are great.

We got back to the hostel at 5:30 pm I will be able to update the blog tonight. Tomorrow we take the ferry to Levis and then head along the south side of the St. Lawrence.

Interesting dinner tonight, we had bought some tortellini and a rose sauce with some nice olive chiabattas. However, we put the wrong date on the basket and the sauce and chiabattas went into the free basket – they were gone when we wanted to cook dinner. Ralf had to go to the convenience store and had to buy some more sauce, the convenience store didn\’t have a great selection- tomato sauce!

Tuesday September 8, 2015

A good ride today with a slight head wind, we cycled ten and ten from the get go, it is so nice to be able to have that break and having to deal with the wind all the time. The wind wasn’t too strong but we did get the occasional gust.

The route today took us closer to the St. Lawrence and it was very pretty.

There are lots of nice expensive houses along this road although a lot were for sale, probably 40%. Both Ralf and I wondered why there were so many for sale.

Of course there is always one home owner who makes you go Hmm, not quite the pepto bismal pink we saw in Cuba, but still a very purple house.

There was one horrendous bridge we had to cross, it was metal and I got off and pushed the bike across. The bridge was at least 500 metres long and I really didn’t like the way the tires felt on the metal.

The route today was along the St. Lawrence and primarily farming area, lots of apple orchards. This cow just stared at us, it was perfectly framed in this window.

Quebec is a primarily catholic Province – the French influence.  The churches were very grand and we saw other religious artifacts along the way.

We got to Donnacona and both of us felt tired, we had lunch and were ready to call it for the day – 80 kms is a good distance. As we were eating lunch we checked for motels and campsites. There appeared to be a motel in Neuville and a campsite close to the village. The motel didn’t appear to exist and when we got to the campsite it was down a bejesus big hill. That would have made for one nasty start to the day. We carried on cycling hoping to find somewhere to stay, but we kept getting closer to Quebec City. At one pitstop, Ralf asked how I was feeling. Surprisingly I was feeling strong so I suggested we carry on to Quebec City, but to call the HI first to make sure they had rooms for the night. Ralf called the HI and booked us in to the hostel for two nights. We were committed to cycling another 30 kms.

There are times when my husband comes out with something that I groan at, he saw this wooden Harley Davidson and said \”That one really burns up the road\”.

We continued towards Quebec City and followed the Corridor Littoral, it was a nice route until we went down a hill. The hill was very nice, but when you go down you know you have to go back up and what a hill it was to go back up!! I had to get of and push, a steep hill at the end of the day was not fun.

Amazing how many big cities we have cycled through, Adelaide, Brisbane, Edinburgh, Seville, San Francisco, LA, Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec, to name a few. I used to worry about cycling through big cities which is why we took the train from Auckland and to Sydney. Now it doesn’t bother me at all. I just follow Ralf.

The HI is inside the walls of the old city, and again we had to get off the bikes to push them up the road to the hostel! We arrived at about 6:30 and by the time we had registered, secured the bikes and got to our room it was after 7:00 pm. We were both starving, we went straight to the kitchen and cooked dinner – pasta and tomato sauce. There is a bar in the HI and we ordered a pitcher of beer, that went down really well. This bar is not as expensive as the HI in Montreal and we get a 10% discount at the bar for being HI members.

After dinner we showered and went to bed, tired but a good tired.

Monday September 7, 2015

Not a great nights sleep in the tent, the bugs were chirping all night and the neighbours were arriving home at different times. The sun came up about 6:00 and we were both awake at 6:30.

We followed Highway 138 even when the route verte 5 directed us away from the highway. As I mentioned yesterday, the route tended to take us around the downtown areas and away from intersections. We opted today to take the straight road and it was very nice.

At one intersection a red Ferrari passed us – Ralf said, “Every man should have a red Ferrari” my response was “Every woman should have a man with a red Ferrari”. We were both laughing so hard.

We got to one section of the road that had a detour and “barre” we decided to carry on as we can usually make it through on our bikes. The road works had a big dip, and we had to push the bikes down and back up.

We had to do one bike at a time, but we managed to get across the big dip. It is a good job that the road crew weren’t working today, because I am sure we would not have been allowed through.  Do you like the way I used the word WE!

We spotted a kite surfer, and then came around the corner and spotted dozens. This obviously had to be the best area to learn how to kite surf.

Ralf thought this would be a great sport, too much like hard work for me.

At lunchtime we checked the email to see if we had a warmshowers in Trois Rivieres. No luck but we checked out campsites, motels and the hostel in Trois Rivieres.

Ralf spotted this car, it could be yours for $25,000.oo.  I think they spoiled it by adding the sun-roof.

We arrived at the HI in Trois Rivieres and it was closed – it wouldn’t open until 4:00 pm it was only 2:15pm. We didn’t know if they had rooms and even if they did they were going to be $60.00 for the two. The motel we called had rooms and the room was $65.00. As we cycled to the motel, the wind picked up and we heard a few rumbles of thunder. Then the heavens opened and we got absolutely soaked to the bone. We arrived at the motel dripping wet, the owner bought our bikes undercover and gave me a towel to dry myself as I registered. The good side about the rain was that the bikes needed cleaning and we were able to dry them and get them cleaned and re-oiled.

Tomorrow we are going to try to get to Quebec City.

Sunday September 6, 2015

Breakfast in the hostel is served from 7:30 to 11:00. We were up and ready for breakfast at 7:15, as were a few others. The breakfast was already set out and we enjoyed bagels, boiled eggs, cereal, fruit juice and coffee. We were ready to leave Montreal at 9:00 and off we went through quiet Sunday streets. Ralf wanted to cycle along St. Catherine Street all the way to the “Village” to see what changes there were since we were last there.

Last time we were in Montreal, not knowing the area, I had booked a bed and breakfast in the Gay Village neighbourhood. It was a very lively place with lots of good looking men, but not so many good looking women. We ate in a bar that had an upstairs balcony where we could watch the interesting people, from drag queens to cross-dressers.

There are a lot more upscale bars, restaurants and cafés. The restaurant we ate at was no longer in business. On a Sunday morning there were a few people eating breakfast, but on the whole it was very quiet.

Montreal is renowned for its exterior staircases. Their design was first developed in the city’s wealthy neighbourhoods where houses were setback from the street. They were prohibited in the 1940’s but since 1994 they have been permitted to be constructed on streets where they already exist in order to maintain neighbourhood character.

The Rhinoceros party is one of those weird parties that have some very strange policies they would like to implement for example, privatizing Tim Hortons (major coffee chain in Canada), moving the Capital to Kapuskasing (geographic centre of Canada) and the one I really like Loto Senate – you can put your name forward to become a senator – and if your name gets picked you get $138,700 per year, attend work 4 times a year and get to vote yes or no on all Canadian laws. Pick Me.

Sad to see a bike with weeds growing around it, perhaps they lost the key for the lock.

We joined Route Verte and followed the river for a while, before finally leaving Montreal after about 25 kms of neighbourhoods ranging from rough to a little bit more fancy. The east side of Montreal is obviously not as well off as the folks on the west side of Montreal.

The route verte was quite a nice route but did take you around the houses sometimes in Towns. We found this in France as well, a long detour to miss a big intersection or the downtown of a small Town. Eventually we got on to Highway 138 and we both decided we would not take another detour, but stay on the main road. We had heard that in Quebec if you are not using the cycle route the motorists will honk their horns at you. If there was a cycle path we used it, but if it took us away from the main road we carried along the main road. The main road had a wide enough shoulder and the car drivers gave us enough room.

Today was garage sale day, every village, town we went through on Highway 138 had garage sales. I saw a nice rocking chair, but Ralf didn’t think he would be able to carry it for me.

We stopped for lunch, and I managed to order our lunch in French. Unfortunately the young lass behind the counter spoke to me really quick in French and I was lost. Another cyclist came up to us and asked us if the bikes outside were ours. Again he spoke really quickly in French, and we were both lost. His English was not very good but we were able to tell him we had cycled from BC and were heading to Nova Scotia.

We arrived in Lanoraie where the campsite was located. The campsite is a site for seasonal trailer sites where everyone knows everyone. Tonight is the final summer night and they are having a pot-luck supper and party games. We watched a very competitive game of “bean bag throwing”. This entails throwing small bean bags into a box that has a hole in it. The score is determined by who gets the most bean bags into the hole. There are even trophies to be won – very silly looking trophies.

We got settled in to our site and Ralf was looking for the power plug, the plugs are similar to the one’s in Europe – our next door neighbour had a spare adapter which he has let us use until the Garmin’s are powered. Thank-you. The campsite is quite nice, the showers are old and we were warned that the hot water takes some time to get through to the taps. The site has a raised wooden platform where we have set the tent, electricity and water and a picnic table all for the grand price of $23.00. The site is shaded and we currently have a nice breeze.

I have time to write the blog, pick the pictures etc but the campsite does not have wi-fi, I cannot post today, can’t have everything.

The temperature today has been over 30 degrees, long may it last.

Friday September 4 and 5, 2015

Two great rest days in Montreal. We are sharing a room with two young women Veronique and Bianca. Veronique is from Quebec and Bianca is from Ontario. Veronique’s family moved to Ontario so that Veronique would be bilingual. Veronique and Bianca went to school together and kept in touch after Veronique and family moved back to Quebec.

One of the things we like about hostels is the interesting people we meet. We met two Australian women at breakfast (Alison and Sue). They were using their “extended vacation leave” to visit England, Europe and Canada. In Australia after you have worked with the same company for 10 years you are eligible for a three month paid vacation! Sue told us this policy originated to allow the time for English immigrants to sail back to England to visit family, prior to the advent of 24 hours flights. I knew Australians had this great extended vacation but I didn’t know why.

Sue kindly invited us to stay with her in Perth if we ever make it back to Australia.

After breakfast on Friday we took the time to window shop, Ste Catherines Street.

I replaced my Icebreaker t.shirt (thanks MHBC), they were on sale and I used the gift card that MHBC gave me.

We were back at the hostel by about 4:00 pm and I updated the blog and Ralf got the washing done. It was a very productive and fun day.

There is an area that has been developed for the music and arts and entertainment.  We watched a Japanese dancer.

Today we left the hostel at 10:00 and headed on the Metro (underground) to a bike shop.

We were hoping to replace the bike covers, but they didn’t have any. We did have a nice wander down a different shopping area, which had a multitude of wedding dress shops.

We got back on the metro and headed for Old Montreal and the Old Port area.

We spent hours wandering around, watching people, looking at the old buildings and enjoying being tourists.

We came back to the hostel exhausted. It was a really hot day but lots of fun.

Thursday September 3, 2015

A lovely start to the ride today along the Canal du Soulanges. This canal was built in 1898 as a waterway to go around the St. Lawrence rapids and also to negotiate a 26 metre rise in elevation. It is now in disrepair, the bicycle route is great, but the canal could be a great waterway for small craft similar to what is used in England on the canal system. There was a power generating plant on the canal, it was used to power the lights along the path and also for the small villages that were along the canal.

The path was a lovely quiet path, well used by locals and tourists alike.

The local municipalities have \”flags\” that have been painted by local artists, with a space at the bottom for sponsors.  A great way to maintain funding for the bike path.

At the end of the path in Pointes des Cascades there was a nice park, with information about the various ships and the canal.

What a great way to start our cycling in Quebec.

It seemed to take us forever to get into Montreal. I think we were looking for the address to the hostel way before we really needed to. We were still 20 kms out of the downtown when we thought we were closer to the hostel and started to check out the directions on Garmin.  Ralf was concentrating on getting us to the hostel, and didn\’t take anymore photos.  There were some nice neighbourhoods we went through along the river, there were also some rougher neighbourhoods as we got closer to Montreal.

We eventually picked up a map of Quebec and found our way around the mess of highways going into Montreal. We followed the St. Lawrence River for a long while before making the left turn to negotiate the streets of Montreal. Montreal is renowned for having potholes! When I warned Ralf of an upcoming hole, he said “Tell me when there is a flat piece of asphalt, I will aim for that”. The roads were appalling, it was quite dangerous. Although the roads we were cycling on were relatively quiet, you had to maneuver around the rough section of the roads by going further into the lane of traffic than we would normally. Thankfully, the Montreal drivers were surprisingly patient and stayed behind us as we weaved along the streets trying to avoid the potholes.

Arrived at hostel at 4:30 p,m! We settled into the hostel and then went out to get some provisions for dinner. We are two blocks from St. Catherine Street, which is one of the main shopping areas in Montreal. I had to keep Ralf focused on getting to the grocery store as he was really enjoying the atmosphere of this multi-cultural City. Tomorrow we will have time to people watch and window shop.