Hi friends, we are behind on blogging about this trip. Sometimes we forget that this is actually a vacation …. and the last few days were mostly that! Feeling happy and rested as we prepare to head out of Montreal.

The Quality Inn in Hawkesbury was a couple of miles off of our route so we set off early through a stretch of superstores and strip malls and soon found ourselves crossing into Quebec, and riding along the Route Verte. This impressive province-wide bike system covers 5400 km (3355 miles), linking nearly 400 municipalities, with 60% of the routes on roads and streets and 40% on bike paths and trails. Route 1 would take us into the city of Montreal, and Route 5 would take us out of it.

It was a gorgeous morning and we had miles and miles of shaded trails and country roads with wide shoulders, all seemingly lined with Queen Anne’s lace (aka Wild Carrot). We saw a few cyclists though none greeted us or announced that they were passing – a striking difference with our days cycling in Ontario – and we followed the now “Outaouais” river for much of the day.

As we approached the city of Oka, we passed by dozens and dozens of cannabis dispensaries in Kanesatake, a Mohawk community on the Lake of Two Mountains. Lots of traffic there made it a bit stressful, though we may have experienced some blissed out riding for the next few hours through the national park due to secondhand exposure.

The cottonwood seeds were everywhere and it was like it was snowing for miles through the park … and then we were soon in Montreal and navigating city bike lanes alongside kids who had just gotten out of school and businessmen on bike rentals and super hip young people who were commuting to wherever they needed to go.

We made our way along the waterfront and cobblestone streets of Vieux Montreal and walked our bikes up a hill to our Airbnb in a modern building filled with condos, where we had to park our bikes in the underground ramp and haul our bags up to the seventh floor.

While our 72 riding miles seemed pretty reasonable, the summer heat and navigation through city streets took a lot out of us. We cooled down and sat out on the balcony, got cleaned up and walked a few blocks to Buvette Nicole for a lovely French dinner of salmon and mussels and people watching on a perfect June night.

The next day did not involve bikes but did involve a lot of walking in our quest to experience Leonard Cohen’s Montreal, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. And Dan will say more about this in the next post…but it was a great day and we loved Montréal!