We fly Friday night, no sleep on plane and then for me only 2 hours when we get to the hotel, so Satuday morning I'm feeling a little weary. Soon sort that out....
Our favourite cycle ride when we lived in Montreal was the Hudson/Oka ride. This involves catching the train from Gare Centrale to Deux Montagnes, then cycling through Oka national park to Oka. We then take the ferry from Oka to Hudson, cycle from Hudson to Saint Anne de Bellevue for lunch at Herbs and then cycle back through Pointe Claire and along the lakeshore and then Lachine canal back to the old town.
I have very fond memories of this ride, so this time I took my head cam and took some footage as I rode along as a reminder what a great ride it was. I was really surprised how far behind Montreal is in the season. UK has been enjoying a fantastically colourful spring for nearly two months and here in Montreal there isn't even any green on the trees yet!
Video to follow (when I get around to editing it!)
Finally - it's here!
Finally - it's here!
One person I spoke to along the way, when I told them the route, expressed surprise that the ferry was running. It didn't cross our minds that it might not be (have we forgotton so soon what an impact winter has on this island?) I have just checked and found out that the ferry started running 5 days ago, so we were pretty lucky that we didn't get very stuck!
We were also lucky with the weather, perfect riding conditions, no wind, blue skies and sunshine. Although I think perhaps Stuart got a little too much sun today. At lunchtime we were discussing the recently announced arrival of the new Princess. (Stuart's participation in this conversation was with much reluctance). We were trying to guess what name she might be given, perhaps Elizabeth or Diana, then Stuart, trying to come up with another suggestion asked what was Queen Victoria's first name!
Today's ride was a good as it could possibly have been, but there was one thing I had forgotton - Quebec roads. They are absolutely shocking. Maybe the bad winter has made them even worse, or maybe my memory had blocked out the horror, but the potholes are truly dreadful. They are so bad they detract from some of the pleasure of the ride, because you cannot ever afford to take your attention away from the road surface. This is a real pity, and part of me wishes I hadn't reminded myself of this aspect of riding in Montreal.
I had also rented a very unforgiving aluminum frame road bike, which came with a rock hard gent's saddle. Combining this with the roads means another part of me wishes I hadn't done the ride at all, my bits are in bits!
55 mile ride today, with only 2 hours sleep in 46 hours, I am very pleased that I found the ride quite easy, although I suspect I will sleep like a log tonight.
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