Ride For Rand

Days 74 to 76 - Exploring Quebec City

As I said before from the morning of the 74th day of my trip, I made it to the old downtown Quebec City which was stunningly beautiful. It has a kind of European charm to it and I really enjoyed the different angles and the way that the city appears to be layered into different levels of time and space. As a tourist I could walk right up onto the walls and explore the alleyways of the city which was textured by different eras of its past. Some of the buildings we're really old-- from the very beginning of the city's history, while others were more modern. There were cobblestone roads and modern paved roads next to each other and the whole town had a kind of charm to it. The battlements still had replicas of the cannons which were used to defend the city against repeated attacks from the British and people were enjoying the museum-like feel all around the city.

Actually, if I could say anything negative about the city at all, it would just be that there's a lot of tourists; however, with such a beautiful city I suppose there's no avoiding that. Victoria is just the same in that respect. Maybe I only felt a little off because of how romantic the city was and seeing so many couples and families walking around also made me pine for romance in my own life. Whatever the reason, Quebec city would definitely be a great place to share with a loved one.

Quebec City certainly is a beautiful place. I enjoyed day 74 and then spent the afternoon in the city as well on day 75, covering places that I didn't visit on the first day. On day 76, I talked to Jaques again and decided that I would take him up on his offer to stay at a beautiful lake north of the city called Lac St. Charles. I was really happy I did. Not only did I get a chance to meet his son who is in university to be a French teacher in the public school system, but I had a chance to go swimming in the lake and go into the hot tub to relax my muscles a little bit for cycling out of town on the next day. My time in Quebec City was great. Now, I was really looking forward to the trip starting again.

Quebec City

Old and new

A city of many layers

And history

On top of the walls

The campus where I slept

Cannons everywhere

Cannon

Cannon, cannon

Busy street

Haha, I want one

Some of the oldest buildings

Walking around the fort

Walking around

Tressle over the city

On my way to the lake

Nice blue sky

The lake

Pretty lucky to be here!

edit: Can't forget a picture of the castle!

Day 74 - Saint Pierre les Becquets to Quebec City

Today I woke up at 3 a.m. and packed up my tent in the dark got everything ready and left towards Quebec City. It was really nice to see the sunrise as I cycled through the hilly area on the banks of the st. Lawrence River. The Twilight of night gradually transformed as the morning sun rose and not long after dawn, I made my way to the old bridge in Quebec City where I could cycle across.

Just as I got to the top of the bridge, this one Quebec City native stopped me and said, "Hey! you're traveling across Canada?", and from there we started talking. His name is Jaques and we started talking about life and cycling.

I felt so welcome in Quebec City right from the beginning, even before I crossed the threshold over the bridge. Jaques offered for me to stay with his family in a place a little bit North of Quebec City and I really considered it, but I already had a place and declined for now. Instead, we planned on meeting to chat downtown later. I spent the rest of my morning cycling through to where the dorm was and I found out why it was so cheap. The campus where I was staying was about 1 hour outside of downtown Quebec City by bus, so it was a little inconvenient to figure out how to get there the first time, but it was really beautiful and I really enjoyed my time in Quebec City. I was able to start exploring downtown from noon, but I'll put all of those pictures from exploring the city on to my next post because I think all of the tourism pictures fit together anyway.

In short, it was a beautiful 100km morning ride and I made it through to Quebec City which despite the flocks of tourists is one of the most beautiful cities for me on this whole trip.

Starting at 3am

The sun wants to rise

Almost there

Morning light

What a great greeting from daylight

These beautiful churches are everywhere

Hello sun

Down the shoreline road

To see what I can see

Enjoy the countryside

Crossing the bridge...

Apparently this is a bike path!

Day 73 - Sorel Tracy to Saint Pierre les Becquets

Today was a roller coaster of a day. I traveled the first third of the day in rain, but as the day progressed the weather became better and better.

The second part of the day had much better weather and I even got quite a bit of tail wind, going 35 to 40 km an hour down the street. The last part of my day was really tranquil--I stopped in this town called St-Pierre les Becquets and with the owner's permission, I stayed in a Gazebo, facing the sunset over the St. Lawrence River.

It was truly beautiful sight and I have a lot of gratitude to be here where I am. Tomorrow I'll get up very early to ride the rest of the way to Quebec City where I got a dorm room for $35 a night--how great is that? Can't wait to wake up early!

Rainy Morning

Beautiful countryside

Just look at the water

Stopping for lunch

Cleared up

Paradise

Shores of the St. Lawrence

Public park

Harvest time

My camp

Approaching sunset

Golden band

Salmon and Bronze

The sky lit on fire for me at dusk

Just look at it

Beautiful

Day 72 - Montreal to Sorel Tracy

Today I woke up to the beginning of a new leg of my adventure this time with a send-off from Reg! It went well--we traveled through Montreal and then to a small town where we had lunch and then went down to the beach. At 4 p.m. I said goodbye to Reg-- we cycled 50 kilometers together and then I continued down the road, stopping at the Sorel-Tracy campsite. People speak French here and it's nice to listen to and even meet people who don't speak much English at all. Once or twice I met people who couldn't speak English, but could speak Spanish, so we ended up communicating in Spanish instead. I felt immersed in the culture here in Quebec. It was nice.

Anyway, this was my first camp--I'm on the road again!!!