Posted on by Greg

Quebec Day One

Start: Montreal
End: Montreal
Mileage/cumulative:  49.49/49.49
Elevation Ascended/cumulative: 1,158’/1,158’
Weather: Start: Cloudy 63 degrees; Finish: Sunny 82 degrees
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 0/0

We had the benefit of spending two full days exploring Montreal on foot before spending our first day cycling in this colorful, multi-cultural city with beautiful architecture and abundant green space. It’s a city that is at the same time old and youthful with new generations preserving its heritage and unique flavor.

There’s not enough space here to adequately describe what makes Montreal so special. It’s the coexistence of French and English, with students attending their corresponding schools based upon family lineage. It’s the recycling and composting receptacles all around the city. It’s the hydration stations in public spaces and the lack of plastic water bottles sold in food establishments. It’s the amount of open space: parks, plazas, relaxation zones, all with form and function in mind and a commitment to public art. It’s the infrastructure for walking and cycling, encouraging people to be active outdoors. It’s Mont Royal, the crown jewel of their parks, an enormous space designed by Frederick Olmstead, who created beautiful parks all over the world, including New York’s Central Park. It’s all of that and so much more.

After seeing much of the city on foot for more than two days, we were ready to get on our bikes and start rolling. We gathered outside our hotel, located on the edge of Chinatown, for the traditional group photo. Our route took us through Old Montreal, past Norte-Dame Basilica (the largest church in North America), across the Grand Prix race track (unplanned), through a triathlon course while it was being run, around multiple detours, across the St. Lawrence river a couple of times (along with crossing over locks and canals), up Mont Royal (the highest point in the city), and around a pro cycling race with all of the top teams in the world competing. It was a good first day to get our legs warmed up and bikes checked out before heading into the more rural Eastern Townships. With most of the route on bike paths used by locals during a warm Sunday, the biggest challenge was maintaining focus to avoid pedestrians and other bike riders. That will change as soon as we leave the city.

There is so much more to say about Montreal, but photos really do tell a story, so here goes.

Notre-Dame Basilica is the largest church in North America, seating up to 10,000 people for Christmas and Easter services.
The church has gone modern. Electric candles and contactless payment for donations.
These symbols were in parts of the city, directing you to clean public restrooms. They even include the days and hours that they are open.
Montreal has an abundance of public art. One reason for this is that 1% of the budget for any new or renovated commercial building must be spent on public art. This one is sculptures of trees inside the Montreal Convention Center. The artist calls it “Lipstick Forest”.
First day walking in Montreal. First dog petting.
This public art is pink hippos, in honor of hippos that got loose from an early zoo that didn’t have an adequate enclosure. Hmmm.
This captures a day in the life of Team Pea.
Montreal has an extensive underground network of tunnels that contain shops, restaurants, and metro stations. It was remarkably clean.
A piece of the Berlin Wall is exhibited along the site of the city’s original fortification wall (indicated by the lines of dark tiles.
Leonard Cohen was born and lived in Montreal. When he died in 2013, a 21 story mural was painted to memorialize him. It is quite a tribute to him and what he means to Montreal.
Downtown Montreal from the overlook at the top of Mont Royal.
Finally, it was time to get on our bikes and ride!
Early miles riding through a colorful and quiet downtown.
Our route had multiple detours due to construction and race events happening in the city. At one point we had to dart across a bike triathlon course that was on the Formula One Grand Prix track.
It isn’t every day the we get to ride along pit row on a Grand Prix race track.
Detours often require carrying bikes off the beaten path…
And sometimes you have to wait 30 minutes for a drawbridge to come back down before the bridge conductor unlocks the gates and allows you to pass.
We’ll see a lot of these signs for the next month.
Crossing the St. Lawrence river by bicycle for the first time.. Shawn, our mechanic, van driver, and good friend, got to ride around Montreal with us. The river will be our companion for much of this trip.
We crossed back over the St. Lawrence toward downtown on the Champlain bikeway, a 2.1 mile bridge for bikes and pedestrian use only.
 
There is almost always a cafe stop along these rides. Look who found a croissant…

6 Replies to “Quebec Day One”

  1. Wow! It is beautiful there. I can’t believe how clean everything looks. Definitely a place I would like to visit.

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