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Published: July 13th 2011
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The View
We told you it was worth it Today was another long day of biking, but we have arrived in Quebec City, and are staying in the residences at the Universite Laval. Have you noticed a trend in our choices of accommodations? Like in Trois Rivieres, the residences here are really cheap (about $70 per night), but they are not nearly as nice, or as big. Actually, the room we're in seems to be a single residence room where they have added in an extra roll-out bed, but for the price and location, we're still happy with the choice. We even managed to fit our bikes in the room instead of using the special bike lock-up, though its a tight squeeze.
This morning had a bit of a slow start. Trois Rivieres started to seem like Hotel California - you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. A number of the streets on the way out of town are missing street signs, and there are not many possibilities for getting out, as you need to cross one of the rivers on a bridge, and these are less conspicuous than you might expect. After getting lost a few times, we found our way out,
More View
Therese wanted a turn too and our pace increased dramatically.
In the morning, we were anxious to get an early move on, as the forecast called for thunderstorms in Trois Rivieres, and the clouds looked pretty evil, but as usual, we didn't see any rain. This time, the storm always seemed to be ahead of us - whenever we stopped for a break the grass and tables were wet, but there was no rain. As the day passed, the sun came out, and chased away some of the storm clouds, which was not necessarily any better, as the sun can be pretty evil itself. Luckily we have lots of sunscreen. We are on our second bottle already, and will probably buy our third before we make it to Fredericton.
As we got closer to Quebec, the terrain got hillier, but we still had a pretty good time with our ride. We didn't always take the most-obvious path, and in some cases this led to some really steep uphills, but there was payoff in the beautiful views from up high, not to mention the accompanying downhills - with all the flat stretches recently, we forgot how much this could help with our average speed.
We're number 1!
This sign is lying to us... Speaking of average speed, when you see our stats for today, you have to understand that things were better before the very end. Quebec City itself is on one large hill, and the university is in a pretty terribly location for cyclists. We met some swearword-inducing hills near the end, and slowly making our way up them in lowest gear did a number on our average speed, but we arrived, and are here safe and sound.
Despite the forecast telling us that there would be thunderstorms in Trois Rivieres this morning, and that there would be Thunderstorms in Quebec City all day, and this evening, the closest thing we got to being rained on was a few large drops about 15 km out of the city that can barely be called rain by a pessimist. In our 7 days of biking and 2 days of touring so far, we have not been rained on during the day, despite the weather calling for rain on about three occasions. It has rained a number of times at night though. Today, the thunderstorms began about fifteen minutes after we arrived at the university while we were still waiting in line to
What We Really Look Like
Just the usual for day's end check in. They stormed hard for a bit, and then let up just in time for us to walk over to the building that our room was in, and head out for dinner shortly after. It seems like the weather is just on our side this trip - knock on wood...
This evening we went out to a nice (and close), authentic Mexican restaurant for dinner, did our nightly food shopping, and are now ready for bed. Tomorrow we get to enjoy the fruits of our labour as we tour around Quebec City for the day. Eric is especially excited as he has not been here before, but Therese is also especially excited because Eric has not been here before, so it should be a pretty fun day.
Sorry for the delay, but we hope that the wealth of posts tonight was worth it. Enjoy, and keep reading!
Stats:
Departure time: 7:05 am
Arrival time: 4:50 pm
Total distance travelled: 134.9 km
Total time on bike: 6:08
Average speed: 22.0 km/h
- E and T
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Tot: 0.122s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0742s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mom
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Nice tatoo!
Hi E & T, I'm back from N.Y. and finally got a chance to catch up with your blogs. It sounds like you've had many exciting adventures and some misadventures. Remember sores and pain heal but memories last forever! Your blogs are fantastic and you'll enjoy reading them over and over after your trip is done. Nice tatoo on your leg, Therese. ( I hope it's not permanent!) Remember you need to look good for Sabrina's wedding. I'm glad that you are both keeping a positive outlook even after your "downs". The Italian mother in me has to remind you to "mangia, mangia" stay strong and healthy and enjoy the RIDE! I love you both...MOM