Day 8: Tourist Day in Trois Rivieres

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As we mentioned in the last post, we had full kitchen facilities in our room, so after dinner on Sunday night we stopped at a grocery store to buy some food. Knowing that we would spend two nights there gave us the ability to buy some things that we haven't really had a chance to get yet. For example, we bought a dozen eggs, which we hadn't been able to do before - half a dozen eggs each over two days is pretty easy at this point. When we got up on Monday morning, we had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs before heading out for the day.

Eric has some blisters on (the top of) his feet from walking around Montreal - to save on weight, the only non-biking shoes we brought were flip-flops, and despite Therese's assurance that he would get used to them, that has not happened (yet). So we taped up Eric's feet, put the flip-flops back on, and took a bus into town. (These blisters have no effect when biking, they are only annoying when wearing the flip-flops).

We took a tour of an old prison, and even got to talk to a former inmate, went to the museum of popular culture, went to the boardwalk, had lunch at a local restaurant, and stopped by the large church. One thing we have noticed about Quebec so far is that there are way (WAY WAY WAY) more motorcycles than there are in Ontario. They are all over the place. We also saw a large number of motorized reverse-tricycles - two wheels in the front, one in the back, that were very strange at first, but now seem normal. Anyway, the proliferation of motorcycles was especially apparent in downtown Trois Rivieres, as there is a bunch of designated motorcycle parking, something we have never seen before.

As we already mentioned, the residences here are beautiful, and almost unbelievable for the price - $60, tax included gets us a large suite for the night, with full kitchen facilities, and our own bathroom. Unfortunately, some construction nearby cut their internet cable, so we don't have internet in our room. As a nice gesture, the staff here offered to let us use a room in another building for an hour or so for the internet, which would have been great, except that they only have wired internet, and its done through an external company which doesn't have linux support (Eric's little netbook only runs linux), so the previous updates (and this one) won't be posted until we reach Quebec city.

It's also too bad that the rooms don't have air conditioning. If they did, they would be almost too good to be true, but as it stands, its about 31 degrees C in here, which is none-to-pleasant. Luckily we spent most of the day out, where it is better. Still, outside it is somewhat hot and overly humid. It seemed like it was about to rain all afternoon, which would have been great considering the heat and humidity, but every time there were a few drops, it stopped shortly after and the humidity just seemed to get worse. It finally started to rain for real right before bed, which will hopefully help with the overnight heat.

In the evening, we made dinner in our room, prepared for another long ride tomorrow, and are now calling it a night. The temperature has led to a very creative use of tiger balm. For those of you who don't know, this is an ointment that you are supposed to use on sore muscles after a work out, though we tried it on about day three, and it didn't seem to do anything. On the other hand, it clears your sinuses right up, but more importantly it makes you feel cold anywhere you put it on. To help us get to sleep in the sweltering room, we put tiger balm on our arms and legs to make them feel cold. Therese put some on her neck too, but highly discourages others from doing this, it stings more than feels cold.

- E and T

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Photos

Jailed!
Eric has been thrown in the pen

Tiny Cell
The women's cells need to be divided by fencing so they don't attack each other at night.

Boardwalk
In the background you see one of the three rivers

Swinging Therese
What can we say, nice churches bring out her happy side

Eric's Street
There was also a St-Denis Ave, but we passed it on a bus, so didn't get a picture