Clean Bin Project Tour Day 88 - Montreal and Quebec City

Who doesn't love Montreal? Jen's company has an office there, and we stayed with a colleague, Emilie, who used to work with her in Vancouver. Bicycles, including the ever popular Bixi, were everywhere, and we followed the lovely segregated waterfront route all around the city, getting the full tour of the island of Montreal.

Our screening felt like a bit of a reunion, as Jen's cousin and her family came out, as well as a friend we'd met travelling in Central America a few years ago. Needless to say, we would've liked to have stayed another day, but before we knew it, we were heading out of the city with Emilie serving as our ring leader and much needed francophone bakery expert and bicycle guide- when there are so many bike paths, sometimes it's hard to know which one to take. Thanks for everything Emilie!

We hadn't done any research on Quebec, but we were happy to find that the riding was amazing; fairly flat, with marked lanes, and lovely weather. We met an Australian couple who had the official cycle map, and we crossed over to the north side of the Saint Lawrence River with them where the cycling was even better.

Quebec City was gorgeous (although we had a heck of a time finding a place that had a vacancy on a Friday night), and we spent one evening of true vacationing - eating out, taking photos in the Old Town, and generally touristing around. We couldn't stop marvelling at the stone buildings and quaint shops.

We managed to get caught up in a women's marathon that was winding through the city after dinner. We stood on the sidelines and clapped and cheered for people we didn't know who were giving it their all. Maybe we got so excited because we know what it's like to be on the other side; people regularly honk to us along the road, wave to us from their front porch, shake our hands, and give us hugs after screenings, and we know that support from the sidelines makes a great journey even better.