Ville de Quebec, here we come! CNF 1602
10 Sep 2016
Day 14: Rimouski to Quebec City
On a grey, foggy morning we headed to Trois Pistoles to catch the ferry to the other side of "Le Fleuve". But due to the weather the tiny ferry didn't even leave the port, so we continued along the southern bank, to the next ferry. From Rivière du Loup we were able to reach the northern side, and along the way we even saw a group of Beluga whales!
Once on the other side the final highlight of the tour awaited: a picnic above the clouds!
It was a beautiful tour! Thanks for coming, guys! Save travels to everybody! See you around!
Day 12 Antigonish to Miramichi
What a wonderful day to start: bright , clear sky and already warm! So no extra layers today, just a t-shirt under the riding jacket an go! Today's track was all the up down the coastal line of Nova Scotia. Beautiful scenery and interesting villages to ride through. With a recommendation to have (again...) the best cinnamon roll in Canada, we had our first coffeestop in a place called Pugwash (what;s in a name...) And the cinnamonrolls were indeed very good! Again on the bikes we headed for another "biggest" thing in the world: the Biggest lobster this time! In the lobster capitol of the world , Shediac, an artist made a 50 ton weighing lobster statue of concrete and steel. And of course we made a nice group picture over there. A bit further on the road we had a very good lunch with awesome lobster rolls!
A last blast over the highway and two hours later it was time for a nice sunset drink on the hotel terrace at the river. All together a great day!
Day 11: North Sydney to Antigonish
Fog and light rain greeted us as we left the ferry this morning. But we went to Louisbourg anyway, to see what life was like in a French settlement during the 18th century. It must have been cold, wet and miserable since people didn't have any GoreTex gear back then. We had a contemporary meal in the old hotel, then followed the southern coast back to mainland Canada and to Antigonish, our home for the night.
Day 9 - Rocky Harbour to St. John's
With a chilly 6 degrees C we headed out Rocky Harbour. A very pleasant stay at the oceanside hotel and a genuine Newfoundland dinner we had last night. But time to go south now direction St Johns, the capitol of Newfoundland. After lunch finally the sun got through and invited us to get rid of one or two layers!
Although the most of the route is highway, it has an amazing scenery! After we filled up it was a 150 km strectch toward st John's. Weird to have again "city" traffic after a long ride thorugh the Canadian scenery
A really nice dinner in the hotel with a nice view at the harbour was our last "to do" of this nineth day of the tour.
Day 8 - Rocky Harbour to Twillingate
Day 7: Port-aux-Basques to Rocky Harbour
Day 6: Cape Breton and the Cabot Trail
It had rained for most of the night and in the morning it was still coming down. We went for a late breakfast and left at 11, heading north for the Cabot Trail. Spectacular road, spectacular scenery: it was great in spite of the rain. Later it dried off, we had our dinner somewhere along the way and then went to catch the night ferry to Newfoundland.
Day 5: Halifax to Cape Breton Island
From Halifax we embarked on what promised to be the longest riding day so far: 480 km along the Southern Shore of Nova Scotia and on to Cape Breton Island. It was a stunning ride through unspoilt coastal scenery, on roads that are actually quite twisty (for eastern canadian standards) and void of any traffic. Good lunch, a short but pleasant ferry ride and the boot beer right outside our hotel rooms made this a very good day.
Day 4 - Restday at Halifax
At 9 a.m we took off for a very nice ride along the coastline east of Halifax. Two of the three ladies on tour decided to stay in the hotel to have a real(!) rest day and all the men plus Margy went out under a nice blue sky. We stopped to take a couple of super pictures at Peggy's Cove with it's famous lighthouse. A very nice spot just to overlook the sea and the nice landscape around. After that we followed the lighthouse route along pitoresque fishermens 's villages all the way down to Lunenburg where we had a relaxing lunch, overlooking the old harbour.
After that we took the shortut o er the highway in order to have just a couple of hours of relaxing before dinner. Dinner tonight was in a great restaurant where we spend our last hours of this day!
Day 3 - Hopewell Cape to Halifax
Our third day started with a bit of rain, lots of wind and chilly temperatures, but as soon as Bea had bought a warm sweater at the Nova Scotia border things started to look up and soon it was nice and warm. We visited a 18th century French fortress, the Nova Scotia Welcome Center, a rock and gem collector in Parrsboro, tour guide Ted's windy picnic at Five Islands and a Dutch cheese farm. Just a beautiful 400 km day...
Day 2 - Grand Falls to Hopewell Cape
What a good begin of the day to see that the skies are clear and everybody is eager to start the ride!. From our hotel next to the Grand Falls cascade, we start to ride in eastern direction, what we will continue for a couple of days. Due to the fact that this country is so immense, it is impossible to avoid riding parts on the main highway. So that's how we started our day! But since the scenery of Canada is everywhere amazing, it is no punishment doing that! Sunday morning: not much traffic, nice road along Saint Johns river where we made our first stop at the worlds' largest covered bridge, Hartland bridge. And of course a nice coffee at a genuine Tim Hortons' can't be omitted too! At the end of the afternoon we made stop in Alma, where we could already see the huge tide differences, since the fishing boats where descended about 8 meters! After we checked in in our hotel for that night, we drove a couple of minutes back and visited the Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy. During low tide you can walk here on the ocean floor and see how high the sea will rise at high tide. A very nice day whcih we concluded with a cool beer at the hotel
Day 1 - Quebec to Grand Falls
Beautiful blue sky, 25°C: what a marvellous day to start a tour. Today it was Quebec to New Brunswick, first along the St. Lawrence, then on the picturesque route 289. Stay tuned!