Unpacking bike.

We found ourselves sleeping in very late again, which meant we had to curtail our plans for the day. We had planned to go biking, but by the time we had unpacked the bikes from their suitcases and assembled them, had brunch, and got ready to cycle, it was around 1:00, and we had to be back on the ship no later than 4:00. Our first stop was the bike shop again for even more things we were missing (and replaced the mini safety vest that Keenan had already rejected as ridiculously small with a much more reasonable model). While there the bike shop personnel gathered around, we thought at first to admire our Bike Fridays. Actually, since they sold folding bikes and had seen Bike Fridays before, it turned out what they were really interested in were our bike locks – TiGr models they had never seen before (Mike’s model was a kickstarter project this summer).

Some sculptures near the bike shop:

Big pigeons!

Cargo container losing its load.

We then took a short ride up the shore of the St. Lawrence, bucked a headwind back, and stopped at the public market to look around. We found some wonderful “croustillants” – sort of like egg rolls filled with meat. One was filled with lamb and the other with duck (LOTS of duck in Quebec!). We also picked up a couple bottles of wine for our stateroom.

With our bikes

Back on board we went through the non-optional Passenger Muster Drills and then headed up on deck to watch us pull out and head down the St. Lawrence, past the Ile D’Orleans, a large rural island out in the middle of the St. Lawrence that seems to be a major agricultural source for Quebec City, as well as a popular biking destination. We would have liked to try biking there, but the bridge out to it did not look bike friendly. We suspect even bikers use cars to get to and from the island.

Up top, just missing people.

We were amused by the empty top decks even for the sailing out. The initial sailing, when the experience is still new, is usually when most of the passengers gather up top to take pictures and admire the view. It was just a bit too “brisk”, but we were treated to a beautiful sunset.