Kingston to Wellington (84 km)

We left late, after waiting for the rain to stop. It did so, as predicted by our favorite TV channel, the weathernetwork. This is usually the first do when we arrive at a place, check the weather for the following days.
Our ride went along the route 33, called the loyalist road. Once out of Kingston the traffic fades away and from then it is just peaceful rolling along the shores of Lake Ontario. What a lake! It seems more like the ocean, on the horizon no land to see, just water. Along the way we read some of the memorial signs. In the 19th century many battles have been fought between the English and the Americans on that lake. It all seems not so long ago.

Nowadays the area appears rather poor. Many small farms are along the road, but their buildings are often in bad shape or abandonned. It´s a bit a sad sign, on the other hand we saw new kinds of landuse, wineries and apple orchards. And of course big farms, they probably take over the better land from the small ones and work on it. Still we wondered, why are the small farms going out of business? Prices for food in the shops are really high, for example milk and cheese here are more expensive than in Switzerland. So shouldn´t it be possible for small farms to survive? Some do so, with wonderful streets stands where they sell all sorts of surprisingly big vegetables. At one of these places the farmer lady gave us each an apple, she said every biker gets an apple for free.



Huge onions



Later we took the ferry to Glenora,Prince Edward County. Long storries could be written about that little place. Now only a few houses and the ferry terminal, it used to be quite a commercial center for its mill operations and wheat exports. All gone, what is left are a few builings and very peaceful landscapes. Soon after leaving the ferry, a heavy thunderstorm caught up with us and in a few seconds we were wet to the bones. In Wellington, just before dark, we found a nice place to stay, a little inn on the lakeshore. It was a special evening there, the Green party of Ontario had organized a "meet the canidate" evening. Frank (a member of the Swiss Green party) joined the gathering and it was very interesting to listen. The Greens here are not yet strong at all and often Tread Hull referred to Germany, where the Greens are really strong. We wish him many votes, may he get a seat.  

The green candidate, Tread Hull

http://www.give-em-hull.ca/

Westport to Kingston (85 km)

We took a little detour to get to Kingston, drove through Battersea and from there down to Kingston. Kingston is on the Ontario Lake, just were the Saint Lawrence River actually begins. So we got one last glimpse of that mighty river, we had been following it for so long. Kingston also was once the capital of Canada, but only during 4 years, back in 1841. This fact is still celebrated here in Kingston, with a huge celebration day. To us, Kingston did not make a lasting impression. Of course there are lots of old limestone buildings, but also a lot of new ones in between and some of them dont really fit there.
Because the Navy-Students have a celebration here this weekend, the town is almost booked out, at least we did not find a reasonable priced place to stay. So after spending a few hours in town, we drove out of town , direction west and found a quiet, cheaper motel on a busy road.
One word about the weather. It was nearly tropical today. The air was very humid and really hot, nice to be outside and again the wind pushed us softly, what a pleasure.


An old mill and car on the way



Some laywer love drivers!



Canoeing on the Rideau Canal

The lake looked so tempting and the canoe was waiting in the garden, so we decided to use our arms instead of the legs. I had just read about a guy who had driven up the Rideau Canal by canoe, it took him 8 days and he wrote, that despite of the rain, it was wonderful.
So we were out there too, not that ambitious but still wanting to see some island that are in the lake here in front of Westport. To our surprise, they are all inhabited, not permanently but with summerhouses of impressive size. Some islets are so small, that the house barely fit onto them, others are one or two acres in surface and certainly lovely places to spend a quiet weekend.
We spend the whole afternoon on the water; our landlady said that she did worry about us. But then she thought, if they made it by bike from Newfoundland to Westport, they will come back safely. And we did so, just a bit sunburned; the sun was relay strong and hot. We certainly had 25 degrees.



Westport at dawn



Little house islet

Ottawa to Westport (131 km)

The weather forecast promised sun and tailwind! So we got up very early and took off into a foggy morning. By the time we reached the first Tim Horten on our way, the sun had come out and then wind started to push us gently. There we met Wendy again; overnight she and her husband had prepared a wonderful map full of little markers to guide us to small and traffic free biking roads. Overwhelming! Canada really could be a bikers paradise.
Our tour went all along a Unesco World Heritage site, the Rideau Canal. It connects Ottawa with Kingston on the St. Lawrence River and is about 200 km long, with more than 35 locks to lift the boats on its way. It was opened 1832 and still works, although today mainly for touristic reasons and private boats. It leads through many lakes and was really a discovery for us.
The beauty of the land is breathtaking, especially now with the colorful trees. Biking there is like a mediation, even Katrin loved the long bike. ( She also starts to have real bikers legs and muscles)

Finally we got into Westport, a small community with a Swiss baker and lots of artists. We were quite exhausted, so the first B&B we saw we just asked and we were welcome! Hurra!



The 7 first locks in Ottawa

 And surprising, this small place has a wonderful restaurant where we enjoyed a candlelight dinner on the terrace overlooking the water

Ottawa to Ottawa (20 km)

Saturday started with the Museum of Civilization. It’s a huge museum and it needs more than a day to see it all. So we focused on the Canadian history, starting with a Indian village, the way it used to be before the white people took over their land. This happened in the southern parts as well as in the northern parts, where the Inuit lived in and survived the extremely cold climate. Very interesting to learn, than most expeditions into the North needed the help and knowledge of the Inuit to survived the winters there, to find food and suitable clothes.
The Canadien history is one of exploitation. The first European (apart from the Vikings) came around 1520, because they found in around Newfoundland such an abundance of fish. The fish was dried, salted and brought to Europe. Later it was the timber, Europe needed huge quantities of timber to build itself, it battleships and railways. Then came the age of the grain, after Canada introduced Ukrainian wheat varieties here, it was possible to grow it in the very short vegetation period they had here in the prairies. Then came the oil, which still today is the big hope of many provinces to get money into the province. What will be next……., it might be clean drinking water.
The museum was so interesting, that we did not watch the time. When we finally left it was almost 4 pm, but we decided to leave anyway. This was a pretty bad decision!
After 40 km we started to worry about a place to stay, but in vain! At the end we went into a restaurant to ask. Wendy a very helpful lady, having dinner there, tried to find something close by, but the only thing available was at the airport, 20 km back the road we came from. So we had to bike back in the dark, but at least we had a place to stay. Wendy even offered to bring us there, she said her husband is a fanatic bikes and she knows about the dangers driving in the dark. Very nice, isn’t it!


Great hall with indian sculpturs



Old village replica in the museum



Culture-day in Ottawa



Inside the Canadian Natioal Art Gallery



Frank´s museum and the beaver plane











Ottawa has some very interesting museums. While Katrin went to the Canadian National Art Gallery, Frank biked to the aviation Museum and visited the Parliament hill. We both enjoyed a day in an urban setting and even decided to stay one more day here in Ottawa; we want to see the museum for civilization.
The aviation museum showed how important planes have been to master the vast territory of Canada. Already 1913 the first bush pilots flew on very fragile planes and floatplane into the wilderness. They were a tough breed! Those early planes had not yet a heated cabin, so it was sometimes very cold on the long routes. And of course, many of them crash several times, some survived more than one crash. Today, bush pilots still fly in remote areas with the flying Canadian workhorse, the beaver. But more and more, the tourism used floatplane to get to remote lodges or hunting places.
When we met again downtown, we just walked into an art gallery. Arriving there, we were greeted by the artist Gordon Harrison, who invited us to the opening and vernissage, just going to happen. With nice white wine, cheese and crackers in our hands, we then enjoyed a marvelous little event, an artist speaking about her inspiration and art. Frank liked the landscape pictures very much, Canadian landscapes many of them full of autumn colors, Indian Summer colors.
The evening we spent in the Byward Market, a very colorful market, with many good places to eat, pubs with live music and a fudge shop out of this world. (Yes we did sin there!)



Fudges!



Katrin with Gordon

LÓrignal to Ottawa (99 km)

In perfect weather and wind we made it very quick to Ottawa, as usuall along the river. As we approached Ottawa, the river changed to the Ottawa River. During the day we passed several small towns, nice to look at. Sometimes they have a decent place to eat, sometimes rather not. Today we had lunch around half way as we always try to do. We tried a Chinese buffet for 9.95, all you can eat. First we couldn´t believe it, that cheap, how can they make money? But standing in front of the buffet, it became clear. 90% off all foods were deep fried, the rest had strange colors or still looked rather greasy. Not a nice cuisine, but rather basic fast food. But we tried it and it wasn´t bad, still an experience not to repeat. Just too fat. I can´t understand why so much food is deep fried here, after that all tastes similar and certainly makes the people fat.

With all that energy in us, we arrived in Ottawa the same time as the English Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron. In the whole town, every second flag is the Union Jack, so already entering town we suspected some important visit taking place. And índeed, roads were barred and therefore traffic a bit more tense than normally. We passed the National War memorial, where hundreds of people stood waiting for something to happen. When we asked an elder gentlemen, he told us that the Britsh PM was coming to this memorial to show respect for the fallen soldiers. And as we stood there, cars with blue and red lights arrived, all of a sudden bodyguards all over and Mr. Camerin as well as the Canadien PM, Mr. Harper, descended from their cars. They walked down the red carpet, listened to "Got save he queen" and greeted the guards of honour standing there. We stood very close and saw the whole ceremony very well.
Amazingly, Mr. Cameron looked always very serious, Harper a bit less. Both seemed not really to enjoy the whole ceremony, but tough luck, part of their job is also to be in a Zoo! They never greeted the ordinary people or voters standing there and watching. But it was great for us to see this from close.

Just what we had expected to see in a Capital!  

Montreal to LÓrignal in ONtario.(128 km)

With a bit sadness we left Micheline and Denis, but eager to get back on the road. Denis had given us power bars and emergency energy drinks, so we were sure to reach any destination. Surprisingly, it took us about 50 km to get out of Montreal and its suburbs. We passed interesting areas, especially the old channel area, where ancient factories or storehouses have become fancy lofts.
Because in Montreal only few very houses have several floors and most houses have huge gardens, the town stretches out far. But, the bike-line was excellent and with rested muscles we were making good progress.

We followed once again the Saint Lawrence river, its still a mighty river and is not onl used for ships but also for hydropower production. Canada is really gifted with ressources, they have so many rivers and certainly still a huge potential for clean energy. But, sadly we also passed a thermal power generation plant, global warming is not much of an issue here.

The countryside changed, again we drove through forests and farmland. We passed a farm with Simmentaler Cows, which is a Swiss breed and we wondered, whether the farmer was Swiss. In the 80ies, many Swiss farmer sold their farms, because they were to small to get a living out of them. More than a few moved to Canada, hoping to run a viable farm here. Sometimes we see names, where we are sure that they are Swiss, but until now we met only very few.

In the evening, it was time to leave Quebec, la belle provence. We will remember Quebec as the province with the best food and everywhere easy available wine. And, for a French, which we did ever not fully understand until today, but we will always recognize when we hear it!

So we drove over a big bridge into our next province, right as the sun was setting. With a little help  from the Tourist Office we found a B&B here in LÓrignal. Because the B&B was full, the owners put us into a room in their own apartment, offered wine, beer and pie and made us fell at home.

 

 

Restday in Montreal

We used this day for urgent replacements. Franks bike trousers started to fall apart and we were glad, that Denis showed us a good shop where we could buy new ones.

After that we had a bike sightseeing tour of Montreal with Denis. First stop, the Formula 1 race course. Denis went with us on the circuit and we did one round on the bicycle. It´s surprising, how small the track is, how narrow the curves and it is not imaginable, that someone drives there with more than 300 km/h. This guys need a lot of courage. The racing track is on an artificial island (Notre dame), which was build in the Saint Lawrence River for the world expo, taking place in Montreal in 1967.



Bike rental station



Dog-Nanny


From there we continued our town sightseeing tour to the old town, which is very nice restored, feels quite European, with countless places to sit, lots of culture, cafes and even horses with carriages to tour tourists arround. The whole place feels very relaxed, even in the evening on the market, nobody seems in a hurry, everyone seems to be just easy. So we adapted too, strolled through the market, bought some vegies and did nothing more.
Montreal is the first place where we see really a lot of people on bicycles. The town has a cool community bike system called Bixi. You can pick up a bike at one of the more than 100 stations and drop it off at another. It cost 5$ a day, no membership required, only a credit card. Great idea, which we would love to see in other towns.
Even though Montreal was fascinating, we both look forward to get out of town, the countryside is more our world.

Sorel to Montreal (75 km)

Yes we did it, needless to say against the wind. On our way we stopped at a little cafe (Le Nid in Vercheres) for a coffee. The owner was just empting his garbage bins and told us, that this place would not open until 1th of November. But, he added he would make us a good coffee. So we were their first guests! He and his wife Mailhiot are artists and a bit tired of making art. So they took all their money to open this cafe and bakeryshop. When we asked, who makes the pasteries, they said that they will make most themselves, something they have never done it before on a professional basis! We were very impresed and we are sure, they were so friendly, they will be successful. Also the Cappuchino was great. 

Montreal greeted us with castlelike villas along the river shore, loud highways and badly marked bikepaths. No wonder we ended twice on the highway (forbidden) and once we had to carry our bikes over a bridge. Finally and a bit exhausted we arrived at Micheline and Denis house, we had met them the day before in the B&B. After a warm greeting we were invited to the jacussi and later to a more than delicious dinner with Wine, cheese and more! 

What can we say, except that Canada and its people are incredible and we hope to take that spirit home with us! Cheers to Canada!

Trois Riviere to Sorel Tracy (94 km)

Once again, a late start due to long breakfast discussions. Like being a family with 10 people. We were even invited to visite one family in Montreal, what we will do.

The weather was a bit foggy in the morning, then it cleared and we drove under a cloudless sky. The bikepath went through rich farmland, full of Monsant or Syngenta Soya, most of it GMO! Sad to know, but apparently an accepted fact here. In the middle of knowwere we found this incredible shop, full of old stuff nobody really needs but which can be wonderful to have. Once again, it would have been nice to be able to carry more.

We made it to the ferry over the Saint Lawrence River to Sorel, where we found an incredible B&B, run by two very nice man and decorated like a palast.  

Donnaconna to Trois Riviere (78 km)

In the morning, laughter woke us up! The French and our hosts were having breakfast and we joined them. We had the impression that they knew each other already for a long time, but then we learnt, the French were part of a group touring Quebec and they had arrived the same evenig like we did. Only, the had booked dinner with a real Canadien Family, that were our hosts who cooked themselves. When they left, it was with kisses and huges and soon after them we left too, amazed once again by the extraordinary hospitality we experience here.

Saturday is marketday, we run into a small apple pie and art market, ate a delicious apple pie. The next village had a bigger market, much organic and with live jazz music. We sampled a lot and felt sorry, that we are not able to carry some of this fine foods.

The whole day we drove along the Saint Lawrence River to our left and farms to our right. Just before sunset we found a wonderful B&B on a dairy farm. The house used to be the home of the famous Canadien Felix Leclerc, a singer, chansonier, songwriter, author and wise man. The interieur is still almost like when he lived here, his music is playing as I write this blog in his old living room. 

 

Saint Vallier to Donnaconna (87 km)

It may sound boring, but once again we encountered extremly strong and cold headwind. Katrin had to use her gloves for the first time. But, to our luck it was not far to Levis, where we took to ferry to Quebec city.

Just before us a huge cruise ship had arrived. We counted arround 400 balconies on each side, so it must have more than 3000 passengers on board. And they all went ashore as we arrived! So the old town was filled. The ship came from London via new York, Boston and going to St. John´s and then back to London. 

We strolled through Quebec, a Unesco World Heritage town. Apparently is the most french like town in North America and indeed, the food is nice, lots of coffeeshops, musicians playing in the streets and painters selling pictures, one art gallery after the other, a bit like Paris. But the most interesting place is the Chateau Frontenac, a huge luxury hotel overlooking the river and town. It had very famous guests here, for example Richard Nixon spent some time here to recover from Watergate or Alfred Hitchcock who even filmed there. Of course we went inside, but with our biker outfit we did not really fit into the noble surrounding.

A bit too late we left Quebec and drove along le Chemin des Roi direction west. All of a sudden it was sunset time and we did not have a place to sleep yet. Our map showed a hotel close, but it was closed and up for sale. A a few kilometers further a B&B, but nobody home. By then it was almost dark which is rather bad to drive because of all the holes in the road. Next on our map was an auberge, which looked nice and warm, had a wonderful cosy restaurant, but all rooms sold! But they helped us and called to the next B&B. There we were welcome, what a relief. Only 7 more kilometers to go. We decided to have a nice diner (it really was outstanding) and after that we arrived at 10 pm in our B&B.

What a place! In the living room the hosts and 8 cheerful French enjoying a good meal, we were welcomed like old friends. Laughing our landlady tolds us, that we were to sleep in her office on a inflatable bed, it was her emergency setup for stranded bikers like us, all her normal rooms had been taken by the French.

Montmagny to Saint Vallier (24 km in the rain)

Sunset on the Saint Lawrence river

Not the rain woke us up, it were the garbage collectors with their loud truck when they loaded the garbage bins early this morning, unfortunately just below our window. The weather had changed, the temperature did drop more than 10 degrees compared to yesterday. We were well prepared, dressed in all our waterproofs and left the cosy hotel. Franks bike got fixed in a shop where they also sell all sorts of hunting gear, rifles, very mean looking crossbows and Swiss army knifes (8 $ the one with 24 tools, of course made in China). So when the mechanic had fixed the pedale (although not the right way) we did not argue but paid! (Frank fixed it outside the shop)
After 20 km we passed a cheesefactory and could not resist to stop and sample some cheese. Did taste ok, cheddar like cheese. After that stop it needed more than a bit of strong will to sit back on the bike but we did it. For another 2 kilometers, then we crossed a organic bakery. Again we were glad to stop and smell the taste of nice warm bakery. We sampled a whole bread, which tasted, looked and felt like a real bread. The bakery is very known in the area, from our point of view a bit surprising, neither the selection nor the bread were outstanding. But it shows that some food culture has been lost here, how little old traditional ways of food making or other craftmansship are still known. 

Drenched with rain we continued only to come across a nice motel right on the river 2 km further down the road. There we decided to stay, make our laundry and wait for tomorrow, because the weatherforcast for the coming days is very good again. The owner, an elderly woman felt really pity for us, we must have looked quite cold. She even offered to make our laundry and brought it back to our room dry and folded!   

Dinner with a view!

Kamouraska to Montmagny (88 km)

Well retested we started early and had some nice tailwind. The countryside has changed, farm after farm, lots of little villages and town with huge churches. Often the land is so flat,that 15 km before actually arriving in a place we can see the churchtowers.

A nice custom are the garage sales here, almost in every town we pass one. In the yard, garade or barn, used things are sold, you can buy there almost everything second hand, some worthless, other items quite nice. Sometimes we are tempted, but then, were to store it, how to carry? We are heavy enough as it is with all our gear and clothes.

Just 2 kilometer outside Montmagny Franks new pedal breaks. Very annoying but not a big problem. We are thankful it happened here and not somewhere in he remote areas. In the evening we dont find a mechanic who can fix is, but get the adress of someone to see tomorrow morning.  

Meeting other bikers who took this picture

Riviere du Loup to Kamouraska (43 km)

Restday! Only a short ride to get out of town into the picturesque town of Kamouraska. There we found our first lovely motel, with a room and terrase overlocking the Saint Lawrence River. Here it is arround 30 kilometers wide, its salty, because it mixes with the Atlantic. This area is famous for whale watching, so I think it is more sea than River out here.
Our room had a little kitchen, so we did cook: Seeweedsalad, Seegrass-risotto and local hadock fish. The seedweeds we had bought from a lady who collects all sorts of seeweeds along the shore and sells it. A bit unusuall to lock at but all tasted very good, even a bit salty.

We realized also, we are now in Quebec! Firmly French speaking and clearly different laws. For example here you get wine and liqour in normal stores, while in the provinces before, those alcoholic beverages had to be bought in special shops. And surprisingly, a lot of people we met did not speak good English at all. And their French sounds very strange at first, not like theEuropean French.
Quebec is a huge province, 36 times the size of Switzerland or 4 times the size of Germany. The population is just over 8 million people, it looks like a very empty place. But it has a lot of forest, water and as some people here hope, even oil.
  

Edmunston to Riviere du Loup (137 km)

From the St. John River over the Apalachian Mountains to the St. Lauwrence River in one day!
In the evening when we finally saw the mighty river in the fading daylight, we were just too tired to write our blog. But really hungry! We went to a retaurant next to our motel and found Swiss Fondue on the menue. Of course we ordered it only to be dissapointed because the cook who makes the fondue had already left.
Otherwise we had a hard but rich day. Nearly the entire day long we drove on the old railway track, which has been very well transformed into a bicycle track. It was a fantastic ride, along lakes, hours through wilderness and forests. This is a bikers paradies!

But, being Europeans, we are not used to these very long distances between towns. As it can be very exhausting, we always need to carry water and some food. So we were lucky, when we made it, water, food and dayight all gone at the end!
During this day, we saw our first bear. Frank was driving a bit ahead when all of a sudden, a black bear was sitting on the road. First the bear did not see me, then he must have heard me, we starred at each other briefly before the bear did run back into the forest. I was a bit frightened, but then Katrin came and we only found the foodprints of him on the ground. Also, most of the way we found big footprints of moose, saw a beaver and some small snakes. Very fascinating.

Perth-Andover to Edmundston (105 km)

We had a strange morning. In the Inn we slept, (a very nice old castle like inn) we were the only guests. So when we came down to have breakfast, nobody was there, no staff, no breakfast ready. After waiting a while, we used our hotel know-how, went into the kitchen and made the breakfast ourselfs. So we had a nice breakfast! Then we discovered a sign, that the hotel was closed for holidays from the day we arrived, so we were the last guests there and probably the staff had forgotten us!

We had wonderful wind pushing us along the river, cloudless skies. After Grand Falls the river started to form the frontier between the US and Canada. Where there are bridges to cross over to the US, we could see huge border control stations, it looks very uninviting. All flag were on half mast, as it was the 10th year of 9/11.

All of a sudden, we saw black smoke rising from the US side. When we came closer to the place, we saw a few houses burning, flames going as high as 30 meters and even ca. 400 meters away we felt the heat and heard screaming and then the alarm from the firetrucks coming. It was sad to see and terrible, the wooden houses burn really quick once they catch fire. Later as we were going on, we saw the inevitable News TV helicopter passing.

Along the river up here, a lot of potatos for  Mc Donald´s are grow. We saw huge machinery digging them out and passed a factory where they are prefried, for kilometers the smell of french fries accompagnied us. It made Katrin so hungry, that we actually had lunch in a Mc. Donald`s.

Later the farmland disappeared, endless forests until the horizon were all we saw. From time to time we passed small villages or towns, saw very few people outside. Later we arrived in Edmundston, no place to stay, loud and smelling bad from some kind of industry. Even though it sound English, Edmundston is French speaking and along the way, the the signs had changed from English to French.      

Woodstock to Perth-Andover (80km)

When we looked out the window this morning, we knew it´s going to be a tough day! Straight headwind with strong gusts on a cold but sunny morning. It was north wind and it brought a taste of winter or the cold North from where it comes. 

We left quite early, heading North, again the whole day along the river. Soon we crossed the world´s longest covered wooden bridge, more that 400 meters long. It was built 110 years ago by citizens of the area who were tired of waiting for the government to build a bridge. So they got together and after two years the brigde was standing. In winter they had to bring a lot of snow into the bridge in order to cover the floor, because those days people were traveling on sledges, drawn by horses.

The rest of our day was exhausting like seldom before. The wind was slowing us down to 16 km/h average and working extremly hard for it. After 80 km in Perth- Andover we gave up and found a small inn, where we are the only guests.
 

Fredericton to Woodstock (not the famous one) 103 km

We left well rested into a cool morning, a bit late, 10 am, but we had to get our phone recharged. That was a challenge, because Frank had forgotten the pin. But he was able to get an operator to the phone who helped him through and then said, that next time he would charge two dollars for his service.

Our route was along the St. John river the whole day. When we started the river was still as wide as a lake later it narrowed and here in Woodstock it is estimated 300 meters wide. It was a journey through history. We drove briefly on the abandoned old settlers road, passed nearly empty villages named Prince William or Kings Landing, with old but well filled cemeteries. A lot of  fallow land we saw, with many old apple trees, once there must have been houses, they have long collapsed but the trees remain. 

In the 17th century the St. John river was already used for transport. Along its shores first the French, then the English settled. In the 19th century huge steamers (Dampfschiffe) went up and down the river, loaded with wood and agricultural goods. The forests allong the St. John river were one of the major source for Britsh navyboats shipmasts.
Around 1920 the railway was build and thus the era of the steamers came to an end. But the train didnt last long, 1980 the roads had driven the railway out of business. So many villages along the river had lost their reason to exist, their business. People moved away and today it is a landscape of utter beauty but very empty. 

We drove for 80 km before having our first rest, before that there was nothing to stay. Even then, we only had a rest in a petrol station, Katrin loading her bike battery, Frank eating Popcorn, there was not much else to to buy, except chips in 100 different varieties. 

Finally we made it to Woodstock, a little surviving town, everything here is historic, even the B&B we are staying in, an old house, build 1880 for a bishop.  

Gagetown to Fredericton (66 km)

A typical B&B breakfast morning, all guests gather around the table, have breakfast together and a long discussion develops. Main topic today is the climate change. We sit in the house off an ex minister of Canada, one of the guests, a professor of the university of Toronto tells us, that climate change is positive for Canada. Of course, Frank cannot agree, but in a sense, Canada is a winner of global warming, at least in it weather. But, even there, we are not sure, at the moment there are huge forest fires in British Columbia, were usually it rain so often, that fires have little chance. So maybe the weather changes bring also draught and this is certainly a problem. Much too late we finally leave, it rains so no one is in a hurry.

After only 3 hours we arrive in Fredericton, the Capital City of this province. Nice little town, lots of students and still a bit British, we find this memorial sign under a big tree. It did better than Charles and Diana. Then we both need a hairdresser, me to cut, Katrin to color.

Looking like new we go to a free folk concert in the town center, even the hamburgers are free. We meet a group of young students from China there. They are here to learn how to fly an aircraft and especially to speak fluent English. They are very proud to become future pilots of big planes, so they tell us. It´s a wonderful peaceful evening here, all seem to be happy, a very international crowd, mostly students and nice music. So we wonder why the world is not the same, why can´t cultures not live together in peace. We don’t know, but enjoyed the evening.