Perth to Ottawa What a perfect way to approach Ottawa on this trip – via the Trans Canada trail!  It was a gorgeous day with no thunder clouds in sight. Even the winds were calm. Stopping at Coutts for coffee and to buy sandwiches for lunch, we cycled north-east along Mississipi Lake and into Carleton Place. ...

We are now so used to rising early that it is difficult to sleep in on a day off. It also didn’t help that someone’s motorcycle was idling outside our motel window.  Although we found breakfast at 8am, we had to cycle around Perth and then wait in the park at the feet of a ...

Marmora to Perth Breakfast was more Rui Pereira creations, starting with freshly-baked croissants, with spaghetti squash marmalade (very good!) and tomato jam (surprisingly good, as well) and banana muffins, followed by cheese and vegetable omelettes, toast and espresso/latte. Mr. Pereira helped us get our bikes out of the garage, chatted for a while about Portugal and ...

Peterborough to Marmora After all the hills yesterday, we decided to go back onto Highway 7 (this route is also designated as the TransCanada for central Ontario). In fact, it was fine (or maybe we’re just getting more used to negotiating narrow shoulders). The traffic  wasn’t too bad and the wind was behind us. Maritia sent ...

Port Perry to Peterborough Today, we spent a lot of time and effort avoiding busy highways with diminutive shoulders. The alternative was peaceful countryside, but many steep hills. On one particularly steep hill, Paul walked back to provide moral support to Lois (not an unusual occurrence) to find her with her biked parked beside the ...

Newmarket to Port Perry With the help of sidewalks(!) and google maps,  we navigated our way down Yonge Street (the same one!), and passed a Quaker Meeting House, from 1810, and through some urban green space. This included some wetlands and the Aurora Community Arboreteum. From there, we travelled along Highway 15, which became much quieter ...

Fergus to Newmarket John was up early preparing a wonderful breakfast. We said our goodbyes to Catherine and John and headed out on the highway across the Grand River, where we got a lovely view of the old mill. Luckily, we soon discovered that the Elora Cataract Trailway has a crushed rock surface which worked well for ...

Durham to Fergus Breakfast at the Forest Edge B&B was served beside a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the front gardens and beside the music room, which housed a grand piano. The owners are musicians and sometimes house musical events. We were served homemade granola with fresh fruit salad and the best scrambled eggs that we have had ...

Owen Sound to Durham One of Paul’s mother’s favourite singers was the contralto, Kathleen Ferrier, who sang “Blow the Wind Southerly”. Unfortunately, today,  we were not able to share the positive sentiments in the lyrics. There was a blustery south westerly which was a strong headwind for us. We left Owen Sound by a back way ...

Tobermory to Owen Sound Ruth and John treated us to delicious homemade blueberry pancakes and very good coffee and we were on the road by 7:30. There was quite a strong headwind for most of the way and intermittent showers, but we made good time and did not get too wet. We stopped at Ferndale, but ...