This city is apparently even better than Vancouver (which I noticed had recently only come in at number 4 on the list of the world’s ‘most liveable cities‘, tut tut) for cyclists, so why not try it out. I should point out that Nich was not completely convinced that it was a good idea in the heat, but I pressed on regardless. Besides, we’re stuck waiting to see how we can get across back to the west coast and looking for things to pass the time!

One of the great things here in Montreal is a system called ‘Bixi’, which is a sort of remote public bike rental service. All over the city there are stations with bike racks which you can access by putting your credit card in a machine. You simply take the bike and then return it to another station when you’ve finished and you’re charged a basic fee and then for the time you’ve used. There are plenty of stations around the city so it’s easy to drop a bike near to your location and then pick another up later. 

It’s a great idea. Brilliant, in fact. They’re now rolling it out in a couple of American cities and I really hope it catches on across Europe. Of course, it helps if the city which adopts it has decent access for cyclists… London, I fear, would be a bit of a difficult place to make it work.

One thing you can’t stop though is heat exhaustion. We only lasted about 45 minutes on our ride before Nich had to call it a day.  

Sill, an added bonus was that we spotted Mickey Rourke wandering out of the Intercontinental Hotel. He’s in town filming his latest project ‘the Immortals’. One for the scrap book. Apparently his co-star Freida Pinto (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) is also in town.

Might pop down the old town later to see if we can see them filming.