Montreal's Streets and Skylines

     City skylines along a body of water always look so deceptively peaceful. Here's a few photos I took while riding my bike along the canal and on the outer islands of downtown Montreal. I tremendously enjoyed these long rides. For those of you old enough to remember, the second photo is Montreal's Biosphere for the World Fair Expo 1967.

     But far more interesting than the skyline of Montreal is the people who make this very bikeable city delightfully fun to people-watch. My favorite is this young dog-walker with a Mona Lisa smile. She's in complete control of eight dogs.

Horses and buggies share the bike lane . . . .

 

 Police use bike lanes too . . . .

It takes a bit of wrangling to get a bike parked and unparked . . .

Takes a bit of time to find your bike . . .

 Electric wheelchair users use the bike lane . . . . and it's trickier to pass those slow folks in chairs too.

Notice the cell phone user who's somewhat oblivious?

     Whenever I stopped my bike to take a photo, others around me politely voiced their displeasure. I had committed the unspoken sin of being out of sync with the natural flow of dis-order. Biking in Montreal requires total concentration. My brother-in-law found out the hard way; he cracked three ribs in a fall at an intersection with another bicyclist. He's fine; just a bit uncomfortable for awhile. Coming up in my next blog . . . the mega-ride of over 10,000 bicyclists.