Wine to water

I admit it. I am a little judgy at times. First impressions are strong and lasting. When somebody’s eccentricities get between me and my room and shower at the end of a day of cycling, it can be hard to come back from.

I didn’t mention our B&B in Jordan, largely because I was smarting from a less than satisfactory arrival experience. I will say that it is a lovely house in central Jordan (Jordan isn’t actually very large) with a beautiful bathroom and everything you might need in a B&B. Like a bed. A shower. And a lavish breakfast.

The owner, John, joins us at breakfast, regaling us and the other guests with stories of his exploits as an RAF pilot. It also turns out he was a bit of a cyclist, and travelled widely in Europe by bicycle.

It is toward the end of breakfast when he asks if somebody could google something for him that we get a real glimpse into the past of this man. Back in the 60s he and his wife, Marilyn, opened a coffee shop in Toronto called The Penny Farthing. Not just a coffee house, this place had a swimming pool, and featured musical acts including José Feliciano, John Lee Hooker, a young Joan Anderson (who went to to find international success as Joni Mitchell) and the Stormy Clovers debuting the songs of Canada’s lauded and now deceased son, the one and only Leonard Cohen.

John smiled, a little smugly, a little proudly, as one of the guests read this out to the whole breakfast table.

And here’s the lesson. You can judge a man who is getting on in life, who is a little eccentric, a little forgetful, and who, in his awkward efforts at being friendly and welcoming grate on your nerves. Or you can delve a little deeper, get to know him a little and discover the richness of a life.

I’m a little ashamed, and more than willing to forgive a few eccentric transgressions.

We are in wine country, so we go hunting for wineries. We don’t find the first one we are looking for, so throw our hats into the air and turn into the next winery driveway.

We luck out. Honsberger Estate is what they describe as a small family winery. I’m pretty familiar with small family wineries in Australia, and this seems a much bigger operation (they have a restaurant that is busy setting up for a 45-guest bridal shower today), but we meet Brittany in the tasting room, and she gives us the same kind of attention we would receive at a small winery in Australia as we work our way through their range. Like most wineries in this region, their main (only) red is Cabernet Franc. All their wines are handcrafted, and their grapes are planted in soils that were, until recently, the hosts of fruit trees. Brittany told us the farm has been in the family for over 200 years, and the recent change to grape growing and wine making was simply to keep the farm viable in a changing world.

Just up the road, at Brittany’s recommendation, and the recommendation from yesterday’s wineries, we turn into Creekside Estate Winery’s gate. Their tasting room is a little larger and more polished than Honsberger, but we meet Chrissy there, who takes us through a remarkable tasting experience. She takes the time to get to know us, our tastes and what we like, then assembles a line of bottles and glasses for us. Creekside is one of the two wineries in the area that make Shiraz, so it is particularly interesting for both Neil and I. We finish up with an extraordinarily lovely ice wine.

On bikes there isn’t a lot of space to carry bottles of wine, and we’ve been happy to pay for tastings in Canada. Chrissy refuses to accept payment for the tasting, but we do buy two of the ice wines – they’re small enough to tuck in a pannier, and we are really only 30km or less away from Niagara-on-the-lake, which is our stop for the night.

If you ever find yourself in the Jordan area, I’d recommend stopping at either of these two wineries.

From Creekside, we head directly north and hit the shores of Lake Ontario again, stopping for a while at Charles Daley beach where family groups are gathered enjoying the sun and water on a beautiful Sunday.

Then we just have the last stretch to Niagara-on-the-lake, which, once we leave the waterfront is fairly uninteresting, as we slog along a busy road which for long stretches does not have a shoulder to speak of. There is some small excitement when crossing the Waddel Canal, as the bridge is up, letting a huge ship through. The canal appears to be only inches wider than the ship (though I suppose it is only feet wider in reality), so whoever is driving the ship does a remarkable job to get through.

In Niagara-on-the-lake we meet the mouth of the Niagara River. All of these waterways we’ve travelled along are connected – Niagara River into Lake Ontario into St Lawrence River (and the lower Rideau Canal system into the St Lawrence) which then flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Our whole trip, with the exception of our few days excursion into the hills near Montreal, has been nearby or within cooee of these important waterways. We have spent most of our time riding up river, which effectively means uphill all the way (but no so you would notice it most of the time). And unfortunately the prevailing winds have meant wind in our faces and not at our backs most of the time. If I was planning this trip again, and knew about the winds, I may have looked at riding the opposite direction.

But there is something kind of grand about riding into Niagara Falls. And that is what we are going to do tomorrow.

Stats for today:

• Distance: 42km
• Climb: 141m
• Average speed: 15.9km/h
• Average temperature: 25C
• Moving time: 2:38:13
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken at The Exchange Brewery in Niagara-on-the-lake. We each enjoyed a flight of six of their craft beers. A fitting end to a penultimate cycling day.

Along the way today: