Days 6 & 7 - Stratford & Paris

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Stratford is a small city on the Avon River in SW Ontario. As the river enters the city it widens into Lake Victoria. The city was a railway town until the middle of the 1960s when the Canadian National Railway closed its repair shop in the city laying off numerous employees.

The drive from Cambridge took us through probably hundreds of thousands of acres of arable farmland, the flat landscape stretching out in front of us and to the sides with huge fields of green and others with grey earth. We drove through North Dumfries, crossed the road to West London, saw a sign to New Dundee, drove through Shakespeare – the village not the person - and eventually entered Perth the county in which Stratford sits.

We parked on the outskirts of downtown Stratford and walked into the main area. Stratford is now a thriving theatre city with 4 permanent venues and is host to the Stratford Festival. An Adventure Lab cache took us on a wander to each of the theatres, but we did take a detour along the lake to see the Canada geese who live on the banks of the lake, the mute swans descended from a pair originally gifted to the city in 1918, and the Arts in the Park. There were many arts in the park, ranging from water colour and acrylic paintings, felting, ceramics, jewellery, photography, sandstone sculpture and wood carving. The list is not exhaustive! We managed not to buy anything, although I did come close to purchasing a new pair of rather lovely earrings.

We heard a Canadian woman talking to a friend about how ‘they’ (British people) teased her about how she spoke when she was in the UK. She gave the example of aluminum versus aluminium. Susan and I looked at each other and smiled; we’ve had that very conversation!

We crossed a bridge and walked back along the other side of the lake, grabbing a few caches on the way. One was in a tree with the hint of ‘s-t-r-e-e-e-e-c-h’. As there was no way I wouldn’t have reached it, the wonderful Susan gave it go and managed to get her hands on it by climbing a little way up the tree. I am hugely grateful!

On the way home we popped in to see Maureen, a friend of Susan’s since they were 5 years old. Hi Maureen!! I know she reads the blogs because she told me she was waiting for the next one – it was published this morning just before we left home. Maureen is a polymath of crafting! She quilts, felts, makes soap and hand cream, knits, punch needles, works with stained glass and pots. Just wow!! Her little craft area in her basement is wonderful! I certainly have pottery envy.

The evening was spent with in the garden with Susan’s friend and neighbour, Alison. Alison has just returned from a holiday in Greece and it was lovely to see her photos and hear about her adventures. FYI, I’m off to Greece in September, so watch this space for the blogs!

After a great night’s sleep Susan rustled up one of my favourite breakfasts – pancakes, bacon and maple syrup. Real Canadian maple syrup! We then drove to Paris, a very small town at the junction of the Grand and Nith Rivers, about 20 minutes away from home. It’s described in various places as picturesque and quaint. Well, we weren’t blown away by the picturesqueness and quaintness. It’s certainly a very pleasant town, and the rivers are beautiful tree-lined waterways, but I wouldn’t say it’s the prettiest town in Canada, which is what the Adventure Lab cache we did there is called.

We were attempting a separate physical cache on a view point looking out onto the gorgeous river. It was being very stubborn and hiding well! We knew we were looking for a very small black magnetic container stuck somewhere on a plethora of black painted decorative metalwork. Luckily one of the locals who likely spent every Sunday morning sitting in his spot with his beer had seen it being looked for in the past, and with a bit of persuasion was able to direct us to it. I’m not certain we’d have managed it without him!

We had a wander along one of the trails on the edge of town where Susan found some four-leaf clovers and I added two to the one I have in the back of my phone from Ireland. We popped into a few shops and the local covered market, then left without buying anything, although Susan came close to obtaining some new running shoes. We stocked up on food on the way home, then had a quiet afternoon preparing and packing for our big adventure to Nova Scotia on Tuesday, moving on to Calgary 5 days later.

There was of course, wine involved in the preparations, and at one point Susan took ownership of both our wine glasses!

Victoria, Susan’s older daughter joined us for supper. It was lovely to meet her properly rather than just in passing, and I made sure to apologise for the fact that she’s needed to temporarily decant to her father’s house so that I have a bed to sleep in here.

Supper was a charcuterie board – I love them! Pudding was salted caramel Hagen Daz; if you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend you do! I may also have tried some of the HD coconut and pineapple, which I’ve never seen in the UK but will now be keeping an eye out for it.

I had managed to get a bottle of Inneskillin icewine, rated as one of the best wines in the world, so we cracked the cork and gave it a go. Absolutely delicious! A thick, silky textured sweet wine, medium gold in colour, and with definite flavours of mango and apricot. As far as I can see, it’s not available in the UK, so I’m going to bring some home!

Tomorrow is Toronto day!

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