Cycling at Niagara-on-the-Lake

Gabe's foodie group invited me on their ride at Niagara-on-the-Lake last Saturday. Our plan was to ride along the Niagara Parkway (following the Niagara River) and stop at various wineries along the way and taste some wine and grab lunch somewhere.

In all there were ten of us - Peter, Martin and Edna, Gabe, his brother Gilbert, his brother's girlfriend, Rachel, Justin, Fiona, Cora and me. You would have thought we could have taken two or three cars but, in the end, we took five.

Originally we had planned on me taking four bikes in my car while the rest would rent. That would have left nine people in two cars. Peter could have taken Cora, Fiona and Martin and Edna. Gabe would have taken his brother, his brother's girlfriend and Justin. But, Justin and Fiona and Gabe and his posse had other plans in the evening so everyone drove instead.

We arrived at the bike rental place in Niagara-on-the-Lake at around 11:30 a.m. Most of the others had met earlier for breakfast in the Distillery District near where Martin and Edna live. Me... I slept in, had a quick bite of cereal and drove straight there.

I brought Martin and Edna's bikes for them (which I picked up a day earlier). And I brought my ex-brother-in-law, Bernie's, bike for Cora. As it turned out she was really nervous about cycling. I saw photos of her that she recently posted where she was riding a rented bike in Chicago, so I thought she was fine with it. But, she mentioned she had taken a spill and wasn't confident about it at all. She almost backed out, but with enough prodding by the rest of us she caved.

We set off.

The bike rental shop was along the road into town from the QEW. We continued along that road for a few minutes until we got to the main drag, Queen Street, then someone decided we should park our bikes and walk around because some people hadn't been to the touristy part of Niagara-on-the-Lake before. I think it's called the "Old Town".

After walking for 20-30 minutes we remounted our steeds and continued our journey.

The first winery we stopped at was The Ice House Winery at 14778 Niagara Parkway. Of course, they're known for their icewine. We were a bit parched so instead of tasting icewine we all opted for small icewine slushies at $5 a pop. They were nice, but small.

Our next stop was Ravine Vineyard Estate Winery at 1366 York Road in St. Davids. It was a fairly long trek from The Ice House, so some people were tired and hungry. We were planning on having lunch and sampling some wines there. But, they had a wedding going on so were couldn't eat there. They pointed us literally down their drive to an adjacent restaurant, The Old Firehall Restaurant, that we happily went to.

After lunch Fiona had to go. So Peter rode quickly with her back to the bike rental place (where her car was parked) while the rest of us started off at a more leisurely pace.

Shortly after we had our first and, thankfully, only mishap...

... To be continued ...