Originally Posted by
indyfabz
You brought back some memories....
Back in '99 I did ACA's group Northern Tier tour. We crossed the Peace Bridge from Buffalo into Ontario, rode up to Niagara Falls and spent two nights at the Rainbow Hostel in the old "downtown." On the day off, some of us took a funky bus tour to places most tourists never see. They were sites away from the tacky attractions that had (and still were) going up all over the place, like the Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum and giant Burger King with a model of Frankenstein holding a burger hovering over the entrance. We visited a really nice park, a brewery and ultimately a winery, where I had a glass of ice wine for the very first time. At some point we stopped at a canal as a large ship was passing through, and I remember there was this one fruit market or something selling the most amazing peaches by the basket.
Off all the days off during that three month trip, that was probably the most fun.
Sounds like you visited the Welland Canal. The wineries turn out of some pretty good wine - we always buy a few bottles when in the area. Oh, the peaches! OMG, they are out of this world! Same for the cherries in early July.
A few years back, you could tour the Sir Adam Beck hydro-electric generating station. It was a neat tour that took you down to an observation room overlooking the generators. This was still open around 2005 or 2006 (surprising to us Americans, since everything like that was stopped after 9/11) but has since ceased.