Day 4, Visiting St. Jacobs
Friday, September 13, 2019
We were not super happy with the appartment but nevertheless, we both had
a good night sleep.
Just after nine we left the house to ride to St.Jacobs a nice little village
with nice shops that Anneke wants to visit.
We had the ground floor apartment in this house
We programmed the Garmin GPS for St. Jacobs and to avoid freeways, to see as
much of Canada as we could these two weeks but first we had to get out of
Hamilton.
A lot of the buildings we saw along the road were in a poor state of maintenance
but a little farther away from the area where our apartment was, the houses
and other buildings looked better.
Trying to get out of Hamilton
There are a lot big eighteen wheelers on the road. Some with lots of chrome
and special paint, some just white and dirty but all impressive.
Lots of trucks on the road
In general, the roads in Ontario are well maintained and on a lot of places
crews were working, doing maintenance on the roads.
Roadworks
After more then an hour driving, we wanted coffee so we parked the
Volkswagen in front of a Subway store and bought coffee. My coffee was
average but Annekes coffee (with milk) did not taste good.
Coffee pitstop
At half past eleven, we arrived in St. Jacobs and found a good parking spot
for the car and went to the main street. Anneke wanted to buy a pair of
mocassins, like she did in 2001 when she visited St. Jacobs with our
parents and their friend Jan.
There are a lot of shops in St. Jacobs and some are painted in bright
colors.
Shops in St. Jacobs
Anneke wanted to drink coffee in a bakery where Mennonite woman backed the
cakes. Before we went inside, a funny old man wanted his picture taken.
Anneke and a funny old man
The bakery is right behind the shop and everything is fresh from the bakery.
Anneke and I had a coffee with a nice cake.
Before we left the shop, I wanted a picture of the bakery and the
Mennonites that worked there, Some Mennonites do not want their picture
taken so I asked if it was allright to take a picture. They had
to discuss it but fortunately it was no problem.
The Mennonite bakery
From the bakery, we went to the postoffice. I write this travellog to let
people know what I am doing and where, but Anneke sends postcards to a lot
of family and friends.
When we told the ladies in the postoffice that we came from the
Netherlands, we did not have to pay tax for the stamps because we are from
overseas.
Mennonites museum and postoffice
Next to the postoffice is the Mennonites museum. there are a lot of
Mennonites in this area and in this museum, they tell the history of the
Mennonites. It was very interesting and we had a nice chat with the
museum manager.
Paintings at the beginning of the tour
A video presentation about the Mennonites
A scale model of a covered wagon like the Mennonites used
Anneke in a mockup of a Mennonites church
We have seen and learned a lot, we had nice coffee and cake but we had not
found the mocassins Anneke was looking for. She remembered she bought them
at a shop in some old silos so that was where we went.
Silos converted to shops
We could not found the shop we were looking for and when Anneke ask the
waitress of the restaurant next to the silos about it, the lady told us
that the shop was closed.
One of the specialities of the Mennonite woman is making quilts. The
quilts are sold in a few shops in St. Jacobs but it was not allowed to take
pictures in the shops.
They sold quilts
In the Mennonites museum, we got a leaflet about a coveres bridge, near
West Montrose, approximately twelve kilometer from St. Jacobs.
I found the location on my Nokia phone and we went there to look at the
bridge and take some pictures.
The bridge was covered to protect the construction of the bridge against
the elements. It also provided a nice place for young lovers to kiss
eachother so it was named the Kissing Bridge.
The covered bridge
We could only walk on (or is it in) the covered bridge since it was closed
for traffic because of some maintenance work.
Close near the bridge was a little Mennonites shop. We bought some cakes
to eat in the evening at the motel.
We also wanted to buy some yoghurt but the date on the pack was July 2019.
"No problem", said the Mennonite lady in the shop. We could get it
cheaper.... Well, thanks but no thanks.
Mennonites shop
Hardcore Mennonites do not drive a car but use a horse and carriage to get
around. Next to the shop was the parking for the shopowners carriage.
Mennonites carriage
It was getting late so we tried to get the address of the Countryside Motel
in the Garmin. It could not find it but fortunately, the satnav in my old
Nokia phone had no problem to find it.
It was a nice ride through the countryside. It rained sometimes but we were
lucky that it was only raining when we were in the car.
Riding nice countryroads
Anneke wss very entousiastic about the coffee and donuts at Tim Hortons so
when we saw a Tim Hortons we parked the Volkswagen and went inside for a
coffee and donut. Anneke was right, the coffee was good and so was the
donut.
Donuts at Tim Hortons
We enjoyed the nice road, over the rolling hills with nice scenery all
around. We saw a bird of prey with its nest in a high voltage pylon, some
beautiful farmhouses, one very bad looking farmhouse, lots of big trucks
and huge cornfields.
It was already starting to get dark when we arrived at the motel. We parked the
car and the motel manager showed us our rooms.
We have two nice rooms in the motel and the car is parked right in front of
Annekes room.
The Countryside Motel
We ate our bread buns with peanutbutter and Nutella and had a coffee. The friendly motelmanager gave us some bottles of water and I chatted
with a Harley rider who had been to a bikersrally nearby.
Tomorrow, we will go to Sarnia to meet Jan en Norma.
Our next hotel where we will stay from September 14 to 16 is:
The Harbourfront Inn,
505 Harbour Road,
Sarnia, Ontario,
Canada
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