Day 48 Sat-Rocks, Wheat and Markets!

The bed must have been good because I woke with a fright after 5.20 am,,,,that’s a sleep in for me…did the unusual morning routine….quickly packed, so just after 7 am we headed to the dining room for Brekky….sadly Canadian bacon is never like ours…theirs appears very thin, not a lot of flavour and cooked really well until dry, not crispy dry just dry…..and their scrambled eggs are always very dry as well…it’s like it has no moisture in it….the 2 ladies serving breakfast were the same 2 last night…one lady must have been over 65, very chirpy had her mask on…it’s a real mixture of people who mask and those who don’t..,..the other lady never looks happy but once you chat actually does appear happier than you think…they kind of insisted cooking the toast, but there was toaster set up to cook your own, but no they like yo do it they said…yes you can cook it, but we prefer to do it for you…😳🤔 ok so you really didn’t want us to cook it…was the implication…I asked could mine be done well, yep it sure was…. A good colour of black well done….oh dear really..anyway I ate half not to insult her but it was really over done…maybe they could do with a colour chart on the colour toast you want if they insist on cooking it…I know it was part of the deal but dear me as good as the ladies were the meal really wasn’t that good…

So we thank the ladies and set off up the Hwy…or was it down…I am totally lost in the country to up, or down….I had a read about the city of Sudbury with its mining…..Nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum , group metals (not the sure what that means) Gold and Silver….so as we zipped up the Hwy…in was seeing the amazing rock wall structures that have been cut into the highway, you could see the diversity of minerals from these beautiful coloured rocks structures…most glistened in the morning light…colours of black - mushroom pink and different colours in between….lines of pale cream streaming through the black it really was fascinating to just watch the colours of rocks from the huge cuttings made on the Hwy for miles, and miles…I loved geology at school, and had a real fascination with rocks their structures etc since…this area would have been so interesting to really look into all the different types of rocks that are in the area with the metals…… 😆😆🤔🤔 I know I am a nerd….

The smaller lakes started to appear one after the other…some looking so pretty in the morning light…some getting bigger with houses dotted around the shores which are mainly made granite rocks….quite different to other lakes we have seen….We stopped on the Hwy for a coffee from here we decided to head off the main Hwy and through the country towns….it was slower but more to look at with old barns, crops and church’s in the towns..
Their wheat crops were so short compared to ours and very thick…must be the moisture in the ground..when we arrived at Tim’s at the beginning of the trip he was going to take me to the St Jacobs Farmers Market…we did a smaller market in Kitchener and I loved it…we arrived at this one around 1.15pm….it goes from 7am-3.30pm….on Sat some other days as well..when we drive around the corner towards the market, it was evident this was no normal small market…it was massive and I doubt we did it all.but to be honest far too many people…..1,000s of them everywhere….yes it had fresh produce but was just like going to an oversized Paddy’s market in Sydney…. Bags, Tshirts, jewellery, gadgets and gizmos…. You name it this market had it…but once you have seen one big market in honest truths you have seen them all…the smaller one Tim took me too was more fresh food market…more up my alley…that’s for sure…

We made it to our accommodation today the Crown Plaza Kitchener…..yep looked good, but honestly it’s all the externals…that give it a glitz look…the FRIDGE has Noooooo Freezer……my glory it’s a pain in the neck…not sure how I will negotiate this one….they don’t look that helpful at the desk..,it’s a massive complex was cheaper as guess trying to fill rooms…it’s ok but sometimes the cheaper ones in the little towns have all that you have on your tick list of needs for your accommodation…..this hotel is right far smack in the middle of down town Kitchener….we didn’t realise that when we booked it…silly us…
Anyway we had to empty the car right out as it goes in for it’s service Monday…and redo the rest of the lease…. All set up in the room and lucky us we scored top floor on the front of the hotel over looking the Glockenspiel Clock across the road from us…in fact right in the middle of across the road from us…

Before we went to see the sights in the street we thought we would check out the hotel…my glory it’s got a big indoor pool….a Sauna not working I would say Covid..a 3 lane bowling alley again not in action…a massive gym,,,a gaming alley and a miniature putt putt…..very well set up on the basement level…we walked right into a wedding…the Bride, Groom and family having pics in the foyer…and then out front as we headed up the street to check out Downtown Kitchener….first up it was nearly 6pm so wanted to see the Glockenspiel Clock do it’s thing….a local lady startee chatting to us about it….I was so busy taking pics on the other side of the road when the gongs started for 6pm….so I went tearing back just as it finished its gonging…thinking I had missed it very sad next thing, suddenly the roller door on the front if it rolled up and out popped the 7 dwarfs…..ha ha I though ohh that’s it and it went on and on for over 6 mins…fortunately I had the video going for all of it so captured it’s whole performance….
It was set up in 1976 but it only played one tune…over the years it wore down to nearly not working, so in 2009 they pulled it down to fix it but it stayed like that until 2015 when they finally got it going again and thanks to modern computerisation it now plays 5 or 6 tunes.,,with the whole story of the prince sweeping the princess off her feet….😂😂😂 it was very cute…

As I was saying seeing downtown Kitchener this time was very different view from when we went with Tim…we didn’t see any of the sights we saw today…especially all the live action up the main drag…restaurants pumping, muso’s playing at a few different venues up th street….and there was plenty of sights everywhere compared to our concept before……heaps of restaurants and bars with pavement areas set up for outside dining…guessing in summer they lap this up…People swimming 😳😆😁 in the paddle pool out front of the main city building.., we have noticed this in a few places we have been and worked out in winter they double as ice skating rinks…..interesting concept…

As we wandered along the street we spotted some interesting characters that’s for sure….We stopped at the Irish Pub and had a drink on the pavement seating area to watch the world go by……apparently yesterday was a massive Car show where they shut the streets off for a couple of days and paraded all the cars…what a shame we missed it…

Back to our hotel…The TV not working so off to reception to see why… apparently it’s to do with the Net and phone down over the country yesterday…buggar a boring night…but guess we will suck it up…

Tomorrow I meet up with my friend Judy to have our last breakfast together…we may never see each other face to face again….she us visiting family here in Kitchener as this is her hometown…funny old world isn’t it…and she heads home tomorrow…we have a window of time to touch base so taking it…John and I will hopefully head to the covered bridge after Judy and meet up…

Another day of adventuring…ends…I am so pleased to see a different side to Kitchener that what I had on our first impressions….Read more