Blog English – Arminius-on-tour

The holiday fever thrills us again. We loved staying with Myra and Dan, but we have to go on the road again. We are heading straight south and along the US border to the west. We pass Kingston that is said to be one of Ontario’s most beautiful cities. There is the other end of the Rideau Canal. A short ferry trip carries us to Prince Edward County. The peninsula at Lake Ontario is an awesome piece of land. Huge old hardwood trees, meadows, a higher situated mystical black lake without visible inflow, vines, and blue water around.

We visit Waupoos Winery. Ed Neuser, the German owner, isn’t a long time in coming, our vehicle attracts him. Ed’s English is better than his German; he already emigrated in the 50s. Waupoos was the oldest vineyard on the peninsula. According to Ed is Prince Edward County the coldest region in the world where wine is grown. In winter there were regularly minus 30 degrees; therefore special techniques as well as type of grapes were necessary. We find the classical Riesling. The Geisenheim smells interestingly like peach, grapefruit, and herbs. This hybrid grape was first grown in the German city Geisenheim from a Riesling grape on a Russian vine, but isn’t popular in Germany, the young winemaker explains. It is six o’clock in the afternoon and Ed realizes quickly that we need a place to overnight. He gives us the decisive hint and the detailed map as well. On the south-eastern end of the island right before a provincial park small gravel tracks lead to the lake. Nobody would bother us there.

The beach is just perfect. Clear mirror-like water washes around flat round pebbles. The shingle beach is soft, without four-wheel drive and differential lock nothing goes here. The idyll would be perfect, if there weren’t the mosquitoes that immediately settle on Arminius but spare us. We realize with big relief that they don’t sting. The scenario is a bit frightening anyway. Myriads of bugs hover like a black cloud above our heads high in the sky. Billions of beats of their wings cause a sound as I stood in front of a beehive. As we go into the cabin, dozens of them crawl on our window panes like in a Hitchcock thriller.

This entry was posted on Dienstag, Juni 8th, 2010 at 23:26 and is filed under Canada. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.