Europe in Ontario 2021: 4-Day Road Trip

My husband Rich latched onto the idea of doing a “Europe in Ontario” road trip since there are so many cities, towns and villages within Ontario that have the same name as major cities in Europe.  I think the main appeal of this trip was his ability to tell and re-tell the same old tired joke that, in the middle of a pandemic, we would be traveling to Dublin, Zurich, Copenhagen, Brussels, Vienna, London and more, all in one weekend!  His thought was that we would drive up to each road sign (often in the middle of nowhere) to take a photo of each of us posing in front of the sign.  Indulging him on this goal, we planned a four-day road trip that would include visits to some interesting towns and villages, en route to each of these road sign destinations. We actually visited Paris, Ontario on a previous road trip which would have perfectly fit into the theme of this trek.

After spending our first day in Port Colborne (more on this in the next blog), the next day we stopped for lunch in Port Dover, then headed west across the northern shore of Lake Erie to reach the first set of road signs.  To make it more fun for myself, I tried to think of something we could bring along to represent each of the places.  The only thing that we had easily on hand was an orange to pose with at Seville and for Rich to show his Swiss wristwatch in Zurich.  For the rest, I downloaded some images onto Rich’s IPAD which I could hold up.  The images did not really show up in most of our photos, so I had to enhance them digitally after the fact.

When we arrived at our first road sign in Vienna, Ontario, I held up the image of a pork schnitzel similar to the one we ate years ago when we vacationed in Vienna, Austria.  Next we drove to where Google Maps thought that Seville would be.  Unfortunately, there was no “sign” of life (pun intended), let alone a road sign to mark the spot.  We drove a bit further in both directions but were disappointed not to find anything with the word Seville on it.  That evening, we sadly ate the orange that we had planned for the photo.  Luckily we did find the sign for Copenhagen where I held up the image of some cherry danishes.

When we arrived in London, Ontario on the third day of our trip, we knew better than to try to stop while cars were buzzing by at highway speeds.  Instead we found a tourism billboard and a graffiti work in the downtown area with the word “London” on each of them.  I posed in front of  the billboard while pretending to drink a cup of tea.  Sigh … the things one needs to do to amuse one’s husband!

We had a bit of a respite on the third day of our trip as we spent it exploring London. We were back at it on our fourth and final day, as we headed north along the eastern shore of Lake Huron.  At Zurich, Ontario, Rich proudly displayed his Swiss-made Omega watch.  In Dublin, I held up an image of a shamrock, while in Brussels our IPAD displayed an image of brussel sprouts, a vegetable crop which become popular in Belgium in the 16th Century.   

We initially had a scare at Dublin, thinking that like Seville, there was no road sign when we approached the area from the north-west.  However, unlike Seville, there was a bit of a main street in Dublin so we took photos with anything that we could find with the word Dublin on it.  We found the Dublin Mercantile, which was already decked out in full Christmas decor.  As we continued on to our next destination, we decided to take one final look back and there we found the road sign, which can only be seen when coming from the south-east direction!  Similarly in Brussels, we took an extra photo of a sign with the community's name on it, mostly because it was pretty and showed Brussels back in its glory days.

Brussels was once named the “prettiest village” in Ontario, but when we visited it felt a bit like a ghost town with many of the shops boarded up.  We did see a picture of the once elegant Queen’s Hotel, which was unfortunately demolished in 1986 after it fell into disrepair, and replaced by an IGA supermarket.  You can still see some of the elements of the village’s former glory in the architectural details of some of the older buildings that still remain.

By the time we arrived in Lisbon, our last road sign, we had driven a long way on small, dusty, gravel-filled dirt roads. There had not been much else in sight and I was starting to get tired of the whole concept.  As we watched Google Maps count down the kilometers left until we reached our destination and we still had not spotted any signs, Rich began to worry that this would be another “Seville” situation.  We finally glimpsed a sign just as we arrived at the crest of a hill.  It was a boring blue road sign as opposed to some of the prettier ones from before but after driving all this way, we were happy to see it.  Not only that, but there was already another pair standing in front of the sign taking their own photos.  Rich felt so vindicated that he was not the only one who thought this was a great idea.  He would have rushed out to converse and bond with his fellow “road sign seekers” but when they saw us approach, they quickly left sheepishly.  I held up an image of Portuguese tarts, Rich adopted one of his trademark “model poses” and with these final photos, we were done. 

We really lucked out on this trip, since we had decided that we were going forward with it “rain or shine”.  After an entire autumn where there was at least some amount of rainfall on most days of the week, we hit upon the only consecutive 4-day stretch of continuous sunshine.  It had been rainy the day before we left and rained a bit the day after we got home.  But during our trip, there were blue skies the entire way.

It was actually rather fun driving to each “European” destination, but don’t tell Rich or it will just encourage him!  He is already talking about how we should visit Moscow and Athens the next time we head out east towards Kingston and Ottawa.  I am hoping that by next summer or fall, we will be able to get back to really traveling to Europe and seeing the actual original cities that inspired our road trip.  Still, on this trip we passed by some cool sights and beautiful scenery.  There were views of beaches and shorelines along Lake Erie and Lake Huron, twisty roads enveloped by canopies of golden leaves, vast farmers’ fields shimmering in the setting sun, gigantic alien-like wind turbines spinning in the distance, and farms with massive grain silos. Near Auburn, Ontario, I made Rich turn the car around to get a closer look at and take a photo of an idyllic scene featuring a trio of cows grazing by a small pond with barns and a large silo in the background.

We spotted some interesting sculptures and lawn ornaments as we drove past various properties in rural Ontario. There was an elaborate, stylized metal cut-out of a winged dragon, a giant yellow chicken,  positioned in front of  Canadian flag, which was wearing a red WWI-styled aviator hat and googles, and a large teddy bear lounging in a vintage buggy. We saw funky mailboxes shaped like a large-mouthed fish and an entire cow (body and all!), as well as hand-painted mailboxes with quaint scenes of waterfront cottage decks and farm life and the red lever indicating that there was mail.  The deal that I have Rich is that he will stop the car to allow me to take a photo of anything that I find interesting along the road.  I guess he indulges me on our adventures, as much if not more than I indulge him! 😅

There were cool buildings and interesting structures to admire as we passed through various small villages and communities.  In Smithville Ontario, we found the former late19th Century railway station, which is now a Montessori pre-school.  Following the scenic roads that hugged the northern shore of Lake Erie between Port Colborne and Port Dover, we saw some pretty homes either on the waterfront or just across the road with a view of the water.  The houses were quite eclectic along the water, ranging from mansion-like structures to small modest cabins. Just south of Selkirk, we stumbled upon an abandoned cement silo that reminded me of a Roman ruin. En route to Port Stanley, we also passed by multiple trailer parks where the trailers ranged from mobile vehicles to ones converted into stationary homes with attached porches.

During our 4 day drive, we passed by many tiny villages, communities, beaches and conservation areas with a few that seemed interesting enough that we actually parked the car to explore them for a bit.  Just west of Port Colborne, we arrived at Morgan’s Point Conservation Area which has hiking trails through forests and prairies.  On a tight schedule to reach our road signs before dark, we did not have time to take advantage of these trails. But we did walk through a park area with spectacular autumn leaves to reach the rocky beach area from which we could see the houses lining the coastline that we would soon be driving past.

Another area that caught our attention was Dunnville, Ontario in the Haldimand County 35km west of Port Colborne.  We found several fun looking restaurants and stores that we would have loved to check out, but they were all closed when we arrived.  We peered into the windows of the Knowles Restaurant which looked like a classic old-fashioned diner with a gumball machine in front, round stools at the counter and the padded vinyl seats in the booths.  Displayed prominently in the front window was a plate featuring Yul Brenner in the character of the King of Siam from the musical The King and I (?!?)

Even more interesting was the Flyers Bakery and Café Inc. that featured a painting of old Harvard trainer airplanes on its façade.  An image from the internet shows that there is a mural of a Lancaster plane on the wall inside.  Unfortunately, this eatery might be permanently closed but it was a marketplace for not only breads, soups and pastries but also local artwork, crafts and antiques.  And there were some really cool retro items from the 1960s and 70s on display in the window of the Time Capsule shop, buying and selling records, collectibles and other items of nostalgia shop.  I found out after we got home that Dunnville is also home to  “Muddy the Mud Cat”, a giant sculpture of a catfish that was erected in 2009, honouring the community’s sports team mascot as well as referencing the prime fishing available in the area.  As giant sculptures are my thing, seeing this alone would be a reason for a return stop the next time we are in the area.

We also liked Turkey Point beach area and the town of Port Rowan in Norfolk County.  Port Rowan has a row of boathouses at its harbour including a Boathouse Restaurant serving fish and chips and other fare.  We did not have a chance to eat here, but given that we spent most of our 4-day road trip by either Lake Erie or Lake Huron, we did manage to dine on either perch or pickerel or both at every lunch or dinner during our travels.  I wish we had more time to explore Port Rowan since in addition to the pretty harbour area with the long pier and the lighthouse, the stores on the main drag also seemed fun.  There were several antique shops to rummage around, an ice cream parlour located in a quaint Gingerbread-styled building, and colourfully decorated saloons and bars.  This will be another area for us to return to, perhaps with our bicycles.

We stopped at the Joseph W. Csubak Memorial Viewing Area in the Long Point region of Norfolk County, a biosphere reserve named as one of the Long Point World Biosphere Foundation's “Amazing Places”, promoting sustainable communities that protect nature and wildlife. Birds including the bald eagle, Sandhill crane, black tern and marsh wren might be found here amidst the vast marshlands that lead to a tree-lined sand spit.  It is unclear who Joseph W. Csubak was, but the scenery at his memorial viewing point was breathtaking.  I also had to take a photo with the two bronze figures in Hensall, Ontario because how could I pass up not one but two large sculptures on a bench.

Many of the images shown in this blog were unexpected sightings and a result of either drive-by snapshots from the windshield or open window of our car, with Rich slowing down to a rolling stop whenever he could. In the instances where we did park the car to walk around, it was usually a quick 5-10 minute scouting tour to see if this would be somewhere good to return to on another trip.  We did spend some significant planned time in Port Colborne, Port Hope, St. Thomas, London, Grand Bend, Goderich and Bayfield which I will write about in subsequent blogs.