Originally we wanted to do a few more things like check out a local winery but we already bought an ice wine at one of the shops in Niagara-on-the-Lake. It was already 4:30'ish and we were getting hungry!
We passed by many vineyards..
On the way back to Toronto, we followed our trusty GPA which took us on the 55. We were passing through the city of
St. Catharines, the sixth largest city in the Niagara region and the sixth largest urban area in Ontario.
So, as we were on the bridge, we noticed that traffic was stopped. There was a red light and I noticed the sign...As soon as I uttered the words to Bert, "Hey, ooh, a lock. Locks are cool. Sometimes they open up to let ships through...". Well, guess what? Red lights started flashing. The bridge began to creak and lift as if on command!
Where the hell were we? I later found out this was the
Welland Canal! The Canal has 8 locks and we were at Lock 2. The canal links freight ships carrying cargo from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie.
Here's a map (from wikipedia's entry on "Welland Canal"):
(from Wikipedia's entry on "Welland Canal"):
"The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Canada that runs 42 km (27.0 miles) from Port Colborne, Ontario on Lake Erie to Port Weller, Ontario on Lake Ontario. As part of the St. Lawrence Seaway, the canal allows ships to traverse the Niagara Escarpment and avoid Niagara Falls..."
(cont'd)
Here's a few more factoids:
"The canal was a major factor in the growth of the city of Montreal. The original canal and its successors allowed goods from such Great Lakes ports as Detroit, Cleveland, Windsor, and other heavily industrialized areas of the United States and Ontario to be shipped to the port of Montreal, where they were reloaded onto ocean-going vessels for international shipping..."
So, after our initial shock of the bridge actually lifting. Bert and I were wondering, "Where's the #$%& ship?" It showed up on our left side after about five minutes. Time seemed to stand still as we saw the ship, the
Federal Saguenay, inching forward in what seemed like agonzing slow-mo in the distance.
People got out of their cars and started taking photos. What else could you do, eh? In the meantime, TC was sleeping and I didn't have the heart to wake her up to see this. She was so very tired from today.
Here's the ship passing under the bridge...
There's Bert...
This was a pretty long ship!
After the last bit of the ship passed through, the bridge began to lower...
And that, my friends, lasted about 25 minutes!!!
Here's the tail end of the ship as we passed over the bridge...
Passing through people! Let's
GTFO!!!
So long!
Heh heh, Beaver gas!
Here's one of our snack chips...could've used some dip there!
Ah, getting closer to the city...
After today's activities and on and off snacking (no actual full on meals), we were starved! Dinner was next on the agenda...our destination? The Polish neighborhood of Roncesvalles.
