Near Toronto, Niagara-on-the-Lake
Is Prettiest Drive in the World

By George Medovoy

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Canada — Winston Churchill once called the Niagara River Parkway "the prettiest afternoon drive in the world."

It’s so easy to see why he was right!

The parkway’s canopy of trees is truly something to behold, evoking everyone’s favorite image of Canada as a special kind of place to the north.

You know, pristine scenery, red-suited Mounties on horseback — all the classic Hollywood images.

But more than that is the feeling best expressed by Canadian writer Stephen Leacock, who once said: "Compared with the rest of a troubled world, the North seems a vast realm of peace."

On one of those peaceful, lovely mornings, I drove south from Toronto along Lake Ontario for Niagara-on-the-Lake, about two hours away, recently named the "The Prettiest Town in Canada."

This is also a region of a lot of other pretty towns in their own right, like Waterdown, where I stopped to rest in an old two-story house called the Village Tea Room.

There was a slight chill in the air. I ordered a cup of mint tea, which warmed me up. Across the street, in the window of a travel agency, I couldn’t believe my eyes -- they had posted a sign advertising "sunny California beaches." Well, a lot of Canadians do dream of warming up by going south.

When I got back in the car, I drove onto the Niagara peninsula, which, believe it or not, is also a fertile wine region full of spreading vineyards -- a sort of Napa Valley of the North.

Ontario wines have, in fact, started to come into their own. So much so, that a headline in the Toronto Star exclaimed: "Cheers! Ontario wine is the toast of France."

The peninsula owes its agreeable climate for grapes to the Niagara escarpment, which rises above the landscape to create a natural barrier against the wind.

The province of Ontario’s agricultural region now has about 35 wineries, which offer tastings and tours.

To find out more about this side of Ontario, I stopped at the Inniskillin Winery tasting room. Outside, a field of grapes basked in the warm sun.

Inniskillin produces Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Gewurtztraminer, plus a novelty wine called ice wine, an extremely concentrated dessert drink made form winter’s frozen Vidal grapes.

The white grapes are painstakingly picked by hand in their natural frozen state, often in the middle of the freezing night.

The wine produced from these grapes is intensely sweet and flavorful, with hints of tropical fruits and overtones of peach nectar and mango.

But the wineries are only one of the wonderful surprises in this region of Ontario. At the southern tip of the peninsula is Niagara-on-the-Lake, one of the best preserved and prettiest 19th-century towns in North America.

The Canadian legislature met here for five sessions from 1791 to 1796, but following the War of 1812, the capitol was moved to Ottawa in order to be further from the U.S. border.

Keep in mind that during the war an American force of 14 ships and 1,700 troops burned Niagara-on-the-Lake to the ground.

The scenic Niagara Parkway, 35 miles of greenbelt also known as Queen Victoria Park, parallels the Niagara River.

Along the way I found Queenston, where General Sir Isaac Brock died a hero’s death while leading his troops to victory over the Americans in the Battle of Queenston Heights during the War of 1812.

You can drive the route, walk it, stop for picnics, or, if you’re a Davis biker, bike it.

Niagara-on-the-Lake has wonderful charm, especially along Queen Street, including the restored Niagara Apothecary, The Fudge Shop, where fudge is made right before your eyes on a marble slab, and Greaves Jams, which has been making jams since 1927.

Before I knew it, all that traveling made me hungry, so I stopped at the Pillar and Pod, one of the nicest inns in Niagara-on-the-Lake, for baked salmon and a piece of delicious apple pie.

The inn was originally built in the early part of the 20th century as a peach and tomato canning factory. It has 90 rooms, most with woodburning fireplaces, hand-crafted pine furnishings and patchwork quilts made by local Amish families.

Niagara-on-the-Lake is also home to the famous Shaw Festival, where you can see a wonderful bill of plays by Shaw and his contemporaries in three different theatres from April to November.
The Shaw is home to the second largest repertory company in North America and the only one to specialize in plays by Shaw and his contemporaries (1856-1950).

For information on the festival, call 1-800-511-SHAW or visit the web site at www.shawfest.sympatico.ca.

At nearby Niagara Falls, legend has it that Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, brought his bride from New Orleans — and started a trend.

But honeymoon or not, an experience not to be missed is a ride on the Maid of the Mist boat on the Canadian side of the falls, assuredly the nicer side.

One afternoon, I joined dozens of Japanese tourists for the short ride to within earshot of Horseshoe Falls, which is 34 million gallons of water crashing down every minute.

We were each handed a blue rain slicker for the ride, and with hoods wrapped over our heads, we all looked rather like strange creatures from another planet.

From wine to history, and from scenic beauty to wonderful theatre, the Niagara region is a "must" stop when you find yourself in the Toronto area.

For information on travel to Canada’s province of Ontario, call 800-ONTARIO. Air Canada has regular non-stop service to Toronto. Call 800-776-3000.