Distance: 141km
Elevation: 315m
At 8am I had a simple breakfast with Ginette and we continued our conversation. She liked to tease me a little about being German and our history and German stereotypes. It hurt a little but we also laughed a lot.
I said farewell to this lovely and funny lady and by 9:45am I was on the road because I could not wait to see the Niagara Falls. Also my gut feeling told me that it would be a long day again.
I followed the coastline to Fort Erie and then joined the Niagara River. The sun was shining and it was really beautiful. Ginette had quoted Winston Churchill regarding this ride being „the most formidable one in the world“. He had not been wrong.
After 50km I reached the Falls and it was absolutely amazing and so beautiful. I had expected a crazy amount of people but it was not so bad at all.
I spent half an hour calling my wife and recording videos for my family. I was filled with joy and gratitude. Thank you, dear god, that I get to see this.
Since my start in Vancouver last year, I had cycled about 4,600km to get here. That is the distance from Naples (Neapel) to the North Cape on the top of Norway. I had at no point in time been convinced for it to be actually possible. And here I was! That was a really humbling experience!
I was so thankful for my colleague Uwe for having my back and for Carolin to support me in this project even if it had been particularly challenging and painful this year with the passing of Resi.
I slowly cycled onwards and followed the river to Lake Ontario. Now the nice part was over but I still had to cycle 70km Westbourne against the wind to reach my next Warmshowers hosts Toby and his wife Jarah in Hamilton.
The route was next to a big highway so it was not pretty at all. I was slow because of the wind and my exhaustion which had built up over the last days.
By 7:30pm I arrived in Hamilton. Nobody was home yet but I was greeted with this letter. How wonderful!
I sat on the patio to cool down and a little later, Moira the youngest daughter of 17 years came by and let me in. I had a shower and a little later, Jarah arrived from a practice session with her percussion group.
We prepared salads and a barbecue together and I took over the grill.. In between we chatted a bit and got to know each other. Jarah was a force of nature and had an abundance of energy and drive. She was a biologist but had retrained to become a nurse.
Toby and the 20 year old daughter Bromwin arrived a little later from his parents and we started eating after 9pm. Tobi had worked as a journalist for long but was in communications now working for a city North of Toronto.
It was a lot of fun to be part of a family dinner again. It was lively and the conversation went back and forth.
It must have been midnight when I went to bed.
