Elora, Ontario

On Sunday we decided to was time to explore more of Ontario so we headed west to Elora.  A friend had suggested that we visit as there is a Mennonite community there.  

We took the scenic route as we all agreed that we have seen enough of the long straight highways so we zigzagged our way through some beautiful country roads.  It was quite confusing because the roads all have the same name except for a number (eg county road 25).  It took us about 2 hours to get there, the highway would have taken 90 minutes but who cares.

We arrived in Elora at lunchtime, starving and made a visit to the local Subway.  I had brought snacks but not lunch.  We were directed to a park where we sat and ate our lunch.  We were intrigued by the signs that said "no entry - horse and carriage only".  There was also a horse and carriage park.

While eating our lunch we were treated to a visit from some chipmunks.  We have not been close to chipmunks before and they are oh so cute.  They skip across the grass, kind of bouncing as they go.  They raced up and down the trees and across the road and back.

After lunch we went and parked in the town centre and wandered.  Elora has a huge gorge with a river as you will see from the photos.  The first stop was to look at the gorge.  A long way down and so beautiful.  

Then we wandered around the main street visiting the quaint shops as we went.  We found a particularly interesting shop called Sweet Trash.  They sold the most amazing range of vintage clothing I've ever seen.  There were also some awesome galleries and pottery shops too.

The architecture of this town was beautiful.  Obviously all very old and there were lots of decaying shells of buildings long past their glory.  Once again, I forgot to take the camera so we took the photos on Andy's iphone.

We had an excellent day and have declared to return another.  Alas we did not see any Mennonites or horse drawn carriages but there will be another day.

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June 14, 2010