Tuesday 17th August

Lazy start – we only just made it for breakfast!  Breakfast was good – the buffet laid out was unimpressive, but the made to order stuff was great – freshly made waffles, pancakes, omelettes etc. Lovely1!!

Packed up and off to try to find a winery tour.  First stop was the Inniskillen Winery where we just missed the 11.30 tour.  They pointed us towards their sister company where the tour was more “mechanical” and suited to Jack (she said). We motored over there in good time for the 12.30 tour only to find it was fully booked.  We gave up at this point and headed off to NotL  firstly for the best ice cream in the world at Cows (which had a great selection of themed t-shirts – e.g. Cowonation Street; Super Moorio Bros), then some picnic  lunch from a deli.  We found a good spot by the river to eat, then headed for Fort George – a wooden stockade re-created to look like it did at the start of the 1812 war with the US.  This was really good with actors/guides to give a real feel for how it was and what happened.  First we had Pete (helped by French Pete) who demonstrated a load of musical instruments from the drum, through fife, whistle, violin to Oboe including a “mystery” instrument – a serpent.  He was funny and clever.  Then we were picked up by Pete – a sergeant in the Royal Engineers who told us the history of the 1812 war between the US and Britain/Canada.  This was really interesting as well.  We finished off with the obligatory visit to the gift shop – Jack was enticed into buying a Jaw Harp (one of the instruments demonstrated) while Ellie stayed on safer ground with some candy.

We then headed back to Newmarket for an evening with the Moss’s.