Exploring Windsor, Ontario: Waterfront with Great View of Detroit & Sculpture Garden

After a good nights sleep at Argyle Manor B&B in Windsor I woke up early on October 17, 2008 to interview my hosts, Dr. Paul and Kerri Thomas. I found out that Dr. Paul Thomas is a retired university professor in human kinetics and a renowned expert in ergonomics. Both he and his wife have been involved in competitive sports for many years and Dr. Thomas still coaches basketball at a local private high school and his children are actively involved in high level sports.

Breakfast was fabulous and included a fruit salad, freshly baked muffins made from self-rising flour and ice cream (the flavour was double-churned strawberry) as well as a garbage bag omelette (omelette ingredients that are placed in a clear plastic bag and boiled in hot water).

I had a couple of hours before my planned border crossing to Detroit, so I took a walk in the surrounding Walkerville area, a historic neighbourhood that was developed by Hiram Walker, the distillery owner of Canadian Club Whiskey fame. The distillery began operations in 1856 and Walkerville was originally a housing development for workers at his distillery. It also featured a number of upscale mansions for managers at Hiram Walker. The workers townhouses were built from 1858 onwards and are still in great shape today.

My stroll in the neighbourhood continued to Willistead Manor, the original mansion of the Walker family that today is a city park. The mansion was built between 1904 and 1906 and was designed by renowned Detroit architect Albert Kahn and is surrounded by coachhouses and a large estate.

After saying goodbye to the Thomas I briefly stopped at the Hiram Walker & Sons distillery on the bank of the Detroit River, east of downtown Windsor. Today Canadian Club Whisky Company is part of the Pernod Ricard beverage empire. The Heritage Centre is a gorgeous early 19th century red brick Italianate building that provides guided tours of the Canadian Club facility.

With my tight schedule of course I had to move on since I still wanted to see the waterfront and the Odette Sculpture Park which features more than 31 large, internationally renowned contemporary sculptures. The views of the Ambassador Bridge and of downtown Detroit from the Windsor waterfront are simply astounding.

Well, it was time to cross the border now. Punctually at noon I rolled through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel to start my Detroit adventures.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Canada
• Ontario
• Windsor
• Argyle
• Manor
• Bread
• and
• Breakfast
• Hiram
• Walker

[nineteen99]

I'll never understand why the majority of people run the city of Windsor down. It is in the most unique location within Canada in my opinion due to its deep south location and the town really is a clean nice looking town. Now you all may give me the thumbs down rating.

[bubbydgram222]

lol i live in windsor and i still say its wack..im not acting like a snob im just tellin the truth ...its wack as hell

[14computerfreak]

I live in Windsor Ontario it is awsome I love to go for walks down by the river I just love it it makes me fell as part of something special

[MrQw34ful]

i ive in windosr and its biutiful but you get used to it i lived in widsor for all my life so far

but i love windsor so much.

[Inkstervet08]

I would love to move to Canada soon.

[nhlkennedy]

Windsor was lovely when I traveled there. I wanted to see if all the rumors were true, and I can see they are not true. Weather is lovely and plenty to do in the Windsor-Detroit Metropolis. I cant understand why people say "Windsor is a hellhole". I find it much nicer than Hamilton and many other Ontario cities.

[rosseshockeystuf]

i lived in so many places around canada ,but i always came home to winsor....because home is where the heart is..and my heart and nice memorys are in windsor.

[silhuetto]

Windsor is where I first went to University, and it's one of my favourite places I ever lived. It definitely has it's problems, but there are some wonderful unique and beautiful places there.

[LindasHere55]

I left Windsor 30 years ago, but it will always be home.  Got to say on some of my more recent visits the Downtown area seemed a bit "sketchy" ie. Wyandotte...What the heck happened? Next time I'd like to take a walk down Ouellette Ave....for now glad to see your vids.

[EMUmonster]

haha good old windsor. Or as we call it "our bar". Every single person I know when they turn 19 they go to Canada to drink. I cant say I enoy it because people from Windsor treat us lik shit but its ok. I like Canadians. They are like a watered down version of Americans. They got some cute Canadian girls. Windsor is blue collar part of Ontario. I heard they were laying off people from GM today in Windsor. Canada is feeling our pain. We will rebound, Detroit will be back, we aint going nowhere!!

[selenajonasmileydemi]

i came all the way from england to visit Windsor!!!i

i loved it :)

[EasilyWowed]

Good job on the video. Almost 2 years later. I live in Toronto, but I have ALWAYS enjoyed Windsor. One of my favourite places. I was there, less than 3 weeks after you did this video. Good job! Thank you. In Toronto, we call a 'rye & ginger' as a *Windsor & Ginger* - because of Canadian Club and Vernors (Ginger Ale) across the river in Detroit, Michigan.