Windsor lives beside a river that disappears twice a day. The Avon, where it meets the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy, drains almost completely at low tide and then fills again so fast that the mudflats vanish under a brown flood. The tide here ranks among the highest anywhere, and you can stand on the old causeway and watch the water climb the bank as if someone were running a bath. A tidal bore also pushes up some of the rivers in this area, and a quiet summer evening is a good time to look for the effect.
The town has the sort of history that gets argued about. Windsor claims to be the birthplace of hockey, saying that students at King's College played a version of the game on Long Pond in the early nineteenth century, a tale that local people defend vigorously. The writer Thomas Chandler Haliburton, creator of Sam Slick the clockmaker, lived at Clifton, his house on a hill above the town. Fort Edward, built by the British in 1750 during the removal of the Acadians, still has a wooden blockhouse, one of the oldest in Canada. And every October, local people paddle giant hollowed pumpkins across Lake Pesaquid in a regatta that nobody quite believes until they see it.
The ride here is gentle farmland, with the Annapolis Valley's orchards and fields to the west and the dyked marshes of the Acadians to the north, where long, flat roads cross reclaimed land with big views of sky. Corners are mellow, the roads are quiet and the apple blossom in late May is something to see. Autumn colour is strong, and fruit stands appear by the roadside. Fog comes off the Fundy in summer and chills the air quickly, so a spare layer is sensible.
Windsor has just under four thousand residents, and there is fuel, food and basic services in town. Wolfville, a bit further west, has more cafés and a university atmosphere, and Kentville is the larger centre for anything else you may need. Stop for lunch, watch the tide if the timing allows, and keep going toward the orchards.