For our month-long trip to Michigan we flew in and out of Toronto as the airfare was significantly cheaper. So at the start and end of our journey we spent two and three nights respectively in Toronto. (This was our second trip to Canada, although on the previous occasion in 2003 we'd only been to Quebec). At the start of this trip we were with my brother and his car, and as my husband and I knew we'd be coming back to Toronto by ourselves later we wanted to make the most of having transport. So on our first day we headed north out of Toronto to
Georgian Bay, 'bay' being somewhat of a misnomer as this body of water located in north-east
Lake Huron is almost as large as another Great Lake,
Lake Ontario!
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view over part of Georgian Bay and Parry Sound
from a former forest fire outlook tower |
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| former forest fire outlook tower at Parry Sound |
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| seaplane at Parry Sound |
The following day it was time to head to one of the highlights of our trip, Niagara Falls. Rather than doing a boat trip to the foot of the falls we preferred to fly over them on a short helicopter ride.
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| our Niagara Falls helicopter |
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| Niagara Falls from the helicopter, Canadian side to the right |
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| Niagara Falls from the helicopter, Canadian side to the right |
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| Niagara Falls from the helicopter, Canadian side to the left |
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| Niagara Falls from the helicopter, Canadian side to the left |
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| Niagara Falls from the helicopter, Canadian side to the bottom and right |
After that we headed to see the falls up close. My brother, who's been to Niagara about 7 or 8 times, said that the plume of spray rising up was one of the highest he'd ever seen.
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| plume of spray, Niagara Falls |
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| 'Maid of the Mist' boat at the foot of the falls |
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| looking across to the American side |
After admiring the Falls we had lunch at the town of
Niagara-on-the-Lake, before heading to Detroit, a 4- to 5-hour drive away. We were back just over three weeks later, having been dropped off at
Windsor (a Canadian town on the south bank of the Detroit river directly opposite Detroit) and then taken the train from there. During the 4-hour ride the train stopped at
London (of course when you're in Windsor you're never very far from London)!
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| London, Ontario train station sign |
Once back in Toronto we stayed in East Chinatown, which reminded us of our time spent living in
Asia.
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| in Toronto we stayed in East Chinatown, very reminiscent of Asia |
We had some time on our first day to get to grips with the (very efficient)
Toronto public transport system and visited the Distillery District, a 5-hectare pedestrian only area that was once the world's largest distillery. Its 150-year-old cobblestone streets are now full of restaurants, cafés, bars, galleries, art studios, performance venues and speciality shops.
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| Distillery District, Detroit |
The next day we headed to the city centre.
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| Toronto sign at Nathan Philips Square |
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| old City Hall seen from Nathan Philips Square |
The old City Hall building was completed in 1899 and now serves as a courthouse since the new City Hall was built in 1960s.
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| old city hall seen from the front |
Campbell House dates from 1822 and is the oldest remaining building in the city.
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| Campbell House is a Georgian building |
In the afternoon we went to
Casa Loma, an Edwardian-style mansion completed in 1914 for a prominent financier and industrialist of the time, Sir Henry Pellatt.
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| Casa Loma |
Unfortunately financial ruin meant that he was forced to leave his 98-room home less than years after is was built.
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| the 'Scottish Tower', Casa Loma |
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| view of downtown Toronto from the 'Scottish Tower', Casa Loma |
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| this fully-functioning basement wine cellar holds over 1500 bottles |
After walking through an 800-ft underground tunnel that connects the house to the former stables you reach the small Automotive Museum, which has a collection of early twentieth-century cars. Interestingly the tunnel features an exhibit called 'Toronto’s Dark Side', which tells the story – using archival photographs – of darker days such as Prohibition, The Depression, The Plague, The
Great Toronto Fire, and Toronto’s first plane crash.
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| vintage car in Casa Loma's Automotive Museum |
The next day we didn't do much sight-seeing as we had lunch with a colleague, but nevertheless visited the University District and Kensington Market. The latter is more of a district than an enclosed market, with food shops and secondhand clothes shops. It used to be a Jewish enclave, but now many vendors are West Indian, Portuguese or from elsewhere. Incidentally Toronto is a very cosmopolitan city with 51% of its population having been born outside of Canada (compared with 22% for the country as a whole).
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| Kensington Market |
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| spiderman visiting Kensington Market |
We didn't go up Toronto's iconic
CN Tower, but admired it from the ground. The tower has 181 storeys and is 553 metres high. It was built in 1976 by the Canadian National Railway and until 2009 was the world's tallest tower and remains the tallest free-standing structure on land in the Western Hemisphere.
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| CN Tower, Toronto |
As our departing flight was only in the evening we had all of our final day to make the most of, and we chose to visit Toronto Islands. These are a chain of 15 small islands and islets that separate the city's Inner Harbour from the rest of Lake Ontario. To reach them you can take a quick ferry ride (10 minutes) to Ward's Island or Centre Island.
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| view of Toronto from the ferry to Toronto Islands |
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| view of Toronto from the ferry to Toronto Islands |
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| view of Toronto from the ferry to Toronto Islands |
Service vehicles are the only cars allowed on the island and biking is a popular way of getting around, although we chose to walk. We particularly enjoyed strolling along the 2.5 km boardwalk from Ward's Island to Centre Island.
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| view of Toronto from Centre Island |
On a final note, there were a lot of murals where we were staying in East Chinatown. One of them was of the Mexican archaeological site Chichen Itza,
reminding us of our trip there in January just a few months previously!
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| Chichen Itza mural in East Chinatown, Toronto |
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