Toronto

We spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in Toronto in very bright and hot sunshine as well as in thunderstorms that resulted in the largest raindrops I have ever seen. Getting to Toronto from Grimsby was really easy. We left our car at the GO bus stop, took a bus to Burlington and then a train to Union Station and all for CAD 9.80. Union Station was a maze but we finally found a taxi which took us to The Gladstone Hotel (more about the hotel later) on Queen Street West. In my naivety, I thought that it would then be a short walk to downtown, but Queen Street West is a rather long street. Anyway the nice gentleman at reception gave us a quick course in public transportation and we were able to make our way by streetcar to the Citysightseeing hop on hop off double decker opentopped bus. We briefly considered the Step on Step off bus but decided it was too sedate for us!

Our first view of The CN Tower.

The ticket for Citysightseeing included a cruise in Toronto Harbour and when we arrived at that stop we decided to go ahead as the next cruise was about to leave and because it was so hot on top that every exposed bit of flesh was in danger of severe burning. It was cooler and more pleasant on the boat.

Toronto skyline from the harbour.

One of the islands.

Behind these trees is a nudist beach. Saw no bares!

A tallship in preparation for the tallship festival.

After the cruise we were in need of coffee but the only cafe we could find was across the "Paws Way" and into a place called "Fresh" which is a pet friendly cafe.

These are the sculptures outside of the cafe. Inside, aside from u,s there were twice as many dogs as people as each person had 2 dogs! I also noticed that they have a dog Kindergarten. Steph (Carol's friend) told us that they have a computer programme that assesses your personality in order to decide what breed of dog is suited to you. Didn't try it but it would be interesting to see what kind of bitch would suit me!



Hopped on again and 3 minutes into the tour the big raindrops fell. There was a rush to the stairs but we were reprimanded by the guide as we were meant to remain seated except at stops. By the time we got to a stop, it was a rather wet and bedraggled group that hopped downstairs. We then proceeded to steam for half an hour as the tour continued with no real opportunity to get any photos. Then the rain stopped and we hopped upstairs for a better chance of a view and, of course, wet seats!

This gives you an idea of the difference in the sky between when we started and took the CN Tower and now in the rain.

We stopped for about 10 minutes in Dundas Square. These are just a few of the ads in the square.








The rain started again so we hopped downstairs and again could get no real view. Once the rain stopped, we decided that hopping off and hopping (sorry - walking) to our hotel would be a good idea. On the way we noticed that trees in Toronto are much too pushy!

An example of street art on our walk home. We finally succumbed to a streetcar but had to stand as it was packed. The congestion in Toronto is horrendous!




On Thursday we met up with Steph, Carol's Canadian friend, and had a real tour of the city. We really enjoyed ourselves and learned so much from her. We also learned a few things about Carol!

This is more like Steph!

This is the Hockey Hall of Fame where the Stanley Cup is kept - the Sam Maguire of Ice Hockey.

Can't remember the name of the building but it's nice.

Above the old City Hall - a lovely building. Right - the new City Hall and surrounding area.











Steph brought us to the St Lawrence Market which is the real reason why I would live in Toronto!  The food was fantastic: meats - including goat - fish, cheeses, breads, all sorts of conserves, wines, vegetables, nuts, seeds, every conceivable food. A foodies paradise! We had lunch there - Jim and Steph had a swordfish sandwich and I had a crab salad sandwich. It was wonderful! It's time we had the like in Raphoe - Jimmy and Liam need to upsize!

When we parted from Steph we got a streetcar back to the hotel from which we set out to buy a cd of The National a track of whom we had heard the night before in the bar and which we liked. We are just about to put it on to see if we like it.