October in Toronto

Graham's Canadian visit is in October this year and since they usually route him through Toronto anyway, we decided he would disembark there and I would fly up to meet him. We'd have a few days in the city and hire a car and drive to Niagara to see the famed Falls.

I still hate Pearson Airport

October 2

We were only spending a couple of days in Toronto, Canada's largest city. We arrived on Saturday and got to the Strathcona Hotel after 9 p.m. because his plane was an hour late. I got in a few hours earlier and killed time in the airport, a soulless concrete busy spot. As bad as Heathrow is, Toronto is worse in some ways because at least in Heathrow there's a lot of shops! We caught the airport bus into the city centre, the easiest thing as it stops right across the road from the Strathcona Hotel where we're staying. We got a good rate via Travelocity so that was what made the choice for us in the end. Tired from traveling (he from England and me from Nova Scotia), we just ordered room service and got some rest.

Corrie friends are the best!

October 3

Sunday was a low key day. We met some friends for brunch in the hotel and then went to a pub for the afternoon, meeting up with a group of about 30 friends. It was a lovely chance to catch up and relax. When we left there, we caught the subway down Yonge Street, and walked along the busy part of Toronto though Dundas Square (Toronto's answer to Times Square) and downtown where the skyscrapers got taller and taller. A coffee stop to sustain us and then back to the hotel to rest our feet. We ate at the chain restaurant Jack Astor's that night as it was just around the corner from the hotel.

Toronto from the ground up

October 4

Monday was a dreary looking day. We had a few things in mind to do. We did plan on taking a hop-on-hop-off bus tour but had changed our minds. However, when walking down Front Street, we got chatting to a young woman who was selling tickets for the bus tour and we ended up going on it after all. It was good, with an informative and somewhat cheeky guide. We got off near the Art Gallery of Ontario but our prime objective was to explore Chinatown and the Kensington Market nearby. We wandered Dundas St. W. and looked in some of the Chinese stores and markets and found some lovely chrysanthemum tea in a tea shop. The woman in the shop recommended a restaurant just a few doors down for a dim sum lunch so we ate there. No idea what we were eating but it was an adventure and we liked everything we picked!

From there, we walked a bit further and came to Kensington Ave. which is the main street in the Kensington Market, our other goal for the day. This is a funky neighbourhood, lined with shops in old houses, selling vintage clothing and crafts, with lots of fruit and veg shops, cafes and restaurants. Graham wanted to find a leather jacket and we spied one store that had quite a lot of vintage leather. He found one but it was too big and despaired that another was not on the racks but with a bit of persistence he did find something that fit him perfectly for a more than reasonable price. Result!

We stopped into a little bakery that really was just a take out and catering place but they had a couple of stools and we had coffee and cake there before walking some more. We made our way out of that area and walked another half hour through some nice streets back to the AGO to pick up the tour bus again.

We bought CN Tower tickets at a little discount from the tour operator because we had planned to do the tower as well. 10% is better than nothing and it means no waiting in queues! Up, up, up you go! IT's the tallest public observation platform in the world and it's very high up! We only went to the main level, not the skypod which is another hundred feet or more up. When you're that high up, there's not a lot of difference. The views are spectacular, even on a dreary day! We had a coffee in the restaurant and by the time we got to ground it had started to rain. The tower isn't far from our hotel so we didn't get too wet.

We ate in the hotel pub that evening and later met up with some friends for a few drinks at a pub/restaurant called C'est What. They've got an extensive beer menu, none of it from the large commercial breweries. It's all local or craft brewed! We didn't eat there but I think the food would probably be good too.

Over the falls in a barrel

October 5

On the second day of our visit to Toronto, we rented a car from Enterprise (there's an office on Simcoe Place, just down from Union Station) and planned to drive to Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake for the day. And it was raining. Hard. But since we had the car already reserved we went anyway. We picked up the Gardiner Expressway and it takes you all the way down, along the lake to Niagara. We thought about going to Niagara-on-the-Lake first but missed the turn so went to the Falls first. It was not raining much by then. There's a large parking lot across from the main visitor centre and it will cost you $18 to park. That's high but you can leave it there all day if you plan to go around to all the attractions. There's a shuttle bus that goes to all the various things to do in the area and there's a stop by the parking lot.

That wasn't on our agenda but you have to park somewhere so we paid up and walked across to the visitor centre. As it was still raining a bit, we had lunch in the restaurant there. Not cheap but it was pretty good anyway. We went out to take photos of the falls and it had stopped raining by then. We walked along, taking pictures and looking down at the roiling water on the river that swirled around the Maid of the Mist boats with all the tourists in blue rain slickers lining the decks. It looked a bit cold and blustery to be doing that today so we chickened out. Might have been ok on a sunny day but a chilly, rainy October? Nah...

The falls are pretty impressive, though. There's two sections, one on the Canadian part of the river and one on the American side. The US/Canadian border runs right down the river here. The American falls are smaller though just as high as the Canadian ones which are wide and curved and are called the Horseshoe falls.

The rest of Niagara Falls, the city, has plenty to keep the tourist busy including a Marineland, a casino, a cable car over the rapids downriver, an observation tower, Clifton Hill lined with attractions and theme restaurants and more. It's a bit tacky and tourist trappy, really, but the falls are worth seeing.

From there we drove along the river to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a very pretty town where there are lots of nice shops and a few restaurants. It was rainy at first so we ducked into a few shops and then had coffee and very rich chocolate cakes in an Irish Tea Room at the back of a store that sold Irish imported goods. The rain let up so we window shopped and picked up a few souvenirs but didn't stay too long as it was damp and chilly. This is a lovely town to visit though can be very busy as there are tourists by the busload dropped here for shopping.

This is also the wine country and there are dozens of wineries that you can visit for tours and tasting. We didn't do that as the weather wasn't really inviting but it's worth going back sometime.

We ended up driving back to the city early, having seen what we wanted to and not really enjoying the weather so much. It was raining when we arrived back so we just picked up some sandwiches to eat in the hotel room. Later, we met up with another friend after he got off work and had a nice visit for an hour or two.

Wednesday was the end of the too-short trip. Back to the airport via the airport express bus and back to Halifax for the rest of our time together!