Monday September 2nd was Labour Day in Canada. This is the "end of the season". Over the next few days, all children return to school and the country takes on the attitude that "summer and the holidays are over", no matter what the weather.
It was a good day to travel, as everything seems to close. Our itinerary was to fly from Charlottetown to Montreal and then on to Toronto. Our flight out was around midday, so the traveling took up most of the day.
We went to the top of the hotel to look at the view over Charlottetown. Lonely Planet suggests that the city might be "too big to be quaint and too small to be interesting". This is a bit harsh - it has a charm all its own and operates at a relaxing pace.
Our taxi diver to the airport took us on a brief tour of part of the town, which turned out to be a great idea. We saw some of the older areas, down by the water of the bay. Houses are beautiful, large homes, often about 70 years old. We were surprised to hear that they were priced at about $350,000. We also saw significant condominium development - apparently people are retiring to PEI to try to recapture the slower pace of the towns of their youth.
We then got an appreciation of why tourists seem to dry up in September, after Labour Day. Apparently, the hurricane season starts in about the second week of September. In addition, storm surges can cause flooding down by the waterfront. This might explain the apparent low price of those beautiful older homes, as might the potential cost of heating them through the winter, describes by our local cabbie as "brutal".
Our flights were on small turbo-prop aircraft, which are surprisingly comfortable.
Toronto is a large city. Which the official city has about 2.9 million people, the Greater Toronto Area has about million. The economy here must be strong - cranes abound and their is construction everywhere.
Nonetheless, Toronto is still dead on Labour Day. The supermarket in our building was open, so we could get food. However, the liquor shop was closed (as were most restaurants). Our apartment is excellent, in a great local on the 35th floor, with views over Toronto. This was an enforced alcohol-free day.
The next day was time to have a look around Toronto. We found a bus and headed out to the waterfront in search of some statues commemorating Irish immigrants (which match complementary statues that Toronto presented to Dublin). With some searching, we found the statues, though access to them was blocked by fenced associated with construction works.
Time for coffee, but there was nothing much in sight except a local community center that advertised a café inside. So in we went. Coffee and cake were good, though we were a little out of place amongst the clientele. Seems that they don't get many tourists passing by. The security guard had a conversation with us - this means that he was either extremely friendly, or he was checking out these strange people (or perhaps a bit of both).
Buoyed by the coffee and cake, we wander along the waterfront. Everything was pretty quiet - it was after Labour Day, after all. We found an Irish pub for lunch - the pub seated about 180 people and there were about 10 customers.
From the waterfront we took a return ferry across to Toronto Island, as short distance into Lake Ontario. This proved a good way to get a view of the city.
Next stop was the CN Tower, claimed as the highest free-standing structure on earth. It's a pricey ride up (about $35 each), but it seems to be a mandatory stop for tourists. It was a clear day and there is certainly a good view. We believed that we could see the mist cloud from Niagara Falls across the lake.
We felt that we had made a start at seeing Toronto, so we headed home to have drinks and dinner - fortunately the liquor store in our building was open.
The next day (Wednesday) was our Niagara excursion. Our guide picked us up at 8.00 am, in a mini-van. Total on the tour was 7, plus driver/guide. Our guide had been doing this since 1978. The past weekend was apparently very busy (Labour Day weekend), with full-size busses full, so our mini-van meant a more personal tour and presaged much smaller crowds at Niagara.
Niagara is about 130 km away, mostly on excellent freeways. The tour deviates off the highway to see parts of the Niagara Peninsula. This is a fruit and grape growing area, with many wineries. We stopped at a small family winery and tasted the wine, including the local ice-wine.
From there, on to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a small and pretty town which was the site of the first Canadian parliament for a few years. This area is very close to the US (the Niagara River is the boundary) and it has a history of battles from the 1812 war.
A beautiful parkway leads from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Niagara Falls. This is beautiful country - very green with well ordered vineyards, superb homes, gardens and fields. We made a few stops at scenic points, including great views across the Niagara River into New York state, before arriving at Niagara Falls.
The area is full of hotels, souvenir shops, casinos and like attractions, but the real deal is the falls. We took the Maid of the Mist boat ride. this is simply great (and great value) - don't miss it. You are outfitted with a poncho and the boat then heads for the falls. Forget mist - this is a full scale rainstorm; the boat gets right up to the Canadian Falls and you are in the churning water immediately below the falls.
We had three hours at Niagara Falls. This was time for the boat rise, to have lunch and to take a walk to have a good look at the Falls and to take the requisite hundreds of photos. The weather was clear and mild and the Falls areas wasn't overcrowded. We were on the Canadian side and this is clearly the best side to see the Falls.
The bus ride back to Toronto is just under two hours, rounding out a magic day.
The Thursday was our last day in Toronto. We decided that this was the day to look a little more closely at the city. We took the metro uptown to Queens Park to have a look at the Provincial Assembly building - this is bigger and grander than that of PEI, but unfortunately is largely covered with scaffolding. It's also part of the Toronto building boom.
Off to the Ontario Art Gallery, mainly to see Canadian painters, who are well represented in this collection. Our waiter at lunch suggested a tram ride as a way to see part of the city, so we hopped on the tram. This ride took us outside the immediate central city through a number of suburbs, There is lots of green around and the suburbs see to vary from the less attractive to ones that are much more so.
The ride left us in the Greektown area, which has an excellent metro connection back. We headed back, with Michael and Bernadette detouring to the Australian Consulate to vote.
Following a light supper, we packed and headed for Union Station. This is a short walk from our apartment. We dropped our big bags and checked in for our train. Tonight we start our journey across Canada to Jasper on the Canadien - a journey of three nights and nearly three days.
It was a good day to travel, as everything seems to close. Our itinerary was to fly from Charlottetown to Montreal and then on to Toronto. Our flight out was around midday, so the traveling took up most of the day.
We went to the top of the hotel to look at the view over Charlottetown. Lonely Planet suggests that the city might be "too big to be quaint and too small to be interesting". This is a bit harsh - it has a charm all its own and operates at a relaxing pace.
Our taxi diver to the airport took us on a brief tour of part of the town, which turned out to be a great idea. We saw some of the older areas, down by the water of the bay. Houses are beautiful, large homes, often about 70 years old. We were surprised to hear that they were priced at about $350,000. We also saw significant condominium development - apparently people are retiring to PEI to try to recapture the slower pace of the towns of their youth.
We then got an appreciation of why tourists seem to dry up in September, after Labour Day. Apparently, the hurricane season starts in about the second week of September. In addition, storm surges can cause flooding down by the waterfront. This might explain the apparent low price of those beautiful older homes, as might the potential cost of heating them through the winter, describes by our local cabbie as "brutal".
Our flights were on small turbo-prop aircraft, which are surprisingly comfortable.
Toronto is a large city. Which the official city has about 2.9 million people, the Greater Toronto Area has about million. The economy here must be strong - cranes abound and their is construction everywhere.
Nonetheless, Toronto is still dead on Labour Day. The supermarket in our building was open, so we could get food. However, the liquor shop was closed (as were most restaurants). Our apartment is excellent, in a great local on the 35th floor, with views over Toronto. This was an enforced alcohol-free day.
The next day was time to have a look around Toronto. We found a bus and headed out to the waterfront in search of some statues commemorating Irish immigrants (which match complementary statues that Toronto presented to Dublin). With some searching, we found the statues, though access to them was blocked by fenced associated with construction works.
Time for coffee, but there was nothing much in sight except a local community center that advertised a café inside. So in we went. Coffee and cake were good, though we were a little out of place amongst the clientele. Seems that they don't get many tourists passing by. The security guard had a conversation with us - this means that he was either extremely friendly, or he was checking out these strange people (or perhaps a bit of both).
Buoyed by the coffee and cake, we wander along the waterfront. Everything was pretty quiet - it was after Labour Day, after all. We found an Irish pub for lunch - the pub seated about 180 people and there were about 10 customers.
From the waterfront we took a return ferry across to Toronto Island, as short distance into Lake Ontario. This proved a good way to get a view of the city.
Next stop was the CN Tower, claimed as the highest free-standing structure on earth. It's a pricey ride up (about $35 each), but it seems to be a mandatory stop for tourists. It was a clear day and there is certainly a good view. We believed that we could see the mist cloud from Niagara Falls across the lake.
We felt that we had made a start at seeing Toronto, so we headed home to have drinks and dinner - fortunately the liquor store in our building was open.
The next day (Wednesday) was our Niagara excursion. Our guide picked us up at 8.00 am, in a mini-van. Total on the tour was 7, plus driver/guide. Our guide had been doing this since 1978. The past weekend was apparently very busy (Labour Day weekend), with full-size busses full, so our mini-van meant a more personal tour and presaged much smaller crowds at Niagara.
Niagara is about 130 km away, mostly on excellent freeways. The tour deviates off the highway to see parts of the Niagara Peninsula. This is a fruit and grape growing area, with many wineries. We stopped at a small family winery and tasted the wine, including the local ice-wine.
From there, on to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a small and pretty town which was the site of the first Canadian parliament for a few years. This area is very close to the US (the Niagara River is the boundary) and it has a history of battles from the 1812 war.
A beautiful parkway leads from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Niagara Falls. This is beautiful country - very green with well ordered vineyards, superb homes, gardens and fields. We made a few stops at scenic points, including great views across the Niagara River into New York state, before arriving at Niagara Falls.
The area is full of hotels, souvenir shops, casinos and like attractions, but the real deal is the falls. We took the Maid of the Mist boat ride. this is simply great (and great value) - don't miss it. You are outfitted with a poncho and the boat then heads for the falls. Forget mist - this is a full scale rainstorm; the boat gets right up to the Canadian Falls and you are in the churning water immediately below the falls.
We had three hours at Niagara Falls. This was time for the boat rise, to have lunch and to take a walk to have a good look at the Falls and to take the requisite hundreds of photos. The weather was clear and mild and the Falls areas wasn't overcrowded. We were on the Canadian side and this is clearly the best side to see the Falls.
The bus ride back to Toronto is just under two hours, rounding out a magic day.
The Thursday was our last day in Toronto. We decided that this was the day to look a little more closely at the city. We took the metro uptown to Queens Park to have a look at the Provincial Assembly building - this is bigger and grander than that of PEI, but unfortunately is largely covered with scaffolding. It's also part of the Toronto building boom.
Off to the Ontario Art Gallery, mainly to see Canadian painters, who are well represented in this collection. Our waiter at lunch suggested a tram ride as a way to see part of the city, so we hopped on the tram. This ride took us outside the immediate central city through a number of suburbs, There is lots of green around and the suburbs see to vary from the less attractive to ones that are much more so.
The ride left us in the Greektown area, which has an excellent metro connection back. We headed back, with Michael and Bernadette detouring to the Australian Consulate to vote.
Following a light supper, we packed and headed for Union Station. This is a short walk from our apartment. We dropped our big bags and checked in for our train. Tonight we start our journey across Canada to Jasper on the Canadien - a journey of three nights and nearly three days.
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