TORONTO - ONTARIO

19th - 24th March 2011

CN Tower

On to Toronto by bus; 2.5 hours up to the NW corner of Lake Ontario. Flat countryside again and from about 50 miles out lots of light industry, warehouses, car showrooms, shopping centres, housing estates etc. I realised that I have not seen a proper hill since leaving Virginia ( Bunker Hill, Boston, was only 50ft AMSL so doesn't count ).
Toronto ( pop. 5m ) is by far the biggest city in Canada and is cosmopolitan, modern, relatively clean and safe, and very 'multi-cultural'. In fact, I was told, 75% of the inhabitants are not of Canadian origin. Originally in Iroquois Indian territory, most of the Indians here now are from the Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta tribes. Lots of Chinese, Greeks, Italians, Philippinos, Portugese and every other nation you can think of are represented. I happened to end up staying in a room above a cheap Chinese grocery in 'Cabbagetown'. It was great, and who cares if the wallpaper is falling off and the paint is peeling! It added to the 'atmosphere', and it had a great pub, the Ben Wicks, nearby. An amusing lady behind the bar there, called Trisha, had an inexhaustible supply of 'Newfy' jokes ( a Newfy is an inhabitant of Newfoundland about whom it is, according to Trisha, traditional to make jokes ). Most of them were rather rude. I don't suppose they get many 'Newfy' customers in, or at least not that would admit to it. Also behind the bar was a charming French Canadian semi-retired semi-professional opera singer, and an expert on 'hockey', from Montreal called Benoit. They were a gas. It was the most amusing place I visited in Toronto, indeed Canada, by far, so far.
Although the city has all 'mod-cons', it lacks in much definitive architecture, special character or any iconic structures, with the possible exception of the Canadian National ( CN ) Tower. This was, when built in 1976, the highest free-standing structure in the world, at 1815ft. It is not now ( either in the structure or tower categories ), and I would argue with the 'free' bit; $38 to get to the top! What a rip-off. So it is now just a 'quite high expensive-standing tower'. Of course, I had to go up it. They have an observation deck at 1200ft with a glass floor, and another at 1400ft. OK, you get a good, if not inspiring, view of Toronto and the lake, cloud base permitting.  
  




Left: View north over Toronto from CN Tower. Not a molehill in sight. For hundreds of miles.









 Right: The view down through the glass floor. I didn't try jumping up and down to test it.

Left: view to the south over the lake and 'city' airport.













Right: It's worth doing a 'cloud-base check' before spending $38 to go up. I'm not sure if you get your money back if you can't bloody well see anything! I doubt it.

There is a fast lift, with glass wall looking outwards, which takes 58 secs to get to the 1200ft level.








As far as I am aware there are three things for which Canada is internationally famous, namely; Mounties, Lumberjacks and huskies pulling sledges. I have been in Canada for a week now and haven't seen any of them. Perhaps Niagara and Toronto are not the best places to look. My eyes will be peeled from now on. I learnt two useful things in the Ben Wicks pub; the heavy bold-checked shirts/coats that the archetypal lumberjacks wear are nicknamed 'Canadian Dinner-Jackets', and the cry 'mush-mush' to get your huskies to run fast is derived from the French word 'marcher, or marche'. Is that interesting?

I visited the Royal Ontario Museum ( the ROM... Canadians love their acronyms or 'three letter abbreviations', TLAs ). It was large and quite interesting and undoubtedly the best bit was a wing dedicated to early Canadian inhabitants; the many Indian tribes. Having seen this I will add to my list of famous Canadian symbols; canoes, beavers and snow-shoes.
It was snowing on the day I went there but still no sign of huskies or, for that matter, snow-shoes.



Left: The Toronto equivalent of the New York 'Flatiron' building. As you can see, it has an interesting 'trompe d'oeil' on the back of it. Only the middle row of windows is real.

Right: The old City Hall. One of the more 'characterful' buildings.

  



Left: The added-on modern extension to the ROM.










Another thing I have noticed travelling USA and Canada is that in all the bars they have banks of TVs. In the USA they were, exclusively, showing basketball matches ( it must be the season ) but nobody ever seemed to be paying the blindest bit of attention. In Canada they show ice-hockey and some basketball. I, personally, as a Brit, do not really appreciate TVs in bars/pubs ( sacrilege...it would never be allowed in The Grapes ). I notice that basketball is a game played by enormous black men wearing over-sized shorts taking it in turns to throw a big orange ball into a net. Ice-hockey is a game played by enormous white men wearing over-sized shirts whacking an invisible ( to the naked eye ) object into a net. The teams are all known by their nicknames such as ' Killers', or 'Dragons' or 'Fairies' or 'Munchkins', so you never know where they come from. These sports must be an aquired taste. I remember we only played basketball at school, in the gym, when severe weather ( so rarely ) prohibited playing proper outdoor sports, and ice-hockey we played badly, in winter, with upturned walking sticks, on a frozen pond and it always ended ignominiously when someone fell through the ice and had to be rescued.

So, onwards and westwards...........I had intended to take the 'Rocky Mountaineer' train across the Rockies from Calgary to Vancouver, but due to a bit of snow and ice they do not start any of the touristy stuff until the end of April. I am now due to board the VIA ( this is not a TLA, I think it just means 'via'! ) train here and go direct to Vancouver. This is a 41/2 day epic. I sincerely hope to see a few Mounties, Lumberjacks and Huskies pulling sledges en route.....and maybe the odd beaver in a canoe wearing snow-shoes. All aboard!