Toronto Canada 26-27 May 2013

We settled in to the Novotel, Toronto Centre, on The Esplanade, which is opposite a line of restaurants and bars. We are in heaven – just walk across the street for dinner each night. Paul’s favourite is the Tilted Kilt where the barmaids wear tartan bikini tops with white boleros and mini kilts with long white socks. The male bartenders wear longer kilts and black shirts. The girls certainly miss out in this establishment.

[nggallery id=66]

We purchased a 3 day Hop on Hop off bus ticket and used it to go to the harbour for the cruise. This was on Lake Ontario, a small sheltered harbour with 14 islands which formed after an epic storm in 1858. The harbour is only 20-40 metres deep and freezes over in winter. They use ice breakers to get the ferries to the islands each day in winter, There are cares on the islands for delivery of good, but other than that cars are not used there.

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y81r5SjLBPc&feature=youtu.be [/tube]

We saw Canadian geese and ducks near the ferry terminal. Billy Bishop airport caters for planes from close destinations like Montreal and Ottowa. The landing zone starts over the water so there is an exclusion zone marked out so water craft don’t get hit. It reminded me of Belmont airport in Newcastle where you landed from over the lake.

There are hundreds of condominium towers being built in the city. One area is trying to get 25000 people in one city block. Not a record I would want Newcastle to be aspiring to.

After the harbour cruise we settled in at an Irish Pub for a few drinks. The weather was warm and the view was wonderful. A bit like the Brewery in Newcastle.

[nggallery id=65]

That night we enjoyed the music at the Fionn McCools down the road from our hotel and stayed till 1 am. We had chowder for dinner and rocked along with the band.

Next day we had a late start ( holidays are for sleeping in too!!!) and did a complete circuit on the bus while deciding which parts of the city to explore.

We got off at the CN Tower but when we realised it was $64 to go up the tower we decided to spend our money elsewhere. We have already been up a few towers and I had enjoyed the view from the plane window when we flew in so this was not good value for us.

So we walked past the Rogers Centre (home to the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball team) and down the harbour again. This was a good spot as we could get the bus back home later.

If we had realised there was a Blue Jays game on that night we would have booked. We didn’t realise till we went to the Tilted Kilt and saw it on TV – an opportunity missed as they Blue Jays won. We heard the fans celebrating at the hotels after the game.

Next day it was drizzly weather so we caught a taxi to the Eaton Centre do some shopping. After a good look around, I got my hair done while Paul tried the local brews.

When we left we were just in time to get on the bus again and we did another circuit, with a much better guide, (Adam, who we had read about on Trip advisor). This was lots of fun. We were inside the bus this time to avoid the rain and got to talk to lots of other passengers. What we didn’t realise was the Blue Jays had just played a day time game and 50, 000 people were leaving the Rogers Stadium as we went through the main part of town, so a 2 hour bus circuit quickly became much longer. We were heading to the Distillery sector where there are lots of restaurants, so we could have an early dinner, as recommended by the hairdresser.

Eventually, we go toff the bus to find a loo, then got a taxi to the Distillery area. It was raining when we arrived so we went into the first bar to get shelter then I went looking for abetter place and we had dinner at the Mill St. Brew House. Very good tapas’.

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1eRaunfsh4&feature=youtu.be[/tube]

A short taxi ride home and we were again on the Esplanade which was very busy with diners and drinkers. This area does not feature as an entertainment sector in the brochures but we found it great and the people were very friendly.

[nggallery id=67]