After a wonderful weekend with my in-laws, it was time to begin making our way back north. We would spend a night and a full day in Toronto, although originally the plan was 2 nights and 2 days.
Leaving their home around 8 p.m. that evening, we made the journey into the city courtesy of a lift from friends I had made on the immigration forum. They drove the hour from their suburban city to where we were then we all went out to dinner, then instead of our original plan of taking the train into Toronto from their city, they drove us all the way into Toronto itself. We were wonderfully surprised and very grateful for their generosity.
Like any other large city, Toronto is magically-lit up at night. I had forgotten to pack my camera in my handbag, and ended up only having my phone available for taking photos. Still, it was impressively beautiful to drive into and finally see the city I had only managed to "breeze" through the last two times I saw it.
You might be asking, so if there is a New City Hall, is there an Old one? Actually, yes, there is, and our wanderings would take us right past it.
That marvelous Victorian building is not the only one of its kind in Toronto, many architecturally interesting buildings have been preserved at various points throughout the city, cropping up to surprise you in the midst of the functional glass-and-steel high-rises, like this beauty:
Once we were on Yonge Street (pronounced "young"), we decided to keep walking on it all the way to the waterfront. During my "Canadian immersion" phase last year, I had watched the news on Canadian stations and many times had heard of "Yonge Street". I would often wonder to myself just how long this street was, as it seemed to be just about everywhere. In point of fact, it is. To quote Wikipedia:
Yonge Street (pronounced "young") is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at 1,896 km (1,178 mi).[2]The construction of Yonge Street is designated an Event of National Historic Significance in Canada.[3] Yonge Street was fundamental in the original planning and settlement of western Upper Canada in the 1790s, informing the basis of the concession roads in Ontario today. Long the southernmost leg of Highway 11, linking the capital with northern Ontario, Yonge Street has been referred to as "Main Street Ontario". A large part of the route follows an ancient well-established Aboriginal trail that linked the Lake Ontario waterfront to northern parts of the region. It was also the site of Canada's first subway line.
Yonge Street is also the north-south basis point for determining East and West street numbering in Toronto. We would visit a number of points along the street, including the famous Eaton Centre, Yonge-Dundas Square and the Hockey Hall of Fame (naturally, this is in Toronto!). The first point we got to on our journey was the Hockey Hall of Fame, located almost unobtrusively in a former Bank of Montreal building:
I elected to keep walking rather than actually visiting inside the Hall of Fame, hockey not being one of the sports I watch or follow. I know the name Wayne Gretzky, of course, and that there seems to be a great deal of fighting during hockey games that bears no relation to actually achieving the object of the game, but other than that I know little else. Utterly un-Canadian attitude, I know. I might have to work on that!
Continuing further down Yonge Street, some more of the impressive glass-and-steel towers that dominate Toronto's skyline came into view. One of these is the TD Tower, named for the Toronto-Dominion Bank, one of the largest banks in Canada. Formed from the merger of the Bank of Toronto and Dominion Bank back in 1955, TD is one of the best-known symbols of Canadian financial life. According to their website, TD has some 11 million customers nationally in Canada. That means every third Canadian you meet banks with TD. Their financial prowess shows in their rather impressive headquarters building:
As we continued our walk towards the waterfront, at 18 Yonge Street I was pleased and surprised to come across a display of a bronze grouping showing a male and a female with a baby in her arms. Upon closer inspection of the plaque displaying its name, I learned the grouping was titled "Immigrant Family" and done by artist Tom Otterness. Naturally, I couldn't resist having my photo taken with it:
After what seemed like a great deal of walking, we reached the beginning of Yonge Street, the waterfront area of the city that presides over Lake Ontario. At what must surely be a rather prestigious address, 1 Yonge Street, one finds the Toronto Star building, seen here:
From here, G decided we should see something of Lake Ontario, and so we ventured to the ferry terminals. The Centre Island Ferry was our choice, a popular destination if the number of eventual passengers that joined us on the ferry was anything to go by. There were at least three groups of students of early primary ages, all herded along by long-suffering teachers and parents as they purchased tickets and settled their charges in safety aboard the ferry. Approximately fifteen minutes on the water would see us cross the water and arrive at Centre Island. We took a number of photos during the ferry ride. I was especially fond of views of the CN Tower, which only got better as we got further into the water. Just a few of the photos we took:
As you can see, there are a lot of beautiful views. It was lovely out on the waters of Lake Ontario, the day was warm enough that the breeze from being at the front of the ferry was not unpleasant, and yet cool enough that all the walking we did was not unbearable.
From Centre Island, we headed into the Arts/Design and Fashion Districts by walking along to Bathhurst and then Queen Streets. We bought lunch at a suitably arty cafeteria with the rather astonishing name Clafouti. My egg salad on a croissant was nonetheless quite tasty. Enjoyed on a park bench with a bottle of water, it made for a nice respite from all the walking and sightseeing. Being as G had grown up in and around Toronto, we were in his childhood backyard, so to speak, so there was a lot he wanted me to see. A couple of places included a community centre that had once featured a mural of his on the exterior wall and the "halfway house" where he was reintegrated into civilian life following his tour of duty in Afghanistan, while attending classes at George Brown College to earn his millwright certification.
As the afternoon wound on, we decided it was time to do some shopping, so we headed back up Yonge Street to check out the stores in the famous Eaton Centre. My first stop was the restrooms, which turned out to have quite the line-up. It moved efficiently enough, and when I was out we made our way around, looking into various stores. In the end, most were considerably more up-market than we needed, what works in Toronto would not work in E.L., after all, the high fashion looks sported by the store mannequins would be quite out of place for me.
With what shopping we wanted to do out of the way, we ventured into Yonge-Dundas Square for more sightseeing. The views there are instantly recognisable to anyone who watches Canadian morning television, as a number of the channels have studios overlooking the famous square. Here are two views from our time there:
With the afternoon slipping away, G decided on one final treat for me: Marble Slab Creamery. The name is actually quite literal, the ice-cream is worked on marble slabs which have been frozen, this preserves the integrity of the ice-cream while the employees mix up your favourite compositions. I choose chocolate ice-cream liberally sprinkled with M&M's, and we enjoyed it sitting outside the store in deck chairs provided by businesses participating in a promotion to lure pedestrians into relaxing on the street. The lane next to the sidewalk was blocked off by flower planters and chairs were placed outside the stores, allowing weary pedestrians to sit for a few minutes, enjoy traffic cruising by them on the one hand, while surveilling their fellow passersby on the other hand.
Treat done, we made our way back to the hotel for a rest and a change of clothes after a shower. We would cap off the evening with sushi for dinner, at a restaurant on Queen Street, appropriately named Sushi Queen. Service, price and ambience were all excellent, and it was a worthy cap to a beautiful introduction (a proper one) to the city of Toronto!
After dinner, it was time to pack our bags and get ready to back to the Metro Bus Terminal. We boarded our bus shortly after midnight for the 1:00 a.m. departure. It was just after 6:30 a.m. that we arrived back in Sudbury, tired from a long, somewhat cold (to me, anyways) night on the bus. With limited choices for breakfast that early in the morning, we opted to wait until we got home to eat. We were collected in Spragge by the same jocular bus driver who had ferried us there in the school bus five days earlier, and arrived back in E.L. just after 10:00 a.m.
Next time: the arrival of fall and fall fashion survival guide!
