Week 13 September 23rd to 29th Toronto

Day 85 Tuesday 23rd September

After breakfast Bob went off to play golf and I spent some time chatting to Lucy and my Mum on the webcam, doing some washing as there was a laundry here and updating the blog and reading my book. When Bob came back we looked at B & B’s for Niagara and Hotels for Toronto but couldn’t make a decision as they were either too expensive or too far from where we wanted to be. Then the phone rang in the room and it was Kevin, our friend from our teen years who emigrated to Canada in 1990. He had got our telephone message to say we were in Oshawa where they lived and he invited us over around 6pm and he was taking us out for dinner as his wife, Gay was taking an exam this evening and wouldn’t be home til 8.30. So we had time for a swim and a sauna in the Hotel, showered and changed and set off with the directions from google maps to his house – 10 mins and we were there and he came out to greet us – the years dropped away and apart from being a bit rounder in the middle (as we all are) and some grey hair, he looked the same. We set off for a local Chinese buffet restaurant called the Mandarin where we could eat what we wanted. A long chat and several courses later we returned to Kevs house and met his 3 children who are still at home, who were delightful, Nicola 13, Daniel 17 and Kristina 22years. He also has a daughter who married 2 years ago and lives in Las Vegas with her husband. No grandchildren yet but I am sure there will be plenty when the time comes. Gay arrived home at 8.30 having finished a very difficult exam and we chatted over a glass or two of wine until 11pm when we reluctantly left them as they had to be up at 5.30am in the morning for work. We never thought we would see them again so it was so nice to catch up properly (the internet and email are ok but there is nothing like chatting face to face).

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Day 86 Wednesday 24th September

We intended to get up early to say hello to Lucy as it was Charlie’s first birthday today and with the uk being 5 hrs ahead we had said around 1.30pm to Lucy. Well we overslept a bit so it was around 2pm when we got on line and web camed them at my Mums. I chatted for 20 mins or more to them all and Auntie Maureen was there too so that was a bonus. Then we said bye as we were off for breakfast and to check out of this hotel. All packed we drove the 187 klms to Niagara on the Lake as we had been told it was a much nicer place to stay and the Falls were only about 15 klms from here. Arriving lunchtime we parked in a side street for free as the meter wasn’t working and walked round the village. It was so pretty, flower baskets everywhere and Colonial houses all painted pale colours. The main street was something like a Cotswold village high street at its best with shops selling all sorts of expensive souveniers and clothing but so quaint. The weather was warm and sunny, the leaves on some of the trees were beginning to turn red and orange so it was a very beautiful place to be. We eventually found the tourist information office in the basement of the court building and picked a B & B about a kilometer from the village. We drove straight there and dropped off the luggage, then went back into the village for a walkround. From here we called into a winery for a tour – there are tons of them round here and this one was recommended to us. Jackson Trigg Winery is very modern and the lady who showed us round was the oldest employee, having been there for the whole 7 years that it had been open. She was so funny, and very knowledgeable about the way that each type of wine was looked after, picked, squashed, fermented, barreled and bottled. Then after the tour she proceeded to impart her way of sniffing, tasting and swallowing the stuff ! For all that – doing it properly – I still got squiffy and when we went back to our room to change I fell asleep on the bed. We awoke at 8.45 and although we had planned to go out to dinner, I couldn’t be bothered to change and I wasn’t that hungry really so Bob ran me a bath. It was one of those baths with the jets and the landlady had warned me about putting too much bubble bath in it as “jets make bubbles” she said. Of course they do – so why did I put the normal amount of bubble bath in it???? Must still be squiffy anyway you can see what happened if you look at the photos in the Toronto pictures. !!! We decided not to bother, Bob got the ipod working on the wireless internet and I looked for a hotel near Toronto for Sat and Sun night. Then we watched some tv, read my book and fell asleep.

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Day 87 Thursday 25th September

We were awake fairly early this morning, probably because we had had an early night and the bed was so comfy that we both slept very well. We headed down to the dining room for breakfast where the landlady, Janice was busy in the kitchen. The two other people staying were Brian and Alice from believe it or not, Oshawa, where our friends Kevin and Gay lived. They were retired and on a short 5 day holiday in Niagara. We ate a very nice breakfast of porridge, then bacon, omelette (with pears in it) and fresh fruit cocktail. It must have been 10.30 before we - sorry Bob – stopped talking. Brian and Alice were off to Queenston heights for the day and we were off to Niagara Falls. We stopped at the floral clock on the way and realized that we had forgotten to charge the battery of the camera !! Nevermind I had read that it was a good idea to buy a throwaway camera for the falls so that you didn’t get your digital wet so that’s what we decided to do. We drove the 13 klms to the butterfly farm where we parked the car and jumped on a People Mover Bus which runs up and down alongside the river stopping at all the attractions. The lady in the office where we bought 2 passes to do 4 of the most popular attractions was very funny and told us which was the best way round to do things to save getting caukght up in queues. She could have saved her breath because there were no queues. It was a beautiful day, 24 ˚ sunny and the best day so far in Canada. Our first stop was the walk behind the falls, we dropped some 100 ft in a lift where we were given a yellow poncho to wear, then walked along the tunnels until we came out alongside the falls where we got a bit wet trying to get closer as the waters raged past us, further along in another tunnel behind the falls all we could see was millions of gallons splashing past us. Leaving here, outside we stood on the walkway overlooking both the American and Canada Falls the power was amazing and the spray was so powerful it could still reach us some 50 yds back. Back on the bus we went on to the maid of the mist – a boat ride into the base of the falls. We were kitted out with a blue poncho this time and walked to the dock. A boat was just returning and everyone getting off was very wet so we were prepared. Fortunately there were only a few people getting on our boat so there was plenty of room to move up and down the boat to get the best views. It was as the Americans say “awesome”. Everyone had said it was a bit of disappointment but we both were mesmerized by the falls and their noise and power. When we were at the base, the boat had the engines roaring forward just to stay still. We were soon back on land and needed something to eat so we picked up a slice of pizza and sat in the sunshine waiting for my trousers to dry out. We had looked at the obligatory photos taken at each site but we thought that 2 photos for 25$ was a bit expensive and when I asked if I could just buy 1 photo I was told it was a package – stupid really as many people didn’t bother to buy – if they had given us this option many more would have bought I am sure. Never mind we had our trusty throw away camera ! The next stop was the whirlpool rapids walk alongside the river. We joined a short queue to get in the lift to decend 230 ft in 30 seconds but we were horrified at the abruptness of the woman who ran the lift – one couple were split up and she wouldn’t allow them to change so the husband went down and she had to wait for the next lift. This was the 2nd time today that we had come across a rude Canadian. The first one was the 2nd bus driver who was so grumpy – perhaps he had piles and was in pain sitting down all day ???? Anyway, the walk on the boardwalk along the side of the rapids was fascinating the water twisted and turned back and forth round the rocks. We read on one of the plaques that the only person to survive going over the falls accidentally was a 7 year old boy dressed only in trunks and a basic survival flotation jacket who had fallen from a boat and been swept along and over the falls in 1960 – amazingly he was unhurt. Next stop was the Aero where we had a look at the crossing over the gorge but it was extra to pay and to be honest it didn’t look worth 20$ each so we had an ice cream instead ! – we had had enough thrills for one day. Our last bus journey was back to the Butterfly Farm where we wandered round looking at thousands of them flying around – big ones, small ones, all colours and patterns. We saw the pupae of different butterflies and one was just emerging, but seemed in no hurry so we didn’t wait to see it fly. Time to leave and back at the B & B we showered and while Bob wrote up his diary I had a siesta before getting ready to go out for dinner at a local restaurant. After dinner we drove back into the village centre and got out to walk off dinner but we were surprised that the first wine bar we came to said they were just closing, it was just after 9pm! This was worse than Perth ! We walked on a bit further and found the Angel Inn which was an English pub where we had Baileys on ice before heading for home.

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Day 88 Friday 26th September

I had asked Bob not to talk for so long this morning at breakfast so that we could get away fairly early – no chance. At 10.30 we got away from the table and I went upstairs to finish packing while Bob paid the bill. As we left there was an enormous lorry outside unloading the belongings of an English couple who were moving in the house next door. We had around 150 klms to drive to Sue and Larrys in Dorchester. We made really good time and stopped for fuel where we were amazed at the price of 1.11 per litre (that’s about 60p !) On the way we saw a dead skunk and a dead raccoon by the side of the road – thought that was more interesting than cats and dogs ! We arrived in Dorchester too early so we stopped for coffee at Tim Holdens (a famous coffee chain where everyone in Canada goes) in the centre of the village and then we enjoyed the sunshine and read our books until 3pm when we drove to Sues. She was coming across the road to her house when we pulled onto the drive – she hadn’t changed at all. We sat in the sunshine in the garden and chatted while the children she childminded were picked up and her husband Larry and daughter Hollie arrived home. Before it got dark they drove us around their area and into London, their nearest town and we stopped off at Montana, a restaurant very much like the Hogs Breath Café, for dinner. We returned home and sat chatting about past lives, people and differences between Canada, uk and Spain until 1.30am when my eyes would not stay open any longer.

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Day 89 Saturday 27th September

Eventhough we had gone to bed late we were up and having breakfast in Sues kitchen at 9am and sadly we left at around 10am. Just as we were at the front door Logan, Sue and Larry’s son, phoned to say he wanted to see us, Sue thought he was working Saturday morning so hadn’t invited him over earlier. Unfortunately we had a lot of miles to do and only 2 days in Toronto before we left for New York so we were unable to wait to see him – perhaps next time. We headed East and soon found the expressway and peeled away the miles before we reached the hotel in the town of Missisagua about 10 klms outside of Toronto. Hotels in the city centre cost a fortune and we are watching the pennies now, but the hotel was 4* and very comfortable and we had the car to hop onto the expressway only 200 yds away. We unpacked drove into Toronto to look round for the afternoon and found a huge shopping centre where we bought an extra suitcase as there is no way now that we can keep to 22kgs each in the two we have. Our allowance for the last 2 flights is 2 cases each of 22kgs ! We ate out in town and before returning to the Hotel we found (BBW) the biggest bookshop in the world which actually had 3 or the 4 books I have been looking for so I bought 2. At the Hotel we found that they were setting up barriers right outside for the Toronto Marathon in the morning which had its 12 miles turning point on our road junction.

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Day 90 Sunday 28th September

Its Bobs birthday – 55 today and looking forward to an increase in the pension ! We ate a hearty breakfast before setting off into Toronto trying to avoid the traffic and road closures for the Marathon. Not an easy thing to do – we ended up driving 3 junctions past the centre of Toronto on the expressway, coming off in a side road and crawling through the back streets to park about a mile from the CN Tower. It was however, a beautiful morning, the sun shone and the walk did us good. We arrived and purchased the tickets and went up in the lift – the CN tower is the highest in the world at 1,465 ft . The view was fantastic and we took lots of photos. Bob stood and lay on the glass floor at the top and took some photos – somehow I just couldn’t walk on it but I did put one foot on it ! We headed back to the carpark, stopping to cheer on the runners on the way and drove out of Toronto to an outlet park which we had called into last night and found it was just shutting. We were disappointed though, not much here to right home about so we continued on to another one some miles away and luckily it was open til 6pm, we finally found cases for our ipods, we tried to book a dinner and show at a medieval castle but last performance was at 4pm on a Sunday. Back at the Hotel we had dinner in the restaurant and a drink at the bar before returning to pack for tomorrows flight to New York.

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Day 91 Monday 29th September in New York

We decided to leave the Hotel at 8.30am to give us 15 mins to get to the car hire place and drop it off, then to the airport which would take about 20 mins, leaving us plenty of time to check in at the airport for our 11.30 flight – wrong – we left the hotel, headed for the car rental place and stopped to fill up with fuel, having driven into the petrol station from the highway, we exited the other side onto another highway !!! It took me 10 mins to realize that we were on the wrong road ! We turned round and drove back down the road for 10 mins to pick up the right road then as we came near to the Car Rental we missed the turn and had to go round again. Almost an hour later we had dropped the car off and left the keys in a letterbox as nobody was in the office and were standing outside a hotel waiting for a free shuttle bus which we had just missed. Another 20 mins later we asked the hotel receptionist to check again where the shuttle was and apparently there was heavy traffic and he was delayed another 10 mins. Nothing for it but to hail a taxi and ask him to drive fast to the airport. We arrived and got through, check in, passport control and customs and were sitting in departures 50 mins before the flight was due out, amazed at how quickly and smoothly it had happened. Phew ! We were amazed again that although we had flown from Canada to America we were not asked for passports and had not customs checks on our way in. We took a taxi from the airport to 5th Avenue where out Hotel was and the driver scared us – Bob had to open the window as he blasted down the streets, beeping his horn and pushing people out of the way, when we finally got to the Hotel we didn’t give him a tip we were traumatized ! The Hotel was the 373 because that was the number 5th Avenue where it was. It was only a small shop front wide and hardly seen between a Starbucks café and another restaurant but it was brand new and chic and only about £120 a night which was very cheap for the area. The room was tiny, barely bigger than the bathroom in the last one, but it had free internet, a flat screen tv, an ipod docking station and was smack in the centre of Manhattan, 50 metres across the road from the Empire State Building. Once unpacked we set off to explore, it was only about 3pm and we wanted to get tickets for the hop on hop off open top tour buses to see the sights and for transport around, we also wanted to find out where the train station was and sort out our tickets for Thursdays move to Boston. We walked north towards Times Square and 42nd street to get the bus tickets, then back south to Pennsylvania Railway Station and bought the train tickets, We stopped off at the Hotel to freshen up and then set off again, walking back up to Times Square to pick up the bus for the Night Tour which would show us the sights of the bridges, the Hudson river and across to Brooklyn. We arrived back in Times Square around 10pm and saw 2 mounted policemen standing at the side of the road. Bob went over to talk to them and we got our photos took with them. They said we could visit their stables on 37th and west which we said we would do in the next couple of days. Heading back towards 5th avenue we stopped for a late dinner in Heartlands Brewery just round the corner from the Hotel.

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