25 May 2023 - Toronto (CN Tower & Toronto Islands)

We headed in to Evviva Cafe for some breakfast this morning. A smoked salmon eggs bene for me which is mediocre, but the pancakes looked amazing so we’ve decided we’ll have brekkie here tomorrow before heading off. 

CN tower: 

We joined a big queue to buy tickets and while we were waiting in line, we jumped online instead and ended up heading in much earlier than the people in front of us. There were the obligatory photos in front of the green screen that we eventually managed to convince the girl we weren’t interested in. Seriously, $45 for a rather badly photoshopped photo! I could do it at home if I really wanted to. If they charged less, we may have been interested. We saw lots of people knock back these ‘deals’ at each of the tourist places - look at the K-Mart model people! Offer things for less, sell much more. 

The elevator ride up was fun. 116 floors in 58 seconds (22kph). As with all of these things, it was a glass front lift so that you’d get the full effect. The viewing platform at the top was really well set up. Most sections were wall to floor glass, others had a little ledge (for the scaredy-cats). The views over Toronto were really good and gave us a much better picture of the city and what was around. We looked at the city and around to the other side to look out over the islands. One of the islands has an airport and the landing strip and planes look excellent from the observation deck. We sat down with a bottle of water to do the ‘take ten’ to soak it all in thing. Being still for a bit is a good thing. 

Toronto Islands:

Don’t waste your time or money on one of the sunset or city view river tours. Catch the ferry across to the Toronto Islands for a few dollars and get the same view. You’ll even get to sit on brightly coloured chairs in the sun while you wait for the ferry. We went across to Centre Island (yes, it really is called that) and had an excellent view of the city both over and back. Once we arrived on the island, we got two slices of pizza and headed down to the waterfront. There were bugs everywhere - not sure what they were, they didn’t bite, but they certainly swarmed. The pizza slices were pretty good, one pepperoni and the other a supreme, and it was nice to sit there just gazing out and taking some time to absorb it all. There were some locals there having a BBQ and it was really hard not to go over and ask if we could join in as it smelled so good!

We walked through the centre of the park on Centre Island to get to their pier on the other side. We passed lots of beautiful flowers including tulips and a very large fountain. Speaking of tulips, the guy on the Niagara tour said that every year the Netherlands give them tulips because they hid the Princess (maybe the Queen) during WWII and she gave birth there - hence the yearly tulip thank you. We made it to the pier and gazed over Lake Ontario - no dry land in sight. And it was cold. We hiked it back to the other side to make the ferry trip back. The view of Toronto is amazing, the city looks beautiful from the water. 

We hit up the Irish pub for dinner again. And cocktails again. And then staggered back to our AirBnB with the noisy bed. 

Check out our Tower and Island photos here. 

24 May 2023 - Niagara Falls

Our early start saw us head out to desperately find something to eat and drink before meeting our tour guide at 7:30am. Mark found a nice croissant and a cuppa for us each to munch on while we waited. We’re currently on the mini bus on our way to Niagara. There are two other couples with us, one from Birmingham who reek of cigarettes (must be a Birmingham thing, and I’m such a critical ex-smoker) and a couple from Mexico who aren’t speaking. The guide is a young guy named CJ who seems like he’ll be fun.

CJ told us that the whole area we were in was reclaimed land. The CN tower, all the arenas and massive amount of tall apartment buildings are all built on what was originally water. Interesting! There were some very big coal powered plants on the way, spewing muck into the air. Very sad to see. 

Niagara Falls

OK, there really are no words to describe the place. No photos either. Awe inspiring nature at its absolute finest. We started out with the Skylon tower. A nice quick glass-front elevator took us up  86m (282 ft) above the falls. There was an outdoor observation deck and it was bloody windy out there. We walked out to look down at the falls - both the Canadian Horseshoe and the American Bridal Veil Falls. The plumes of mist in the centre of the Horseshoe were massive. We could see far across Lake Huon (which feeds the falls) and down past the bridge that is the Canadian/US border crossing. It was mesmerising. 

We walked around the tower looking every which way. On a clear day, you can see all the way to Toronto, but I guess it wasn’t the clearest of clear days. We took as much time as we could to take it all in. It really is breathtaking.

On the way into the tower, they get you in front of a green screen to take your photo. At the end of your visit, you get to view, and buy them. 2 photos for $45CAD. Uhm, around $50AUD. For two photoshopped pics. I can do that myself at home, thank you very much. 

After the tower, we went down to the ‘Behind the Falls’ tour. You quite literally, walk behind the falls. 125 ft to the base of the falls, they’ve cut a deep tunnel in behind. There is an observation deck before you head in, where you can be nicely drenched by the falls, as well as deafened by their sound. The ground almost rumbles with the power of the falls. According to the website, up to 2800 cubic metres of water “thunders over the brink” ever second, travelling at around 65km per hour. CJ reckoned that it would fill a million bathtubs in a second. Maybe an exaggeration, or a well rounded off sum, it would certainly fill many, many tubs very quickly - if it didn’t smash them to bits first. 

We put on our bright yellow ponchos and headed out, and then in. Phenomenal. So powerful, and sitting under the edge of the falls, you really did get a sense of those millions of bathtubs filling too quickly. Completely powerful and awe-inspiring. We walked through the tunnels to see the hmmm, hallways (?) cut into the rock, that lie directly behind the falls. You couldn’t get close enough to get up too close (barriers, water spray) but the rumble was immense and the water splashing down looked like the worst sea storm ever filmed by MGM. 

After that, it was back up to the top to board the Hornblower - the ferry that sails up close to the falls. CJ told us that the best view was the bottom right front corner. He said that everyone races upstairs and it’s an ugly push and shove match and that the bottom right sees both sides of the falls going in and then going back, so we decided that his logic was good and raced for the bottom right front corner. We were first in line, so we claimed the main spot. When we headed out, there weren’t really any people around us - so all six of us figured we had won.

One big toot of the horn and we were off. The lady from Birmingham was all ready to record the entire trip in and out, for some friends at home. We had bright red ponchos this time, very stylish. We all took lots of photos as we got closer, and then it got louder, and rougher, and wetter, and windier - and wetter still, and Mark ducked for cover, along with the Birmingham couple. I tried to ride it out. I was very wet, and very, very cold. My fingers felt like they were about to break off. But I rode (most of) it out. I gave up when it started pouring down my shirt front. Now that really was cold. I headed back towards Mark and just took in the majesty of it all. YOLO - truly. It was so completely exhilarating and so truly awesome. There is no more perfect a word for it than awesome. The power of Mother Nature rules, entirely. 

We headed back in to go for lunch. We found a small craft brewery amongst the tourist strip and had some corn bread (hmm, no, not great) and a/some (?) poutine. Chips with cheese curds and gravy. Not bad, and a real lemonade. And a couple of drink coasters for the coast (long story, but we need to collect them). 

We got to have one more big look at the falls from the top wall before having to head back to the bus. It was so easy to just stand there and stare - it was meditative, addictive and hard to look away from. Absolutely awe inspiring beauty. 

A few quick stops along the way for a bit of info. The original power stations - they are now run by an international corporation and so it’s all changed. The station now powers all the way to Florida. They have so much fresh, hard running water that they don’t know what to do with it. The falls are fed by lake Huon, 50% of the water comes through Horseshoe Falls (seems logical, but the figure seemed to be important to CJ as he told us three times) and flows into Lake Ontario, running north. We stopped at ‘the whirlpool’ formed approximately 4.200 years ago where the Niagara River meets an ancient gorge that was carved out due to the movement of the falls. Long story, worth researching - shows how soft limestone is when thousands of years of nature hit it. Mind you, the falls were moving quickly until fair recently. 

Back on the bus - back to Toronto. I went to sleep in the bus, nothing to see here. 

After the tour, we went for a bit of a wander around our hotel area. Down to the harbour, across to Union Station. But we were cold and tired and getting hungry. We walked past the CN tower, the Blue Jay’s stadium, and wandered into an Irish pub for dinner. A good chicken and leak pie, and reasonable steak later - we were full and exhausted. Mind you, it was 10:00pm by then. The daylight at 10:00pm is a killer.

Click here for what are too many, doesn’t-do-it-justice Niagara pics.

23 May 2023: Vancouver to Toronto

We’re bidding a sad farewell to Vancouver today as we head over the east side to Toronto. A quick brekkie in the attached cafe (which I finally learnt the name of - Aloutte) and it was still a little dodgy but we’re almost (sadly) used to the coffee pot.

Our flight was for noon but we were told to get to the airport 2 hours prior - so we did. It took a whole 10 minutes to get through check in, bag drop and security, so it was a long wait. Bag drop was different. You put the pre-printed tag that was spat out of the check in terminal on your bags, and then put them on the conveyer belt. It read the tag, weighed it, and sent it off. Zero wait time, most impressive. 

The flight was okish. Air Canada again but not as organised as International. They seemed to have a lot of issues getting people onto the plane and the staff were a bit grumpy, likely because of that. We sat in the middle of the middle row, and the man next to me didn’t seem to understand the unspoken rule of the middle seat getting an arm rest. He spread himself out and kept elbowing me for the whole (4.5 hour) flight. I sat all curled in and had to keep my arms crossed to avoid him a little. Thank goodness it wasn’t international. I watched ‘Otto’ wth Tom Hanks. It was listed as a comedy, but it wasn’t really! It finished just as we touched down, with me in tears.

A crazy taxi ride to the hotel, a little reminiscent of one we had in Madrid, saw us land at our hotel - the Ice Condominiums. It was a bit difficult to work out where to go to get in to the place, but that’s half the fun, right? A couple of security guards helped us out, and we headed up to the 46th floor. The place is in a great location, the CN tower is a block away and you can see it from the apartment. The area is all sports and sports bars, with three stadiums (football, baseball and combined basketball/hockey arena). It was incredibly smoggy and smelly outside - lots of smokers, both the nicotine and pot kind. One smelt good, the other not so much. 

I wouldn’t really recommend the apartments though. It’s an AirBnB and a tiny studio without any room to unpack anything. We’re struggling to find room for the toothbrushes! And I’ve never sat on a bed that creaks so loudly that I’m sure the people above and below can hear. As it was already 8:30pm (those time zones!), we went to one of the sports bars for dinner. Pizza, pasta and burgers - we must be close to the US here LOL. Lasagne had, we walked back to the apartment, set a 5:45am alarm and didn’t drift off to sleep. So tired, but Niagara is on the way.

22 May 2023: Vancouver day 3

It was a very slow start this morning after such a late night. I don’t think I’ve slept in until 8:00am for years. We had our included brekkie (we’re a bit over the cafe downstairs - they don’t have many choices, and they have… American pot coffee). We caught a bus down to Stanley Park. We’re getting good at this bus thing now (our second trip! Ha!). Stanley Park is huge, and like most tourists, we went to see the totem poles. They were magnificent, and there were plaques with the history and meanings of each pole. There are lots of repeated ‘faces’ as they represent the land/sea/air. I like the ones with grizzly bears hugging people. 

We wandered along the sea wall and into the forest paths. It was pretty cool in there, but so beautiful. Enormous trees, happy birds, the occasional black squirrel. It was peaceful and relatively quiet, so it was lovely to walk amongst. And cool. Did I mention cool?

We walked past Dead Man’s Island - the navy took over a native burial ground and we watched the geese dig around in low tide leftovers. Then we decided to head back onto the forest paths. There was also a horse and cart tour, but we’re reluctant these days as there are too many stories about horses not being treated very well. So we relied on our own hooves instead. They are tired hooves, already (it’s only day 3).

We bussed it back into town, had a little wander again and are now back at the hotel having a rest, packing up, getting ready to fly to Toronto tomorrow, and deciding where we’ll go for dinner. A nice mellow kind of day.

Dinner:

Mark found a very cool steak house, but he didn’t look at the prices first. So we had a somewhat expensive dinner - but what a lovely way to finish up our Vancouver leg of the trip. The waiter was great, he knew his stuff, he even suggested a very nice cocktail for us -  I heard gin, absinthe, lime and something else and something else again. It was really good, and the totally drunken cherry on a cocktail stick that had obviously been soaking for hours was really good too! 

The guy told us all about the different cuts of beef that they had, while we munched our way through cheese bread that was an ultra upmarket version of Sizzlers. So yummy. After he finished with all the steaks (he was really hard to interrupt) we had to get him to go again with a weight conversion so that we understood. We decided on the 32oz bone in rib fillet with cauliflower gratin and succotash. Ok, so the cauliflower was divine (has some nutmeg in the béchamel he said), the succotash was nice, but the steak was to die for. To. Die. For. Tender, flavoursome, just the right amount of char and seasoning. So so so good. I would thoroughly recommend this restaurant (check them out here). 

We wandered back to the hotel feeling like we’d had a marvellous time in Vancouver. What a great city to visit. So much to see and do with great restaurants and really friendly people. We’ll go back again, without a doubt. And in case you’re looking for a Vancouver hotel, we’d recommend where we stayed. 

Some more fabulous Stanley Park photos here. 

21 May 2023: Vancouver day 2

After an early night and a brekkie downstairs, we headed off to the Vancouver Lookout (tower) to take in the sights. Advice: get there early. We arrived at 9:00am and there were only half a dozen people around. By the time we left at 10:00am, it was getting a little squeezey for views.

We walked around the tower and read all the interesting signs. It was well worthwhile. I didn’t realise there was such a big stadium here (everything is still big) and I learnt that the very expensive houses we saw on the way in are in one of the most expensive areas of Vancouver. So not your average Canadian cottage after all. 

Capilano:

The name ‘Capilano’ is from the Squamish nations name kia’palano. In 1889 a suspension bridge made of hemp ropes (which were swum across the river by a team of horses) and cedar planks spanned the canyon. In 1903, the hemp ropes were replaced by wire cables, and 120 years later Mark and Michelle walked across it! If you go to Vancouver, you have to do this. There was the suspension bridge, a treetop walk, a cliff edge walk and a forest floor walk as well. We started off gently with the cliff edge and then headed over to the suspension. Now, I may not be able to look over the balcony at home, but after sitting on the Grand Canyon Skywalk floor, a little suspension bridge is nothing (ok, I hung on for grim life but I did it!). Like with the Sequioa forests, no photo will do this justice. The majesty of the place is lost on the iPhone. 

The suspension bridge sways and rocks, particularly when there are more people on one side than the other. The mid-point is above a fast running creek filled by a lovely waterfall that you can see on the cliff walk. It is so, so, so high! The treetops walk is just beautiful, and slightly more stable, but not by much. On the way up, I asked the ranger about the size of woodpeckers. It would have been at least five minutes before I could get away from him. Nice guy and all that, but I think he may have partaken of too may gummies, and he ended up searching for the answer to my question on google! We later saw evidence of woodpecker activity though and we even saw a squirrel! 
It’s hard to say much more about this place, it was all in the feel of it. The air was fresh and clean and… well, bountiful for lack of a better word, even though that sounds weird in itself. 

Grouse Mountain:

We left there and caught a bus up to Grouse mountain. Had a little difficulty with the tap and pay system on the bus, and I think the driver felt sorry for us (or frustrated with us) as he let one of us on without paying. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one of us that was. So it was a cheap trip, made cheaper. Then it was onto the gondola for the trip up the mountain. An 8 minute ride up, over the tree tops, watching Vancouver spread itself out below. What a view! 

As we were ascending, it was getting colder and colder and colder and then all of a sudden… SNOW! There was snow! I was almost beside myself. I couldn’t wait to run over and poke it, but was not dressed to really do anything else in it! The pathway had been carved out and there was a wall of solid snow/ice on either side. I tried to stick my finger through the wall, but it was too cold and too hard to get very far. But, it was all magically beautiful. I found a lower section so that I could jump on top, and ended up with wet feet and having a little slide because sneakers are obviously not made for snow. And it was so cold. The pockets in my Brisbane coat' were sewn up and I had no gloves, so my hands were icy. But it was snow - so it was all ok. We wandered around a little - they have a bear sanctuary there but we didn’t get to see the bears. We couldn’t really find it and hadn’t left enough time as we had originally thought it was much further along than where we were headed. Next time (and I’m sure there’ll be a next time). We took in some fabulous views and I walked around huffing my breath out so that I could see it (small things). 

Our next stop was the Observatory Restaurant. We had a window seat, it was warm, and they made great cocktails. The food was outstanding. I guess you can’t really go wrong with Canadian salmon, and Mark’s scallops were perfectly cooked. Then I had the beef and he had the fish and we both had desserts and we both had excellent wine… and well, you can see where the night ended up. It was a lovely dinner, and the view over Vancouver was outstanding. Another must see/do. 

Sunset wasn’t until 9:30pm (!) and so we stayed for that and then caught the gondola back down. If I thought it was cold before, I learnt how cold a Canadian spring night could be on the way down. I cannot fathom winter here. The lights of Vancouver made for a spectacular sight. We ordered an Uber (Mark ordered an Uber) but it seems we ordered a package delivery and not a person pickup - but the Uber driver agreed to deliver our human package to the hotel for a small tip. He was a nice guy and told us all about Whistler and Jasper for our next visit. 

We didn’t get to bed until after midnight. Party animals that we are. 

Take a look at all the green and white photos here. 

20 May 2023: Brisbane to Vancouver

 Here we go! USA trip 2! 

I’d recommend Air Canada. From checking in at Brisbane to getting off the plane in Vancouver, it’s been easy and quick. They’re streamlined and organised, so we’ll fly with them again. Nice new plane, good movies, but a couple of people who thought ipad movies without headphones was a good idea, so a little bit of a hinderance to sleep. All in all though - we’ve arrived in reasonable shape.

Grabbed a taxi from the airport to our hotel and passed some of biggest houses with the biggest hedges I’ve ever seen. They must spend all weekend tending to their 12ft hedges! Vancouver’s streets are so clean, with pretty tree lined streets. We’re staying at Hotel du Soleil and it’s a lovely, arty hotel. The telephones are very cool.

They let us check in early as we arrived at 6:00am and they had a spare room. So in we went, and then down to the attached cafe for some breakfast. People are very friendly, service has been a little slow in most places we’ve been to so far, but the food has been excellent (ok, brekkie may have left a little to be desired as one meal had to wait on the cook’s counter for the other to be cooked).

After breakfast as we were getting ready to head out, the hotel fire alarm went off. They sound a bit different to ours and there is no ‘alert’, just an ‘evacuate’ so we grabbed our passports and headed down with everyone else. The fire trucks were there very quickly, and firemen jumped out with their hose over their shoulders. Nothing else happened though (yay), false alarm. Fun first day!

We strolled down to the waterfront. An enormous cruise ship was in, I’ve never seen one that big before (there are lots of first bigs happening). There were big (!) mountains in the distance, snow capped mountains no less, and lots of sea planes landing and taking off. There were so many dandelions on the side of the street that I took advantage of the opportunity and blew some off into the breeze. I haven’t blown apart dandelions since I was a kid. It was a really good vibe down there, and so we walked a bit more until we got to a cafe. Right when we sat down, the lack of sleep hit. Coffee, walk back to the hotel, and then crash for a couple of hours. 

Once we were slightly more refreshed we decided to walk down to the other waterfront and catch a little ferry across to Granville Island to go to the market. The streets were alive with people and shops and music, and a couple of protests about Iran and then one about ‘right not to vaccinate’. We saw the Canadian version of a bin chicken as well. Walking behind people, all we could smell was pot - it’s legal here (obviously). We passed some ‘weed shops’ so decided to have a look in. The one we went in to was very flash. There were little glass bottles with a magnifying glass sides containing all types of weed, so you could look at it closely, and even smell it before purchasing. Lots of paraphernalia and then large glass tubes in a maze around the ceiling: the delivery system - which they showed us a ‘delivery demonstration’ and a little tube of pot went flying around the room.

We made it to the ferry stop and got across to Granville Island. The markets there were full and busy and there were all sorts of wonderful things for sale. We tried some chocolates - Nanaimo Bars (ganache, custard buttercream, with a chocolate biscuit and coconut base). Yep, we bought some. Looked at all the cheeses, the bagels, the fresh seafood and meats, brightly coloured vegetables, and then saw the biggest fruit ever (is everything in Vancouver big?). We bought a mixed box and the strawberries were twice the size of the ones we get at home. So we sat down on the boardwalk and had a few bits of fruit - we needed the sugar hit. 

A little further down the boardwalk was The Sandbar restaurant which had a fabulous personalised oyster shell display out the front. We ended up at a table on the corner, overlooking the river, underneath one bridge, and looking at the other, with the snow capped mountains beyond. It was so picturesque. We had a seafood platter, fresh oysters, poached prawns, half a dungaree crab (accompanied by a fondue pot of melted butter to pour over it) and the most delicious Ahi tuna stack. The tuna was the best - unbelievable. It had a wasabi sauce with sesame oil and was sprinkled with black poppy seeds. So fresh, so tasty. The cocktails weren’t bad either. A yummy chocolate truffle dessert and then that was it, we just wanted to go to sleep. 

We found a taxi just outside and jumped in for the ride back, but somehow, he misunderstood and took us on a half hour ride around Vancouver, who knows where he was going. It took twice as long to get home in a taxi than it did to walk down to the waterfront, let alone get a ferry across! He didn’t charge us full fare though, so faith restored.

Now, we’re both fading fast, so bed summons. Great views, great food, lovely people - it’s been a very good first day in Canada!

Check out the big photo album here.

December & December : Bali & Bali

 The last of my ‘I’ll catch up very soon’ posts.