June 9, 2006. Toronto, Canada.
That was June 2006, the whole world raving about football, while we were escaping from it in Ontario. Actually it was only one week because Condor (which is much cheaper than any other alternatives) flies only once a week on Thursdays and we had two week vacation.Arriving to Toronto several hours later than planned helped us to switch time zones. So the next morning we were relatively in a good form to go see the city. From above.
I knew that winds in Toronto are strong but if you go into the open on the observational platform of the CN Tower, you feel like inside of an aircraft's turbine. The most photos here are made through the windows.
This window is actually the "Glass floor" that helps you feel how far above the ground did the elevator take you. Just few tourists go walk on it.
After getting back to the ground, we took a long walk in the city center, going through the Chinatown on our way back to the parking. It is a crowded district packed with locals buying food and all kind of cheap stuff. I don't remember what we bought there (maybe apples) but it seems that in the absence of bar-code scanners, the price is was magically redetermined by the cashier, and after that we didn't try any boutiques anymore, visiting all familiar supermarkets.
June 10, 2006. Still in Toronto.
On our first day, we met a guy soliciting tourists to take a ride on a bus and a boat, and we thought that would be a good idea. It was, especially if you count that it was probably the very first ride on that day, there were probably ten of us on the double-decker bus, and the organizers decided to make much longer bus trip than usually. We had to wait some time till the bus arrives and spent the time on the beautiful harbourfront.The residential towers are very nice, with some shops housed in the bottom of them. I imagine the view you have if you live there. As the banner you see on the small pedestrian passerelle on the picture below puts it, "Those who like it, like it a lot". Or perhaps it should be: "Those who can afford it, like it a lot".
The ride on the bus was great. We were not in hurry and they even took us to show quiet upscale residential quarters just north of downtown, near Casa Loma castle. The only trouble was that there were so many trees, with branches hanging low towards our top deck and aiming into our eyes.
Well, what we saw is that they do have some historical architecture there in North America. Not like Casa Loma castle, polished for tourists and looking like something from a theme park, but like this church, for example:
The City Pulse TV's car breaking through a building wall was long time one of smaller Toronto attractions, but as I read several months ago, they decided to remove it. (No idea whether they proceeded).
Or like this Rubik's Cube on another building's roof. You see here that the CN Tower is visible everywhere. The guide said that because of that it's actually boring to long time torontonians.
And... and... we finally got to the boat. It went around Toronto islands, where you could see the downtown panorama exactly as it's normally shown in news reports (especially as on the second picture).
Part 2: Lake Huron, Kincardine, Sauble Beach to Owen Sound.