Montreal 24-30/9/12

Another short train trip up to Montreal where sadly I did need to do three days of work. Have to confess that Montreal didn't win us over completely - there's lots of smoking on the street and it was much less comfortable to walk around than Toronto or Ottawa, especially at night. We struggled initially with the French however felt reasonably comfortable by the time we left. Quite cool to hear the extreme bilingualism - one sentence in English, the next in French. Poked around a bit as you'd expect!

Firstly was Vieux Montreal including Vieux Port that dates back to the 1650's:








Montreal City Hall

Notre Dame Basilica


Promenade du Vieux Port

Bonsecours Market

Around the city...


Gare Windsor - yes, its a train station

And this is someone's house...

The squirrels in North America are awesome :)

Also went out to Ile Sainte Helene/Parc Jean-Drapeau which was built when the subway was put in. The islands connect via bridges and the Montreal F1 race track is there. You can walk, cycle or drive on the actual track :)


Giles Villeneuve Circuit


Biosphere

Ile Sainte Helene

Ile Notre Dame


McGill University Hospital

Popped out to the Olympic Village that was built for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Sadly it was a monument to 70's concrete architecture...and the fact that it is hard to modernise or beautify bad concrete. Still, we went up the Montreal Tower which is the tallest inclined structure in the world - 165m tall on a 45 degree angle. It was built as part of the "retractable roof" system for the stadium - which worked once and has never worked again. Apparently it leaked too. Good city views though!



Cool little cable car...

And nice city views



In summary? Nice to visit but not a place I'd hurry back to...

The Rose

Ottawa 22-24/9/12

Trundled across to Ottawa from Toronto on the train. ViaRail is Canada's train network and is really easy to use - even when booking overseas! They have a simple kiosk system and it's all well-labelled. The trip took about four hours and gave nice views of the Ontario countryside.

Ottawa was definitely one of the surprises on the trip - we were wondering whether it was going to be worth a visit however the city and its architecture was impressive. The city isn't big (population 880 000) and is easy to move around.

Had a bit of a laugh when we checked in - within 10 minutes the fire alarm went off! Kudos to these three who carried their wine down 9 flights of stairs without spilling a drop :)



Once again, lots of great buildings to walk around. Here's a taster:


Library & Archives of Canada

Currency Museum

Government of Canada Centre

St Peters Church

National Gallery of Canada

Notre Dame Cathedral AKA the Church of the Holy Arachnid as it's opposite the National Gallery :)

Royal Canadian Mint

House of Parliament


Parliament from across the river (Gatineau, Quebec). Interesting how you cross a bridge and there's a massive influx of French on your ears!

The Ottawa War Memorial at night

The Rideau Canal - a series of locks that connects Ottawa to Lake Ontario for over 200km. In winter, 8km of it becomes the world's longest ice rink :)


This is the Fairmont Chateau Laurier that overlooks the Rideau Canal

Good food too - enjoyed some bison here :)

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Niagara Falls 19/9/12

It made sense to travel down to Niagara Falls from Toronto when we were there. We took a tour down there which I think was a mistake - ended up on a small bus that was a pain to get in and out of. They also stopped at a few places which seemed unnecessary although the ice wine at Pilliterri Estate was OK (not as nice as a good noble rot riesling though!).

Went through Niagara-on-the-Lake which simply seemed to exist as a place for tourists to stop to buy over-priced merchandise. Quite pretty though.



Niagara Falls was, to put it simply, stunning. We did the usual touristy thing and went out on the Maid on the Mist which has been running as a boat tour since the dawn of time (with time beginning in 1846). It's impossible to describe the volume of water, the noise and the spray that rises up into the sky.

Here's the Niagara Falls money shot with both the American and Canadian (Horseshoe Falls)...we're the ones in blue on the boat ;)


and also...


The American Falls




The Canadian Falls




Then there's the random signs...


I mean, really?

Truly love how $1 is a loonie and $2 is a toonie...

Rumour has it that the sign on the other side says "to nowhere"

And then, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Literally 500m up from the Falls, two streets back, there is this absolute debacle of taste...



Now that's a classy BK...

Overall? The Falls are spectacular however you can simply drive there, park up, go out on the water and enjoy the view. I'd drive or take the train there from Toronto and flag the tour if we went again. Glad I've seen them though :)

The Rose

Toronto 16-22/9/12

So there we were, waiting at Auckland airport to get on a plane - for future reference, the premium economy space seats are quite nice :) LA airport remains pretty grim although to be fair, they do move a hell of a lot of people through in a relatively short space of time. I swear that the same "we're doing it up, really" posters were on the walls when I went through in 2009. Despite the haze of tiredness, the flight to Toronto from LA was also spectacular as we flew across Colorado and had some fantastic views. No sign of Indiana Jones though which was a shame.

Really enjoyed Toronto - it's a good-sized city (2.6million and 5.6 million in the Greater Toronto Area) yet it feels much smaller and safe to move around. The coolest thing is the underground PATH network which covers 16km of shopping under the buildings. Well-lit, easy to navigate and keeps you dry! Overall it was the one place that you could see yourself living :)

Not sure how many km we covered however it was a few! Here's some photos...

Near St Lawrence Market:


Canada's "Flatiron" building, complete with pub

St James Cathedral

Some of the local architecture - honestly, Canada has some pretty cool buildings:


Trinity College, Toronto University. Reminded us of the Christchurch Old Arts Centre

The Provincial Legislature Building


Love how the Church has been surrounded by the Four Seasons hotel...maybe it's the gift shop?

Toronto at night:


The Rogers Centre - home of the Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team

In Commerce Court, one of the buildings that feeds into the PATH system

The CN Tower

This is the Allan Lambert Hall which is in the PATH system

Also went out to Toronto Island which has cool views of the city. It's a collection of little islands joined by bridges. Used to be inhabited however now it's a green space with a theme park on it that runs primarily in the summer. Nice boat trip across Lake Ontario (despite the rain!).



Toronto is definitely a place we'd go back to!

The Rose