Toronto, Canada - May 2011

A few years ago work sent me over to Toronto to check out a new piece of plant that we were buying, but before starting work I had a couple of days to have a look around. After a epic journey from Melbourne via Auckland and L.A. I was somewhat relieved to land in Toronto, standing up I was happy to find that my legs still worked. Our plan for our first full day was to take a bit of  a walk around down town Toronto, so at least I'd be able to get a bit of circulation back in my legs.

Toronto, from the CN Tower, Union Station is to the right.

The mist rolling in off Lake Ontario.

We were based in the suburbs (I'm a little vague on details on this trip because work organised all the flights and accommodation), so we caught the train into the city. The first order of business was the CN Tower and its views. As you would expect the view from the top was extensive, I was particularly interested in the clouds of fog that were trying to roll in off Lake Ontario. The fog appeared to make it to land but then didn't get much further, it threatened to engulf the city but never did.

The Toronto Harbourfront.

Me, in my walking shoes, CN Tower.

Checking out the Rogers Centre where the Blue Jays were playing we then wondered down to the harbourfront and had a bit of a poke around. After checking out the harbourfront it was time for lunch, eventually settling on a sports bar before we retraced our steps back to Union Station and returned to our hotel for a reasonably early night to try and shake the jet lag.

Downtown Toronto is in the distance, from my hotel.

We stopped off here on our trip down to Niagara Falls.

Next day we had organised for a tour down to Niagara Falls so we were up early to meet the bus. The trip down was punctuated by a stop at Niagara Parks garden. Niagara was a bit of an eye opener, I wasn't ready for all the man made tackiness surrounding the falls, once I got my head around the tackiness I really enjoyed the day. We took it all in by foot initially, before heading into town for lunch. After lunch it was time for a trip on the 'Maid in the Mist' the little boat that chugs right up to the base of the falls, it was definitely a 'poncho on' kind of a trip. After our little cruise it was back on the bus for a visit to a vine yard were they grow ice wine, not being much of a wine drinker I was surprised how sweet the ice wine was, to my un-trained pallet it almost tasted like a liqueur. After purchasing a couple of bottles of ice wine it was back to the hotel to get ready for work tomorrow.

The Maid in the Mist.

It was a little damp on the boat.

The Dirt.
I'm a bit vague on the details of my trip to Toronto for two reasons, the first being that I was there to work so wasn't really thinking too much about sight seeing, the second reason was I wasn't even considering a blog at that stage. What I do remember was flying home from LA on an A380, my first time on the plane and it was very impressive. I also remember Toronto being very quiet, although that may be because we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Niagara Falls themselves are spectacular and once you're used to all the tacky tourist shops around them they make for a great day.

You can see the falls at the bottom of the street.