Judy.
We hadn’t planned
to write anything about Toronto, not because we didn’t think we’d like it, but
so many of the folks we know have been there, and we were only going to be
there for three days. But it was such an adventure for us that we decided to
comment.
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| Toronto - old & new |
We took the train
from Ottawa to Toronto—not the gentlest ride we’ve ever had. Ted said he
couldn’t even read his book for all the bouncing around, and, until we got
close enough to Toronto to see Lake Ontario, there wasn’t much scenery, either.
Still, once we arrived in Toronto (an hour late), we had a short walk through
the beautiful downtown to our boutique hotel, the Hotel Victoria, then a few blocks
to a brewpub called C’est What? How can you not love a restaurant with a name
like that?
As usual, we
looked for memorable visits—ate dinner at the Royal York Hotel Library Bar,
went to the Royal Alexandra Theatre to see COME FROM AWAY, a beautiful and
energetic musical about the 38 American planes that landed in Gander,
Newfoundland, on 9/11, and the Newfoundlanders who took them in. It’s a deeply
moving experience.
When we left the
theatre, the rain that had been predicted arrived with a vengeance! The bottom
absolutely fell out of the sky. We ducked into a tequila bar, settled in with a
couple of mezcals, and reminisced about Oaxaca.
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| Mezcal - Oaxaca style |
Then
we got into a conversation with the bartender, Andy, a great guy who is an
actor, and just got his papers to go to New York. He treated us like a million
dollars, and we shared actor stories. Pretty soon three men in town for a
conference sat next to us at the bar—and they shared stories about parts of
Canada we’ve not yet visited. It turned out to be a great evening chatting with
new acquaintances. But then the bar, which was in a basement, started flooding—this
was a really bad storm—and we had to leave. We called an Uber, and just as we
got in, the rain stopped. The whole city was flooded so that you couldn’t get
outside downtown, traffic was outrageous, and the ten-minute walk home became a
twenty-minute ride!
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| St James Anglican Cathedral |
Because of the
rains our Free Walking Tour was cancelled, so we wandered around the city on
our own tour, to the St. Lawrence Market (which National Geographic calls one
of the world’s great markets), where we ogled the fish, meats, cheeses (!) and
fresh produce, to St. James’s Cathedral and garden, and up to the Conservatory
Garden to see a varied collection of beautiful plants. Yonge-Dundas Square is Toronto’s Times Square,
and was full of shops and life.
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| Yonge-Dundas Square |
We
walked through Graffiti Alley, found a labyrinth, and ended at the Art Gallery
of Ontario, where we absorbed more of the work of Emily Carr, Tom Thompson, and
the Group of Seven, modern artists who changed the face of Canadian paintings,
and whom we’ve grown to admire.
The only real
downer, and it was pretty awful, was the number of homeless sleeping right in
the middle of the sidewalk. People just stepped around them, but it was hard
for me not to worry about those guys.
It was a short but sweet visit, filled with interesting surprises.
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| Homeless napping |
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| Graffiti Alley |
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