Toronto

Our time in Toronto was short and sweet. While it is the biggest city in Canada, it is just another big city. It is known for the CN Tower, which for a while, was the tallest tower in the world (not any more). There are plenty of museums but we weren’t in the mood for an educational afternoon. The city is situated on Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes of US and Canada, so the waterfront is a big highlight and really where we wanted to explore … with an ice-cream of course!

However the little hitch was … the rain. Its hard to explore a harbour side in the rain. The children wanted to go up the CN Tower, but having just gone up the tower at Niagara, in addition to the cost of over $100 for the family to go up, Tony and I weren’t so keen! We opted for a Red Bus Tour, which we haven’t done yet, as a way of finding out a little about the city in the short time we were there.

So, rain and all, off we went. Started off sitting upstairs but moved down when the rain and wind became impossible. Toronto was founded in the late 18th century but has had two big fires (1849 and 1905) that wiped out the downtown area, so it really is quite modern. Anything over 100 years old is heritage listed, as it should be, so the city has an interesting mix of architecture. It appears to have a good mix of cultures and socio-demographics, as any city does, and we certainly found that the bus tour took us to parts of the city that we wouldn’t have walked to ourselves. We had two tour guides who were both good fun and from them, we got a recommendation for dinner. There were some great markets which we would have liked to poke around, but they were closed on a Sunday. Unusual! There is a huge shopping centre in the central area, the biggest in Canada, but Livvy and I were the only ones interested in that … so we lost out! 

After the bus tour, the rain had stopped, so we did head down to the Harbourside. The Harbourside reminded me a little of Darling Harbour in Sydney, as it is very developed and very family friendly: a grassy area with stage in the middle, good seating. There are some creative play areas for the children which entertained our crew for a while! 

Beaver Tails - definitely a "sometimes" food!

We were heading for ice-cream, but instead, found “beaver tails”. Beaver tails is a sweet treat that has been on our list of “food to try” for a while. For many weeks, Lach and Sophie thought it meant that we would be eating a cooked version of the tail of an actual beaver, but that is far from it. Instead, it is more like deep fried pastry covered in maple syrup or chocolate! So much nutrition in that! When the kids heard that, they were very eager to try! Imagine a thin donut, shaped in an oval shape, covered with a choice of toppings: we chose cinnamon sugar, maple syrup and chocolate; and also cookies and cream ice-cream. Yummy! Lucky I’m doing a fair bit of running …..!  The final report is that they were rather yummy and the children would quite happily eat them regularly!



A walk a little further into town and we found an old railway roundhouse, which has been turned into a brewery and railway museum.  Interesting to explore for a while also.

So Toronto will be remembered for the red bus tour in the rain and eating beaver tails! A quick trip but we don’t feel the need to spend much longer there.