Toronto & Niagara Falls, Canada by Mel

We are in Canada!!!
We arrived here on Thursday, the 4th of December, which was our 11 months anniversary on the road. We flew from Bogota to Toronto and arrived late at night.
We are going to spend the next few days at Triin and Rodrigo’s place. I meet Triin when I arrived in Australia backpacking, something like 13 years ago I think! We caught up a few times since (in France and in Australia). When I realised she was living in Canada, we had to visit! So here we are!
We are extremely lucky as the kids wanted to see snow (one of the reasons we are in Canada) and it is snowing!! Which also means it is cold!!! We have some clothes, but nothing warm enough, so we’ll do some clothes shopping in the next few days.
Friday, we did some grocery shopping. We also decorate the Christmas tree!! The kids were very happy to have a tree to decorate this year. Lots of light and decoration. It was super fun! We spent the rest of the day catching up.
Saturday, we visited Niagara Falls. This is the world’s biggest waterfall in volume of water. We saw the world’s widest waterfall (Victoria falls in Zambia/Zimbabwe). Now we have to see the tallest one, which is Angel Falls in Venezuela (it will have to be another trip though!).
Niagara Falls is pretty impressive, but I think I prefer Victoria Falls. Niagara Falls is right in the middle of the city, surrounded by constructions. Don’t get me wrong, the fall is beautiful. I liked the horseshoe shape of it. It is also fun to see the USA on the other side. But Victoria Falls is so huge and surrounded with nature: I found it more majestic. We walked around the fall, but it was very cold and we didn’t have warm shoes, so the kids got frizzing very quickly. We had to go inside a few shops to warmed up.
The kids had fun playing in the snow and with some of the frozen ice. But yeah, it is cold!!! I really enjoyed seeing plants and grass frozen. It is truly beautiful.
Near the fall, there is a street full of fun things to do and restaurants. We had lunch there: I tried the traditional poutine, a traditional Canadian dish, made of chips, cheese and gravy sauce. It was not my favourite, I have to admit! But I tried it!
Then we visited the ‘Believe it or not’ museum, which had a lot of surprising or incredible artifacts and stories. It was interesting and fun. For me the piece who impressed me the most, was a piece of the Berlin wall. The emotions and history linked to that piece were very strong: sadness, hope, togetherness and hard time all in one.
At nighttime, the falls are lit up with a lot of colours and that was very pretty.
The next day, we visited the village at Black Creek. It is a reconstructed village from the early 19th century. They have shops, houses, hotel, school, mill and more. There are also people showing the trades that was use at the time: we saw a tin maker, a leather worker, the people running the shop and post office. The houses were decorated with Christmas tree and decorations from the time, handmade and very crafty. It was interesting, fun and interactive.
We also visited Santa! It is a very worthwhile visit if you are in the area.
On the way back, the kids had fun doing some angel in the snow! They have been dreaming of doing that for a while! But as it is very cold, we went to a second-hand shop to get some better jacket, shoes, beanies and gloves! It is necessary!
Monday, we visited 2 of the things to do in Toronto. First we went to the aquarium: it doesn’t matter how many aquariums we visit, the kids still love it. The Toronto aquarium is very good. There are a lot to see there. My favourite was the axolotls, there are so cute! There is a massive tunnel where sharks, turtles and fish swim above your head. There are a lot of different tanks with beautiful fish, jellyfish, aquatic plants. It is another place very worth the visit.
Then we went to the CN Tower, which held the record for the world's tallest free-standing structure for 32 years, from 1975 until 2007, when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai.
It is 553.3m high and was finished in 1976. There is a see-through floor which I had to step on with my eyes closed, then opened them while holding someone’s hand! I still don’t like heights! The kids, Kev and Triin had no issues! They had fun laying down and taking selfies! The views from the top are amazing. You can see the whole city. We stayed until after the sunset to see the city lighting up. During this trip, I enjoyed nature scenery immensely, but I also really enjoyed city views. There is beauty in both and I am very lucky to have seen so many this year.
We came back home to have a ceviche night, made by Rodrigo and it was delicious!
Tuesday the 9th, we visited Casa Loma, the largest private residence built in Canada. It was built from 1911 to 1914 for Sir Henry and Mary Pellatt, a Canadian financier and his wife who developed the girl guides in Canada. Sir Henry Pellatt develop hydro-electricity in Toronto and had many other successful businesses. He gave a lot of his money to good causes. He seemed to have been a good rich person. When the Toronto government decided to take over the electric company he built, he lost a lot of his fortune and finish is life living quietly. His castle and everything inside was sold. During world war 2, the basement was used to develop sonar and war equipment for espionage. The castle was left vacant for a while. It is now a tourist destination, after a 15 years restoration project was made by the city of Toronto.
It was a highlight for me. The rooms are beautiful, the furniture is amazing and the history of the place make it special. As it is Christmas time, they have Christmas tree in almost every rooms. They also decorate the tunnel under the house, which goes to the hunting lodge, and you can meet Santa and take pictures with him. They had singing reindeer and also a small was museum and a small vintage car collection. I highly encourage you to visit the place when you are in Toronto.
We spent the evening at a Japanese buffet restaurant: it was a eat as much as you want place… The kids had their fill of sushi!!! Emma a bit too much! Andrew even had a small belly after that, which never happened!
Wednesday, we visited the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). It is a massive museum! There are several exhibitions. We visited the evolution part: where we could see the evolution of earth, of animals, of plants… it was interactive, which is so much more interesting (for the kids and us). We saw dinosaurs, animals, rocks coming for meteorites (that we could touch)… and much more. It was a really enjoyable museum. It is a museum which need several days to visit properly.
After the museum, we went to the Christmas market in the distillery district of Toronto. I was a bit disappointed as I was thinking about the European version of Christmas markets, where you can find a lot of trinkets and decoration and things. In Toronto, it was mainly food (expansive at that). We did get some Christmas drinks: mine was whisky with warm cider and spice, pretty yummy! The kids got donuts, hot chips and crepes. The place looked nice, with a lot of lights and decorations. Just not enough cute trinkets for my liking!
Thursday was the kids favourite: schoolwork day! We took it easy, did some blog and schoolwork and pack! We are on the move again tomorrow.
It was so nice to Triin again and meet Rodrigo. We had a great time at their place and are very grateful for the stay. I’m sure we’ll see each other again somewhere in the world!
We rented a car and we are driving to Montreal (near it) to visit my cousin, Roxane, her partner Kevin and their daughter, Savannah. It will be our very last stop this year. The next time we move, it will be to go home, back to Australia.
See you in Montreal.
MelRead more