Toronto

The flight from Heathrow was smooth and trouble free. We arrived in Toronto to a sweltering hot summer day. The journey from Lester Pearson Airport took approximately 40 minutes to our downtown hotel and we learned a lot from our garrulous taxi driver, even if he couldn’t find the Hyatt we were booked into! Having seen no rain at home for some weeks, our first full day in Canada has broken the duck! Today was our only possibility to explore the city of Toronto and so we decided to take the Hop on Hop off bus to achieve our goal. As we have found in the past, they can be a bit hit and miss. This one was more miss than hit, but did the job, albeit in a rather ramshackle manner.
Toronto was founded by the French, as a trading post, on the shore of Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes that straddle the American and Canadian border. The French were eventually driven out by the British in 1759. Great Britain retained control of British Canada following the loss of America after the Wars of Independence and named this rather parochial settlement Fort York, as it’s capital of Upper Canada. Initially it was predominantly a military garrison and was burned to the ground twice during its first 100 years, once by American raiders and secondly by Irish immigrants who became far too fond of the whisky produced in the ‘Distillery District’ with inevitable results! As a consequence, what you see now, is a flamboyant modern city full of glass and steel skyscrapers. There are pockets of tradition interspersed and particularly as you head up towards Yorkville, one of its prosperous and upper class residential areas, but there is little that dates prior to the Victorian era. It’s most famous piece of architecture is the CN Tower that gracefully tops everything else. Until 2010 it was the worlds tallest freestanding structure and on a good day affords fantastic views in all directions. We gave it a miss as the visibility was so poor. Casa Lama, the mansion on the hill, built by a self made man as a gift for his wife, is a rather bizarre attraction and there is the unusual Bata Shoe museum with a stiletto entrance to its shoe box shape, the attractive Royal Ontario Art Gallery, the Ontario Museum (a great mix of old and new) and the 1890s pink sandstone edifice of the Ontario Legislative Assembly. Theatre-land and culture are strong here and throughout trees and small parks are plentiful. The waterfront has been drastically remodelled, in common with many throughout the world, and gives easy access to Lake Ontario. Ferries ply backwards and forwards to the many small islands off shore. Again, we decided against as the weather had closed in, but I’m sure on a fine day the views back to the city on the lake would be spectacular.
It is difficult to sum up my feelings in one short day trip. The whole city is an immense building site making getting around difficult and perhaps giving Toronto a more negative vibe that it probably deserves. I suspect in five years time my thoughts would be different and I can see, as Mike and Mary will attest, this is an attractive liveable city.Read more