October 13 – Ontario Province to Toronto

This is our last day on the VIA rail trip to Toronto.  

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Watch video of train ride.
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We were on the train all morning and the countryside was very pretty with many lakes..

And we had a reasonable amount of fall color.

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More photos of central Canada
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We even hit some pretty farmland.

After having run quite late for the last couple of days they somehow made up time and we arrived on time at Union Station in Toronto.  Our hotel, the Royal York, is right across the street from the station so no taxis were required.

Upon arrival Jim and Phyllis checked in and we were told that our reservations had been cancelled a year ago.  They gave us a room (fortunately they had plenty) and said they would sort it out.  We also called Fresh Tracks and they got back to us quickly and we are set to go.

After settling in we headed out to pick up our tickets for the Hop-on, Hop-off tour that we will do tomorrow.  We then hit a local eatery for lunch and then headed out for some sightseeing.  Jim and Phyllis opted for the Hockey Hall of Fame, we wandered the area.

We found a very neat fountain with dogs, instead of fish or dolphins or urns, spouting water.  Pretty whimsical, especially having included a very disinterested cat sitting on the side of the fountain basin.

There was a fair amount of interesting street art in the area…

Yes, this is street art, created by bundling together "floaties".

including a mural on a building that looked like drapes and extra windows on the end of the building.

We found the St. Lawrence Market.  It is a covered market dating from the 1800’s and has been a market, the town hall, and the jail.  There were old fashioned butcher shops, fish mongers, bakers, veggies and fruit stands, souvenirs shops, clothing stores and much more.  

It was late in the day and many shops were running low, particularly some bakeries.  And most of the shops were closing up for the day.  But it was most interesting.

We also found St. James Church…

and a small garden park next door...

where we saw very black squirrels.  Something we don’t’ see in California.

Some of the streets were lined with trees with fall foliage.

And Toronto has a great skyline with some glass skinned skyscrapers...

and the CN Tower, a concrete communications and observations tower.

It was pretty chilly so we headed back to the hotel to thaw out and then later went out to dinner at a nearby sports bar.  They had football and especially hockey running on their TVs.