Toronto , capital of Ontario is over two thousand miles from our last big city, Vancouver. It makes you realise just how big North America is.

We stopped in Calgary on the way but the distances in just one country are staggering. Another big city with another famous island but a completely different feel. Toronto is much bigger and more spread out and has much more of a big city feel than Vancouver. Its homeless problem is bigger than Vancouver’s but although its obvious it doesn’t seem to cause any trouble to passersby.

Downtown

The St Lawrence market is a real farmers market with seafood, meat and bakeries. We found organic honey and maple syrup direct from suppliers and had a lovely lunch. Its just a nice place to walk around even if you don’t need to shop.

Even more interesting is the Toronto PATH. This is an underground pedestrian walkway, thirty kilometres of shops, restaurants and entertainment. Six  subway stations connected underground. We went in from Union Station and walked around with a little map so we only got a little lost. A great place for a rainy day.

 

CN Tower

CN stands for Canada National , the railway company that built this concrete communications tower opened in 1976. It contains the worlds tallest metal staircase with 1776 steps . Every year people climb it for charity with the average time being thirty minutes. I don’t think I could do it in twice the time! Then there’s something else I wouldn’t consider – Edge Walk.  This is billed as an amusement – really – not mine. You walk round the roof of the main pod while tethered to an overhead rail. No just a look at the view and the inevitable glass floor will do for me.

Toronto Islands

Toronto Island Park is so good we went twice and covered a huge amount just wandering around. A chain of fifteen islands joined together by paths and boardwalks it’s just offshore so it takes less than fifteen minutes by ferry. This is  a car free community  but you have to watch out for the hire quad-cycles complete with awning and people who can’t steer. Hanlans Point has the Gibraltar Point lighthouse, one of Toronto’s oldest buildings. Centre island is the most popular. It has the weirdly named (to English people at least) Centreville amusement park. This is mainly for young children and on some islands very lucky people have charming houses. There are charming beaches all along the outer coast line on to Lake Ontario. Looking out from here across the water it’s hard to believe you’re not looking at  the sea as its so vast.