03 Jul 16 - Sunday - Toronto (Casa Loma & CN Tower)

G'day All,
Today was another sunny 28 C day in Toronto and we head off to the HOHO bus to get to Casa Loma a Gothic Revival style house and gardens in mid-town Toronto. No problems with the HOHO bus tickets today and we also purchased tickets to Casa Loma from bus operator as I couldn't get them online due to Australian credit cards not getting through their approval system. No worries as pricing was the same. The bus took about 25 mins to get there so we didn't arrive until about 10:30 due to the bus stops. The place was packed and the pre-purchase of tickets was a wise move as the line to buy tickets at the venue was about 50 deep, we just walked straight in. Casa Loma is now a museum and Toronto landmark and was built as a residence for financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt's wife from 1911 to 1914.
Even with its 98 rooms covering 64,700 square feet (6,011 m²) it was stuffy inside with hoards of people and the lack of cooling due to closed windows (safety reasons) but the gardens were cool and here was a nice breeze outside, the gelato helped as well :-).

Casa Loma - One of the main bedrooms

Casa Loma - Looking from the back

Casa Loma - Looking from atop one of the towers

We headed back to the bus stop to catch the next HOHO but it appears we are always out of luck as it was pulling out when we we about 25 m away, so it was another 20 mins wait for the next one. we headed back to the room for a freshen up and booked dinner in the revolving restaurant at the CN Tower. We were lucky to get the 5 pm booking as it was fully booked out until late the following night. Booking at the restaurant also gets you free access to the viewing platform and the glass bottom floor at the height of 324 metres. Took us a bit longer than normal to get to the tower as the Toronto Blue Jays had just finished their baseball game at the Rogers Centre next to the tower which meant we were against the flow of pedestrians all the way to the tower. Once there we went through security, yes security with metal detectors and guards with wands just like customs but obviously looking for nasty stuff to prevent it getting into the tower. Something we weren't expecting but simple enough process. Again the booking helped us jump the massive line ups and we pretty much went straight in to the elevator to get to the top. It took just under 1 min to go from ground floor to restaurant and there is a glass panel in the floor of the elevator too. It literally makes your ears pop going to that height at that speed. The restaurant rotates 360  degrees in about 72 mins which pretty well means it has done a complete revolution throughout the course of a meal. Considering Pen is afraid of heights she did well to look out from the rotating restaurant and afterwards at the viewing platform but I couldn't get her to stand on the glass viewing floor :-).

View over Toronto with Fairmont Hotel in middle

View out over Lake Ontario from CN Tower

Gary standing on the glass floor 342 meters up in the CN Tower

Last night in Toronto and we are off to Niagara Falls around midday, so time for a sleep in and lazy checkout before we leave.

Until tomorrow...

Cheers
Gary and Penny

02 July - Saturday - Toronto

G'day All,
The first leg of the travelling is done and the the tourism has officially commenced!
Had a great night's sleep on a very nice bed. Probably could have slept in a lot longer but we wanted to get to the St Lawrence Markets for breakfast and get on the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) 2 hr circuit bus ride to take in the sights and sounds Toronto has to offer. Initially we didn't see the signs along the street for the stop points but did see the bus pulled up and legged it to catch up, unfortunately all too slow as it sped off into the distance with us only metres behind. We back tracked and found a stop point and waited for the next one to arrive. We bough a 3 day HOHO bus pass as it is a great way to get around only to find out that they only do 2 day passes, so will need to let our friendly booking girl back home know about that one. To top it off when we went to exchange the voucher for tickets the HOHO girl said "take a seat and I'll bring them to you" after we did the majority of Toronto we jumped off the bus to take the included ferry trip around Lake Ontario and asked her for the tickets, only to be told that she had already given them to us...  A quick and polite exchange of words had it all sorted but for a moment we had no tickets at all.

 

 

A very broad range of buildings with a mix of old and new and sometimes new with old. From the HOHO we picked out where we would be heading tomorrow as today was all about working out what we would like to see tomorrow. So it'll be Casa Loma Castle and a close up tour of the CN Tower.

We weren't expecting to do the ferry ride until tomorrow however we took the opportunity as we jumped on the HOHO a bit late after spending the morning at St. Lawrence having breakfast. A good 45 min tour around the lake in a very full ferry was great to see the city from the water. Being a Saturday on a long weekend (Canada Day was Friday) in the peak season made the waterfront a busy busy place.

Took in a bit of sun by being on the top of the roofless double-decker and the ferry so we are a lovely shade of pink tonight but the sun doesn't have half the sting that Aussie sun does. We got back in around 4 pm and Pen had a little (5 hr) catch up sleep while I down loaded the 300 odd photos from the day (see above). A quick bite to eat and time to finish this blog and get to bed ready for an earlier start tomorrow.
P.S. still getting used to the 9:30 pm sunsets.


Cheers
Gary and Penny

01 Jul 16 - Friday - Brisbane to Vanvouver toToronto

Part 1
Morning all,
We're off! Bit of a restless night for both of us but we did get an OK sleep, not enough to say we woke up refreshed. Transferred to the airport in good time and then came check-in... First up the auto check in wasn't working well so we had to get it sorted at the counter, this was where we found out we were seated 20 rows apart (not good for my nervous flyer), so much for prebooking seats. So the only available seating together was 2 rows from the back of the plane. Will let you know how that went when we get to the other end . . .
A large breakfast at the airport, a look at duty free and awaiting the call to board.   Ahead is a 13.5 hr flight to Vancouver, a dash across the terminal to catch the Toronto connection and finally a transfer to the hotel. Appears we also arrive on Canada Day (01 Jul) so might be busy. A rest up overnight before the holiday kicks up a notch and the tourist eyes go into hyperdrive...
This is a trip that ticks a few boxes; it's our 30th wedding anniversary on the 6th of this month, our first trip to Canada and a long overdue stop over to visit Samantha and Oliver. So there are a couple of luxuries along the way. The first is the accommodation for the next 3 nights, a 5 star room at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto shown below.

30 mins to boarding on the aircraft parked at gate 80 (below), so hopefully part 2 of a long day 1 to follow on from here.

Part 2
A little sooner than anticipated for part 2... our flight has been delayed due the above pictured aircraft needing a part. Expected departure is now 11:30 am so about an hour late (at the moment). For all my Defence workers, I wonder if this will be a MICAP (AOG) :-). Stay tuned for part 3 which will hopefully see us on deck in Canada.

Part 3
The flight eventually departed at 11:30 am and was a rather incident free ride, caught up on a few movies and played a few games. Assessment on the seating at the back, not too bad actually. The seats behind were for crew and empty most of the time but we stayed in allocated seats as the Dreamliner actually had enough leg room for me. I don't think people realised there were toilets this far down the back as passenger traffic was a minimum. Also there were no left or right side seats only the middle three so there was actually a bit more side room as well. A couple of downsides; there was no overhead locker space, but there was plenty not too far away, the toilets did make a bit of noise when flushed which was enough to hear through noise cancelling headphones but not too annoying but other wise a comfortable ride. The Dreamliner itself is very smooth in flight and well equipped with heaps of head room, also had some cool electronic auto dimming glass in the windows which dimmed the entire cabin, the sun looked like the moon. Was hard to believe we spent that much time in the air to be honest. More to come as we now have the connecting flight to Toronto that was delayed due to the Brisbane delay. All in all about a three hour delay in total but having no impact on our holiday as we had planned a rest evening in Toronto anyway...

Part 4
The last leg was a 4 hr 25 min flight to Toronto, Air Canada was great as they forwarded our baggage through to the connecting flight meaning no customs or lugging our bags around the airport. There was about an hour and a half stop over before we headed to Toronto. The flight was good and Pen managed to get in a few zzzz's while I tried sleep didn't come so it was time for another movie. We had pre-booked transfers to the hotel and after a couple of false starts we caught the Niagara Air Bus service to Downtown. The driver was nice enough but introduced us to the craziness on the highway :-)
We have arrived.

Booked in to the Fairmont at about 9 pm local time and had a very nice seafood chowder for a light tea before bed. While Pen caught a couple of hours sleep on the trip over I didn't and was awake for the entire trip; from Brissy to head on pillow at Toronto at about 11 pm local time with no shut eye (about 32 hours straight) so looked forward to the very comfy bed and a good night's sleep.

Photos from the point and shoot camera, through bleary eyes and on the move :-)

The Tourism begins...

Cheers
Gary and Penny.

Preparing for Canada

It is early days yet as we don't officially depart Australia until the 01 July 2016, but time stops still for nobody and it won't be long before it's upon us.

The tickets are booked and the itinerary is starting to take shape. We'll be flying with Air Canada as they now fly direct and non-stop from Brisbane, Australia to Vancouver, Canada taking about 13.5 hours. Not a bad run really, well for me at least, as Penny is not that fussed on flying :-)

Once we hit Vancouver we'll have an hour or so before catching a connecting flight to Toronto before settling down there for a couple of days. From there it's off to Niagara Falls to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary for a few days before flying to Calgary to meet up with our eldest Samantha and her better half Oliver.

A couple of weeks in Calgary to meet some new friends and take in the Calgary Stampede, Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper before we head out on the next leg of the journey.

From Jasper its time to relax on the Rocky Mountaineer through Quesnel and on to Whistler and Vancouver. From here we hook up with Holland America cruises to head north to Alaska. Seven fun filled days of cruising on the ms Nieuw Amsterdam up the inside passage to Tracy Arm Inlet and back via Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay and Ketchikan before returning to Vancouver.

From Vancouver its off to Victoria for a couple of days before returning once again to Vancouver to spend the last couple of days in the city before finishing up the vacation. It's a midnight flight from Vancouver back to Brisbane, losing a day to the international date line and ending 5 weeks of fun and frivolity.

The aim will be to update this blog frequently throughout the trip to keep you up to date on the activities, fun times and I guess all those events that will make the trip one to remember.

So for now, it's time to sign off, finalise the itinerary and secure those bookings, until we get a little closer to the departure date.

P.S. All the bookings mostly done and the tickets, itinerary and paperwork picked up, a big thanks to Samantha at Booval Flight Centre for her insight, enthusiasm and great communication in assisting us with the planning for the trip. :-)

Cheers
Gary and Penny