76 On to Toronto

Canada
Québec & New Brunswick
Nova Scotia & Newfoundland
Québec & Ontario
Manitoba to the Pacific

60 Ferry to Québec
61 Back in Québec
62 Drive to Tadoussac
63 Tadoussac
64 On to Québec
65 Québec
66 Québec
67 On to Ottawa
68 Ottawa
69 Ottawa
70 Ottawa
71 On to Niagara
72 The falls
73 Canadian wine
74 Behind the falls
75 Morty goes home
76 On to Toronto
77 CN Tower
78 ROM
79 Stocks, tower and dance
80 Toronto Saturday
81 Off to Florida
82 Coping with Wilma
83 SeaWorld
84 Back to Canada
85 Casa Loma and shoes
86 Killarney
87 To Sault Ste. Marie
88 Goulais River
89 To Thunder Bay
90 Thunder Bay

Canada: Ontario

Tuesday 18 October 2005

Having stayed again last night at the Koa campground we were both keen to get into central Toronto. We were ready to go at about 10:00 but knowing how bad the traffic is downtown we decided to check hotel availability rather than just turning up. I do not know what made us do this, as we would normally just turn up, but it was just as well that we did. The central hotels that we would have stayed in were all fully booked as there seem to be lot of conferences in town. Undeterred, we phoned one of the Bed and Breakfast agencies. They have referred us to a place just on the edge of town, a couple of stops on the subway from the main downtown area.

We set off, back along the manic 401 motorway into Toronto. Even though Stef was not feeling great he had opted to drive. I was quietly glad as the traffic is a bit manic. As the Koa campground advert had said we did reach metro Toronto in about half an hour. What the advert does not tell you though is that it then takes you at least another thirty minutes to get to the main downtown area. The traffic got gradually busier as we got closer to Toronto and before long we were off the motorway and onto the normal roads.

This was when we first started to get a feel for how large this city is and the impact of it being water locked on one side. In terms of population it is probably about the same size as Birmingham. As it is bordered by the lake though, the city can only expand in a semicircle out from Lake Toronto. This makes for a long drive through to the downtown area. We went through the usual collection of neighbourhoods, some affluent, others not so, yet more with a studenty look and feel to them. There were some belts of green land but central Toronto itself has little open spaces for people to walk around in.

We had general directions to the B&B but knew that once we hit Danforth Street we would have to call for directions. Stef pulled in by a Second Cup coffee shop and I hopped out to use the phone. Our host, Joanne, was not home but on the way back to Stef and Morty our directional problems sorted themselves out. We were parked at the end of the street we were looking for, a tree had obscured our view of the road sign so we had not seen it when we parked! We left a note for Joanne on the door and then went to camp out in Second Cup to wait for her to come back.

Here we signed up for another day’s worth of internet connection so we could check emails and our site only to find out that the forum section of our site had been hacked again. This time help was at hand in the form of Indie from indiedesigns.net. He is one of the moderators of the free software that Stef uses on our site and was able to help us sort out the problems. The hacker is well known to him. Apparently it is a thirteen year old boy who spends his time looking for people using old versions of software and then hacks their sites. I think he is a sad little chap who should find more interesting things to do with his time.

While Stef was sorting out the website I went to book us into the B&B and to meet Joanne. She has a lovely house and two cute little white dogs, Harry and Pippy. She was a bit surprised at how big Morty was but must have sensed that if it was a problem we would have gone somewhere else as we had checked with the agency that parking was available. She showed me our room, which comes with a little lounge and an outside patio, and left me with a set of keys before I went back to check progress on the hacker.

We ended up spending most of the afternoon and early evening trying to sort out the mess he had caused. I do not think he has any idea how much hassle he creates when he does what he does. If only I could get my hands on him …… We stayed in the local area for dinner, heading to Allens along Danforth Street. It was a cosy bar, allegedly with an Irish theme, which has a good reputation for food, one that we reinforce having had a very tasty lamb shank dinner.

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