Travel With The Thayers: #17 Toronto

#17 Toronto

We loved Niagara from the Canadian Side. Toronto…not so much!

Our one lasting image is traffic, traffic, traffic! It makes L.A. traffic look like an easy trip down the road. This was coming into town.

We headed back to the states on a Thursday morning. Traffic moved quicker going south than north into the city. No matter what freeway, what day or what time of day...TRAFFIC TRAFFIC!

The entrances to the freeway looked like parking lots.

Interesting signs! Although we drove the speed limit and were passed by 18-wheelers.

Although our RV Park advertised 30 minutes from downtown Toronto, it took us an hour and a half to get to town.

The Toronto skyline and all of its suburbs fill the horizon with towering apartment/condo units and businesses.

Trolley wires clog the skies above the streets. Wires, Wires everywhere!

Tim Horton’s donuts and coffee can be found everywhere! YUM! They have a Canadian Maple which is a raised donut filled with creme and maple frosting on top: my personal favorite.

This old tunnel led us to downtown amid the towering buildings and to a multilevel parking garage.

Fortunately we found a parking structure close to our destination.

It was a bit spooky so far underground. Fortunately the elevator was close to take us to the lobby. You paid upon exiting the garage, and you paid with a credit card. No person around.

As it turned out we exited right next to Rogers Stadium where the Blue Jays play. This sculpture is part of the stadium. Can you see Casey Stengel?

Next to the stadium stands the CN Tower. We wanted to see that so we went there first. I was thankful for an elevator that delivered Lynn and I to the tower entrance.

The line to the elevators passed by this stately Royal Mountie Moose. From the open mezzanine the gift shop showed off things to buy. While waiting in Disneyland kind of lines we met a man from Germany, and a beautiful family from Kenya.

The main observation deck includes a mirrored ceiling.

The fees seemed extremely expensive for what we saw. The view of the marinas and high rises were interesting. I was having walking problems so I didn’t get all the way around.

Lots of marinas dot the shoreline.

These are islands across from downtown. Had we known our bus ticket included a boat ride around these islands, we may have planned differently. Oops…on the tour guide…me.

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One of the islands includes an airport. A plane was taking off as we watched from the CN

Tower.

The parks below the tower….

I sat to rest with a very nice French speaking couple. The man ordered CN Tower nachos that looked loaded and very different from the plain version at the Skylon Tower that the guys got the day before.

More city views: note the train yard dividing the city. All the white links are train cars.

We walked from the main observation deck to the next level down called the Glass Deck. This deck you could go outside, but the grid work didn’t make photo taking easy. Also on the glass deck where you can look straight down from the tower.

This poster let visitors know how much weight the glass floor can hold.

Derrille and I placed our feet in the photo.

Lynn taking photos of Derrille and Jay as they stand on the glass floor. Lots of people choose not to step on the glass.

I don’t know if you can get this. However…..this is Derrille taking a selfie with the ground below. The mirrored ceiling gives it a very strange feeling.

For the really adventurous you can walk on the edge of the tower.

The elevators are color coded to help visitors get their bearings.

We did not find the CN Tower as enjoyable as the Skylon Tower the day before. Of course the landscape made a huge difference.

We stopped at Boston Pizza for a bite to eat. While in the restaurant, we noticed the bus tour buses parked right across the street for about 15 minutes. So all we had to do was walk across the street and join the tour.

Our tour guide, Scott, cannot be rated as skilled. Derrille commented that we are sort of experts on big city bus tours, and Scott’s presentation lacked entertainment and timing. He gave no heads up to what was coming, and we passed by without realizing what we saw. One area blended with another and it was difficult to see differences. Besides this tour just drove around downtown Toronto. We felt it did not meet our expectations. Yet, as I look back at the photos, we saw some interesting things.

The most impressionable part of this tour turned out to be the driving skill of our driver. OH MY! Maneuvering the narrow streets of Toronto with such skill we often held our breaths. It seemed that sometimes the driver just turned and expected oncoming traffic to get out of the way.

Some cars move into the oncoming traffic to get around the bus.

This Porsche seemed awfully close. Notice we are both in the same lane.

At one corner people kept crossing in front of the cars. Then an opening appeared and several vehicles went for it, while the bus was waiting to turn left.

The Royal York Hotel serves as the official residence of the Queen and any royal family members visiting Toronto. You can stay in the Queen’s suite for about $2500/night if they aren’t in town. Of course if they come to town you get booted out.

Several of the overpasses included walkways with impressive designs on them.

The cascading pool sits in front of the aquarium.

Downtown Toronto….bikes are everywhere. I found it interesting that these are not rent-a-bikes, but individual transportation parked in bike parking spaces. To our amazement, people ride in the street with all the traffic and trolleys. This street is designed to accommodate cars, trucks, buses, trolleys and bike lanes!

The Hockey Hall of Fame for those of you into that sport.

Many people prefer outdoor seating at restaurants. Of course it has been raining incessantly for months and this beautiful day beckoned everyone outside.

I’m not sure what this interesting building represents….maybe the theater group? It is the back end of The Flatiron building. Check out the fire escape. We saw one in New York too.

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Yonge Street was alive with activity. Not sure what the bananas were for, maybe a political statement.

Many of the old buildings have been repurposed. The old Post Office is now a McDonalds and a couple of other stores.

Liked the architecture! In case you are wondering, the black and gray cap belongs to Jay. I

didn’t realize I got it so many pictures.

The St. Lawrence Market claims to be the #1 food market in the world. Seems we have heard that in other cities too. I had cropped these photos for a better picture, but somehow they didn't show up in my photos for the blog.

The ROM or Royal Ontario Museum/Gardiner Museum is undergoing renovation. The ROM houses over 6 million artifacts. Current exhibits advertise in both languages.

Toronto just looked old and not well kept up. Our guide had to tell us we were in the Rich shopping area, like Rodeo Drive in L.A. We did see this Saks sign, but that was it. The sidewalk in this area was not just concrete, but some kind of fancy tile.

When we went through the Miracle Mile in Chicago, no one had to say it was the expensive stores, you could see it.

The entertainment area also didn’t announce itself. Although Scott said this is where it began. The medical area did announce itself with hospitals and medical building lining the streets.

In the University area we drove by these duplex structures. Originally inhabited by the well-to-do in Toronto, they now house students. Although they look shabby, these sale for $2.1 million!

These homes did look of wealth.

The Bata Shoe Museum holds 13,000 pairs of shoes and covers 4500 years of shoes from around the world. Most of the collection came from Mrs. Bata whose husband was in the shoe business. They traveled all over the world, and she collected. If I had been walking better, I would have liked to stop here. The museum itself is shaped like a shoe box with the lid askew. The entry doors are supposed to represent a stiletto heel. Actual shoes create the window displays around the outside of the building.

Typical housing we passed by.

This apartment building looked inviting with all the flower boxes.

Canadians love their parks. The two middle photos are Queen Elizabeth Park.

Not sure what resides in this building, but the name caught my eye. The Second Cup is a chain coffee house in Toronto. This one anchors the corner of the Jewish Community Center. Toronto neighborhoods provide homes for 130 ethnic groups. It might be interesting to explore some of those

Raptor Mania is alive and well in Toronto. They happened to have the Raptor Championship Parade the Monday we arrived. So we didn’t go to town then. One of the reports said the bus drivers needed a parade for dealing with all the commotion. Raptor logos and signs showed in many places around town. We saw their arena as we left town.

We got off the bus and headed home. It took us two and a half hours to get home. Although Toronto didn’t meet our expectations, we are glad we came and saw it for ourselves.