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| Traveling by rail in Canada has been great! |
After exploring Montreal on foot for three consecutive days, then hiking Mont Tremblant, yesterday was just the kind of slow paced day we needed. Sitting on a train for five hours watching the rolling farmland and small cities between Montreal and Toronto peacefully pass by was a very good thing.
We don't have much experience on VIA Rail Canada (Canadian Passenger Train System), but both of our experiences have been very positive. The stations in Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto have all been clean and very centrally located. The trains have also been clean, as well as comfortable, and on schedule. All of this at very affordable rates. If you're in Canada and looking to get from one place to another take a look at VIA Rail Canada.
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| A final picture from Montreal on the way to the train station |
Once we arrived in Toronto, getting to our hotel (Intercontinental booked through Hotwire) was a short five minute walk from the station. Also, we shouldn't get lost while we are here. Our hotel is located under the 1,815 foot tall CN Tower. All we have to do is look up and walk towards the tallest structure in the skyline of this city of 3 million people (Canada's largest city).
We enjoyed a nice lupper (late lunch, early supper) at an outdoor water front restaurant. Afterwards we enjoyed a casual stroll along the waterfront area on the shores of Lake Ontario, giving our legs a much needed day of rest.
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| It's somewhat difficult to get lost with this as the landmark |
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| Lupper at The Slip |
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| Safety Orange Swimmers-A piece of artwork in Lake Ontario honoring Toronto's immigrant history |
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| Roundhouse Rail Museum |
We topped off our first day in Toronto at the Blue Jays/Rangers game at the Rogers Centre, which is just a couple of blocks from the hotel. This was ballpark number 26 out of 30 and it was memorable for a couple of reasons. Unlike most MLB teams, the Blue Jays don't honor the baseball pass that was given to me years ago. We were sitting outside the stadium waiting patiently for the prices of tickets to go down. As game time approached a nice gentleman handed us a couple of extra tickets that his group wasn't going to use. They were great seats, just eighteen rows up behind first base. The lady sitting beside Beth offered to share her bag of peanuts as soon as we were seated. Her and her companion left the seats after about an inning and a half, never returning so we had practically a whole bag of free peanuts. Incredible Canadian hospitality!
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| Showing off the free tickets while a couple of fans gaze up to the top of the CN Tower |
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| Nice water feature of swimming salmon outside the Rogers Centre |
One other memorable thing from the game, it was Loonie Dog Night. This is the Canadian equivalent to Dollar Hot Dog Night at US ballparks. The best news of all, with the current exchange rate, it was really more like Seventy Five Cent Hot Dog Night for us Americans! Baseball north of the border, with some incredible friendly Blue Jay fans...……..it doesn't get much better!
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| The retractable roof of the Rogers Centre was open, giving us a great view of the CN Tower while watching the Blue Jays/Rangers game. |
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| I really wasn't hungry but I wasn't going to pass up deeply discounted hot dogs! |
Finally, to everyone reading this blog a great big THANK YOU! I have no idea who is reading, but I do get a pageview statistic that indicated that last night the blog had it's 30,000th page view. Also, this is my 500th blog post, which is about 499 more than I ever imagined writing! I'm humbled, amused and befuddled by both of these numbers. I appreciate you sharing the adventure with us.
