I’ve been to places that were not very welcoming…sometimes in general, and sometimes just to particular people. The recent surge of nationalism is unfortunately nothing new either. I was happy to move on from two particularly intolerant parts of Europe.
The famous “Lion of Ifrane” in Ifrane, Morocco. And a finger.
There are certainly a few places to which I will never (purposely) return. But any true regrets? I don’t think I have any.
???
Every experience, good or bad, has been revealing. Sometimes about the place we are visiting, but also sometimes about me or my fellow travelers. While seeing extreme intolerance made me sad, it also reinforced the importance of tolerance. And dealing with some lost luggage is really not that catastrophic in the big picture.
Laundromat in Prague, Czech Republic
In fact, some of the unfortunate travel experiences become the most vivid stories and memories. Although it happened more than 20 years ago, we still remember the miserable pelting rain we experienced on arrival in Kirkwall (Orkney Islands). It was almost horizontal due to the high winds, and we were drenched by the time we arrived at our B&B. To this day, we describe such weather conditions as simply “Kirkwall”.
Hospoda U Beníšků (obviously), Mělník, Czech Republic
So, how about these photos? They are all travel photos, but I think it’s safe to describe them as somewhat regrettable. Most are from the pre-digital era, when you didn’t realize a photo was bad until you picked up the prints at the shop. The photo at the very top is from Aberystwyth, Wales, and was apparently taken at the end of the roll.
I’ve been travelling independently for a long time. But it was still a bit of a shock to realize that my first independent trip was 40 years ago!
Surprisingly, this was the Edmonton Youth Hostel
When I was attending Bayridge Secondary School in Kingston (Ontario), my geography teacher enrolled our school in a program called “Open House Canada”. In short: for the princely sum of $10.00, you could go on an exchange with 40 of your schoolmates to another part of Canada. And then, a couple of months later (in early 1984), your new friends would visit Kingston. Having already been to Europe twice with my parents, I thought this would be great.
Wildlife on the side of the Icefields Parkway
Our school was matched with a similarly sized school in Hinton, Alberta. But our communities didn’t seem to have too much in common. Kingston was much larger and older than Hinton: Kingston was Canada’s capital many decades before Hinton even existed. Hinton’s economy was resource-based (I especially remember the smell of the paper mill), while Kingston has long been known as a government town. And Hinton was in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, while Kingston’s geography was…a little less spectacular.
Rescuing a classmate who slipped on the Athabasca Glacier
And yet, despite all the differences, there ended up being quite a bit of common ground. We played lots of volleyball. We seemed to listen to much of the same music: Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” and Van Halen’s “Jump” seemed to be mutual favourites. And I think almost everyone appreciated the opportunity to see a completely different way of life, if only for a week or two.
My first ever visit to British Columbia (October 1983)
About half of the trip was spent living in your billet’s home (and going to school with them each day). My billet’s father was a park ranger, so I got to live in a remote village called “Old Entrance”. It apparently used to be the entrance to Jasper National Park. There were only three or four other houses in the village. Each morning, we had to hike up a very steep and winding gravel road for 15 minutes just to get to the school bus stop (which still had to travel some distance to get to Hinton). This was quite different from my leisurely 10-minute suburban walk to school in Kingston.
My billet, in his backyard
Once we were at school, we did day trips to notable area landmarks. Such local trips included a huge coal mine, a tract of commercially-harvested forest and the Cadomin Caves. Other destinations on the trip included Sunwapta Falls, the Athabasca Glacier, the summit of “The Whistlers” (high above Jasper), Mount Robson (see photo at the top of this post)…and the West Edmonton Mall!
Nearing the summit of “The Whistlers”, high above Jasper
Looking back on it now, it’s hard to believe that there was actually some peer pressure to *not* go on the exchange. While some parts were challenging (I vaguely remember some issue with the Jasper hostel, but the details are now lost in the mists of time), I don’t think anyone regretted their participation. I suspect that, for many of us, it was only the beginning of an appreciation for travel and for discovering places that were different from home.
The path down from the summit of The Whistlers
This reminds me of a famous Mark Twain quote, from his book The Innocents Abroad. It might be a little harsh, but I think there is some underlying truth to it:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
Jasper as seen from The Whistlers
I hope you enjoy some of these ancient photographs…all were taken by me using a very rectangular (and very non-digital) Vivitar camera. These are the original prints!
The 2022 World Cup ended last week, with Argentina winning the final over France. While I have mixed feelings about the tournament, the final match was highly entertaining.
The Arc de Triomphe, overlooking l’avenue des Champs-Élysées, after France won the 2018 World Cup
Argentina is a huge country, so our brief visit barely scratched the surface. And we were there in the middle of the Argentinian winter, which meant snow around Bariloche and lots of cool temperatures and fog in Buenos Aires. We did not get the feeling that this was high season for tourism. But we nearly didn’t get there at all!
A winter rose in front of the customs office in Puerto Frias, Argentina
We were travelling with a small group, and approached the Argentinian border on a complicated bus & boat route through the Chilean Andes. Alas, due to a missing bar code for my wife’s visa, we were left behind at a remote hotel while the rest of the group crossed the border without incident. We didn’t get clearance to proceed until the next day, and even that was a near-miracle.
View of Puerto Blest, Chile, from across the lake
Anyway, despite all that, we really enjoyed the lakes and mountains around the Argentina-Chile border. And with the benefit of six intervening years (not to mention a worldwide pandemic), even the border hassle doesn’t seem that bad now.
San Telmo by night, just outside the tango venue
We spent most of our Argentina time in the capital, Buenos Aires. My lasting impression is how European it looked: the buildings looked very Parisian, and there was an Italian vibe everywhere. I guess this shouldn’t be surprising: many Argentinians (including current soccer hero Lionel Messi) have Italian ancestry.
View from “our” box at the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
We stayed in Buenos Aires for a few extra days after our group dispersed. We also covered a lot of terrain on foot, and enjoyed a number of unexpected surprises. For example, we really enjoyed a billiards cafe, which is not something we would seek out (or find) here in Canada. We found an outstanding bookstore that used to be an opulent theatre. And we found a great local restaurant that did *not* specialize in obscene amounts of grilled meat.
Locro at La Cumana (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Despite our jam-packed itinerary, there are still a few things that we weren’t able to do. We didn’t make it to a soccer game, as it was out of season. This was unfortunate, as going to soccer games is often a part of our international travels. I still haven’t been to one in Latin America.
The German Shepherd “sat” on the bench with his owner for at least 15 minutes (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
And we didn’t make it to Uruguay. We had hoped to make a day trip to Colonia del Sacramento, a historic Uruguayan city that was only about an hour away by boat. But our potential travel day was very rainy and cold, and we thought it might be better to focus on urban (and indoor) things that day.
Inside Los 36 Billares, a billiards cafe in Buenos Aires
But that’s one of the cardinal rules of travel: don’t try to do everything in one trip. Assume you will return one day, and you’ll already have a head start on that future itinerary.
1st floor of El Ateneo bookshop on Avenida Santa Fe, Buenos Aires
Speaking of future itineraries…I have been thinking about this a lot lately. It’s complicated, there are many competing considerations. But what would I do if I suddenly had an open calendar and no restrictions? Stay tuned for lots of interesting content as we move into 2023!
Six months ago, I published a post about the surprising results of my ancestral DNA test. You can find it by clicking here. At that time, I expressed surprise about my significant Swedish/Danish ancestry and the lesser but still unexpected Norwegian ancestry. Although those two regions only accounted for 8% of me, it was much more Scandinavia than I was expecting. But the remaining 92% was also a surprise. I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be far more “Northwestern Europe/England” than “Germanic Europe”.
View from the Christiansborg (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Well, DNA knowledge and technology changes quickly. A mere month after posting those results, I learned that there had been substantial changes. My DNA hadn’t changed, but there had been refinements in assigning regional ancestry in several parts of Europe. As a result, I learned that my original results were no longer accurate. Just when I was getting used to my distant past, I had to deal with another new reality!
Tivoli Gardens (Copenhagen, Denmark)
So while I likely still have some Norwegian DNA kicking around, it is now too small to be significant. However, my Swedish/Danish ancestry has remained at the same level. To acknowledge that, I have illustrated this post with images from my 2016 trip to Denmark. I felt at home there too…so maybe those are my true Scandinavian roots?
You can’t have too many pictures of Nyhavn in Copenhagen!
As for the even larger (now around 94%) remainder of my ancestry, the majority of it is now in fact Germanic Europe. A slightly smaller, but still significant, portion is traceable to “Northwest Europe and England”.
The Wish Tree Garden on Papirøen, Copenhagen (my collaboration with Yoko Ono)
As some other friends and family members have tried this testing too, I have also learned just how random this DNA business can be. Even siblings can have significantly different outcomes. You almost certainly won’t get the same 50% from each parent that your brother or sister did. And of course 50% is lost with each generation.
The Fish Kiss Spa in downtown Copenhagen
What now? I will certainly be checking in from time to time, to see if my results have been refined further. I now know there are some other regions in my family’s past, and I’m curious to see if they will appear for me too.
I certainly hadn’t planned to visit Vancouver in late October. However, that is precisely where we found ourselves for an extended, and exhausting, 8-day visit.
Our AirBnB, just off Main Street
Around the time that I wrote my previous blog post, my wife and I entered the Provincial Indoor Singles lawn bowling playdowns. To our mutual surprise and delight, we both ended up qualifying to represent Ontario at the National Indoor Singles championship. It was being held at the Pacific Indoor Bowls Club in Vancouver, B.C., so that’s where we found ourselves just 4 weeks later!
Entrance to the Pacific Indoor Bowls Club (Vancouver, B.C.)
The Pacific IBC is located in the Little Mountain neighbourhood. There weren’t any hotels around, so we decided to take a leap of faith and book an AirBnB for the very first time. We found a choice property that was only a 15-minute walk from the club, which took a lot of stress out of getting to/from the competition every day. And we had an entire floor to ourselves, so we had plenty of space to recover from the long days of competition. For a longer stay like this one, it was much better than being cooped up in a hotel room.
Nat Bailey Stadium – home of baseball’s Vancouver Canadians, and right beside the Pacific Indoor Bowls Club
The club was located in a nice recreational cluster. There was a baseball stadium next door, as well as a huge swimming/skating complex. This being the mildest part of Canada, soccer was still being played outdoors too (despite all the rain). My favourite part, however, was the stretch of Main Street near our accommodations.
Sawasdee Thai Restaurant – on Main Street, just around the corner from our accommodations
The Sawasdee Thai Restaurant had superb Tom Kha Gai soup, and was just one of a collection of appealing restaurants within two minutes of “our” place. Other good dining experiences included some very rich Indian cuisine and a restaurant featuring various “Silk Road” cuisines (from Persian to Tibetan). As regular readers of this blog will know, I automatically increase a neighbourhood’s rating when it has a strong independent record store. In this case, that store was Red Cat Records (see photo at the very top of this post).
Kingston Lawn Bowling Club had two competitors at the Nationals!
The competition itself was pretty intense, as it should be at a national event. There are many reasons for this but, in a nutshell, the indoor game is much more challenging for those of us who usually play outdoors. However, our play (and results) improved through the week. We were both quite happy with how we played over the last couple of days, and we hope to compete at this level again soon!
In action for Ontario (vs. Saskatchewan) on the tricky Rink 1 in the men’s competition
As we might start practicing as early as 7:30 a.m. each day, and games continued past 6:00 p.m., we didn’t have much left in the tank at the end of the day. The circumstances forced us to eat, shop, and entertain ourselves in Little Mountain. But this had its upside: we developed some familiarity with our favourite stores, and began to feel at home in our little corner of Vancouver.
Overhead view of Rink 1 – first end of an Ontario-B.C. matchup in the women’s competition
Bottom line: with appropriate research, an AirBnB can be a superb replacement for poorly sited hotels…especially in a city with high prices and with the price of hotels spiraling ever upward. Just like I thought I’d never go on a group tour, I thought I’d never use this kind of accommodation. But it definitely has its place, and I wouldn’t hesitate to go this route again.
In my last post, I promised that I would explain some of the posting delays on the blog lately. With the easing of the pandemic (or at least the associated restrictions), it would have been reasonable to expect some international travel this summer. After all, this is a travel blog, and international travel has only recently become somewhat accessible again. However, life sometimes takes some unexpected turns. While I still took some vacation days this summer, their purpose was altogether different. Here’s what happened…
Lining up for the bowl and shoe inspection at the National championships in Burlington
During the pandemic, I trained extensively in the sport of lawn bowling. I started lawn bowling in 2017 as a way to bridge the gap between curling seasons. As it turned out, lawn bowling seemed to suit me better than curling. And, as an outdoor and well-spaced activity, it wasn’t hampered by the pandemic as much as my other sports. In late 2019, I was lucky to find some people who were on the same wavelength, so I decided to get much more serious about the game and try to get to the next level.
Opening Ceremonies: the umpires are at the front, with the various provincial teams behind.
My wife devoted countless hours, with a clipboard and tape-measure, to tracking my progress. My coach Blaine provided long-distance advice and support. My pairs partner Bill was equally committed and was always available to discuss strategy, exchange ideas, and try to speed up the learning curve. I threw thousands upon thousands of bowls. I did the analytics and watched the tapes. I was active every single day, in some form, regardless of the weather. Finally, in 2022, I had a real opportunity to put all of the preparation to good use.
Discussing strategy in our game against British Columbia “A”
It happened fast…if you can call 10 matches over 3 days fast! Despite a massive Men’s Pairs Ontario Championship in Agincourt with 31 very strong teams, and with only two Ontario teams qualifying for the subsequent National Championship, Bill and I somehow managed to make it. Sure, we had put in the preparation time. But so did a lot of other teams. It was still a huge surprise that we qualified.
Delivering a bowl against Nova Scotia
Looking back to that event, I remember thinking that it was like being a kid again…when there was always the potential of something special happening. Except now I could fully appreciate the enormity of it.
Instructing Bill against Alberta “A”
If you know anything about my competitive nature, you can imagine that this really took up a lot of my spare time in 2022. And before I knew it, we were wearing our sparkly new Team Ontario shirts and delivering practice bowls at the Nationals in Burlington, Ontario.
Team Ontario (players, coaches, and support).
There were ups and downs at the Nationals. We beat some great teams, and really struggled against others. We didn’t make it to the medal round. But as soon as it was over, we were already talking about trying to qualify again.
Trial bowls against Alberta “A”
I have mostly kept lawn bowling out of this blog. It’s certainly a misunderstood sport. And despite over 100 clubs in Ontario alone, it is still seen as a niche or fringe sport. But now I see that it really is a journey…with a lot of the characteristics that I enjoy about travel. The planning (both strategic and logistical) is something I love to do for regular travel too. My desire for special experiences, rather than just passively observing things, is something I also endorse in regular travel. Pushing myself out of my comfort zone, against very strong competition, is in some ways just like travelling to a country very different from my own…and just as rewarding when it works out. (We did put thousands of kilometers on our car this summer, so there was quite a bit of “traditional” travel too.)
Panorama view of the Burlington Lawn Bowling Club
As in any great trip, there were bumps along the way. I just couldn’t figure out Rink 16 in Burlington. In another game, a badly-timed weather delay probably turned a win into a loss. But sometimes, the objectively disastrous parts of a trip are the most memorable and provide the most opportunities for growth. The learning curve continues, full speed ahead.
(Right:) Calling a shot against British Columbia “A”
So that’s where I’m at. Whatever happens next on this journey, I’m going to continue to push myself and seek out new experiences…whether it is in the context of travel or sports.
We weren’t looking for a vegan restaurant, but that just happened to be the most interesting option in Hochelaga as Saturday morning gave way to afternoon. Not just vegan burgers, but also vegan bacon!
Lunch at Antidote Bouffe Végane, on Rue Ontario in Hochelaga (Montreal)
Of course, what trip to Montreal would be complete without a visit to the record shops in the Plateau neighbourhood? I do most of my record shopping locally in Kingston, but it’s always interesting to pop into a Montreal shop and see what’s available. And it seemed like the right thing to do, because we were going to a concert that night!
This historic church is on rue Ste-Catherine in the heart of downtown Montreal..it is also a concert venue called Le Balcon!
For our first concert since the pandemic, we attended a “Soul/Motown/Disco” event at Le Balcon. This is a unique concert venue in downtown Montreal…in a church! The female vocalist, Kim Richardson, was outstanding. I must admit that it felt a little strange being in an enclosed space for a concert again, but the Province of Quebec has been quite cautious about re-opening and most people seemed to be on their best behaviour. And the show must have been pretty good – I’ve been listening to a lot of Earth, Wind & Fire since then! The photo at the top of this blog post was taken outside the venue on rue Ste-Catherine, right after the concert ended.
Some of Montreal’s subway stations haven’t been renovated since the 1970s…
On Sunday morning, we continued one of our favourite Montreal pastimes: hopping on the bus or subway and exploring a more-or-less random neighbourhood. Unlike Toronto, Montreal still has a special transit pass that is valid from Friday evening (when we arrived) until early Monday morning. Because every trip after about the 4th is free, you don’t need to worry about making mistakes. Another train or bus will come along in a few minutes!
La Luncheonette (Saint-Henri)
We eventually found ourselves in the “transitioning” neighbourhood of Saint-Henri. We had a peaceful al fresco lunch at the appropriately-named La Luncheonette. I wasn’t necessarily trying to go meat-free this weekend, but the vegetarian chili with corn muffins looked delicious (and indeed it was). I don’t remember what exactly was in my smoothie, but it hit the spot too.
Vegetarian Chili with corn muffins at La Luncheonette
We had “timed-entry” tickets to a special museum later that afternoon, so we had a little bit of free time available. We decided to visit the Marché Atwater, which had a ton of fresh produce (see photo below) but also had a lot of highly specialized shops for cheese, vinegars, olives, etc. We couldn’t really take much with us, but once again it was nice to be in a “bustling” environment after a couple of largely bustle-free years.
Our last stop of the day was at the Musée des Ondes Emile Berliner in Saint-Henri. OK, the name may not mean much to you. But Emile Berliner built a massive gramophone factory here that was later absorbed into the RCA Victor organization. And on this very site, there is now a specialized museum dedicated to gramophones, phonographs, and other entertainment and communication technologies of the 20th century.
Of course, for a vinyl geek like me, this is really fascinating stuff. If you think vinyl turntables are bulky and fussy, look at these beasts! I enjoyed listening to some original shellac records – you really feel like you are listening to ghosts of the past.
But some of the technology goes further back than those brittle shellac discs. How about cylinders? Check out the Edison cylinder player below. A music cylinder is kind of like a flat vinyl record wrapped around a tube, and the stylus (needle) slowly makes its way around and across the cylinder. This technology goes back to 1896!
There were also some displays about radio and television, so I can recommend this to my former colleagues at CFRC-FM. It’s a very small, out-of-the-way place (there were only two other visitors while we were there), but it’s really cool if you have interests in both history and recorded music.
You may be wondering why it took more than 4 months to post this blog entry. Well, there have been some distractions this summer. And my next blog post will explain (almost) everything!
On April 30, we took our first real “vacation” together in more than 2 years. Yes, we had taken longer trips in 2021 for sports competitions, but this was travel purely for the sake of travel. And we even left the province of Ontario!
Restaurant Manana on rue St. Denis in Montreal
Masks were still required on the train, as they were in most indoor settings. We also had to provide proof of vaccination before boarding. But, even with our masks on, we found ourselves appreciating the change of scenery more than we expected. After so long in isolation, everything different seemed to have an additional “wow” factor. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to take the Metro in Montreal!
My main course at Restaurant Manana – pollo garnachero
I found a nifty little Mexican restaurant near our hostelry, and we were blown away by the colours even before we sat down. And the service at Restaurant Manana was just as vibrant as the surroundings. I also really appreciated the range of unusual hot sauces I could try with my meal.
Dessert at Restaurant Manana (already in progress)
Once again, we bought a weekend transit pass so that we could zoom around the city without any worries. The next morning, our first stop was the Botanical Gardens in the east end of Montreal. We haven’t spent any significant time in the east end before, but looked forward to some urban green space and what we presumed would be interesting non-touristic neighbourhoods.
We met this (wild) owl at the Montreal Botanical Gardens
The Botanical Gardens were huge. Maybe it wasn’t quite the same as New York City’s Central Park, but it was really interesting to see all of the different botanical regions in one very walkable place. Our favourite was probably the Alpine zone. At the edge was a very impressive (and very chilled-out) owl, who kindly let me and many other amateur photographers snap his picture.
More from the Montreal Botanical Gardens
My wife has pledged to return to the gardens at different times of the year, in order to fully appreciate all it has to offer. It is conveniently located right beside Montreal’s infamous Olympic Stadium (see photo at the very top of this post), which is legendary in Canada for its phenomenal cost overruns. It wasn’t paid off until 30 years after the Olympics ended, as it was over budget by nearly 2000%! Yes, 2000%!
Skateboarding beside Montreal’s Olympic Stadium
I attended my first ever professional baseball game here about 40 years ago, when Montreal still had a major league team (the Expos). I will never forget watching the game in that cavernous concrete beast of a building! Stories about pieces of the concrete roof falling onto the field were not completely fictitious. While the stadium is finally paid off now, most of the action these days is in the skateboard park beside the stadium.
“Boutique Hellvis”: one of many interesting things in Montreal’s Hochelaga district
From the Olympic Stadium, it was only a short walk to the Marché Maisonneuve and then the Hochelaga neighbourhood. Hochelaga definitely wasn’t touristy, and it was a little scruffy in places, but it had a lot of unique attractions for its residents. “Boutique Hellvis” certainly wasn’t the only one. Somehow, Montreal seems to have avoided the corporate creep that has anonymized so many North American cities. So many businesses were independently owned, and they really emphasized their local products. We ended up having lunch in a Hochelaga vegan restaurant…stay tuned for the details on that and our interesting evening out!
Today’s post is a little different, but still very much in the spirit of travel.
Although I had been thinking about it for a while, I finally got around to requesting an “Ancestry DNA” test this spring. And the results have now arrived.
Getting caught by the waves at the same beach where my father played as a child (‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands)
On the surface, the expectation was simple. With one Swiss parent and one Dutch parent, one would expect the results to be 50% from each country. But I also heard some other distant echoes from the past.
My ancestors lived in Maassluis, the Netherlands, many centuries ago
Over time, family stories become almost accepted as fact. And one of my family stories was that we had some Spanish ancestry, due to the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands in the 16th century. With respect to the Swiss side of my family, I wondered if there might be some Italian influence, given the fairly close proximity of Italy to my ancestral place of origin. And I also wondered what other interesting connections may have been forgotten in the mists of time.
A church in Lenk (Switzerland) – I wonder what important family events took place here?
I was pretty excited when the results finally arrived. When I clicked on the link, I discovered something very interesting. Switzerland and the Netherlands each belong to the same two broader groups: “Germanic Europe” and “England and Northwestern Europe”. And I had almost complete (92%) ancestry in those two regions.
Lots of choices, high above Lenk and Adelboden (Switzerland)
I found the “England and Northwestern Europe” region interesting. Consisting mostly of England, Belgium, the southern Netherlands, Northeast France and Switzerland, I had never really considered that DNA from England would be connected to both of my countries of origin. This region even contributed more to me than the anticipated “Germanic Europe” region.
Mårten Trotzigs gränd – the narrowest street in Sweden (Stockholm)
And what about the other 8%? The stories and guesses were, in a word, wrong. No Italy. No Spain. As it turns out, most of my other ancestry was from Sweden/Denmark, with a smaller part from Norway. I had always been looking south, but it appears that I should have been looking north.
Terminus of the railway to Flam (Norway)
I know that these tests are not 100% accurate, and of course some ancestry is lost with each passing generation. But way back in 2012, I felt very comfortable in Stockholm (see photo at the very top of this post). I thought it was a place in which I could live. It makes you wonder why I had that feeling.
It’s been 30 years since I lived in Toronto, so it is not surprising that much has changed. My old neighbourhood (Avenue Road, near Dupont Street) has become far more expensive and “intensified”, but those changes had been creeping north from Yorkville for many years.
View from my hotel room on Queen’s Quay in downtown Toronto (March 6, 2022)
I was more surprised by the extent of the redevelopment of the waterfront area. When I lived in Toronto, the lands south of Union Station did not really attract much attention (or many people). Now, however, it seems like entirely new neighbourhoods have sprung up and there is a sense of community that I never noticed before. I wouldn’t normally stay in that area but, thanks to an online deal, my hotel was cheaper than even the traditional “budget” hotels near the train station. And it had a meal credit tossed in as well.
The Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome), home of the Toronto Blue Jays
Maybe it was the bright sunshine, but everything seemed to be shiny and new. i doubt that many of the skyscrapers shown in the “cover photo” at the top of this post existed in the early 1990s. With so many people enjoying the weather and being on the waterfront, the energy I found on Kensington Market (see my previous post here) was also apparent in what used to be a nondescript part of the city. And on the first weekend of March, to boot!
Toronto Harbour
All of this made me decide to take advantage of some accumulated loyalty program points and make plans for another big city getaway. Having had a proper glimpse of downtown Toronto for the first time in a couple of years, it was time to visit Montreal!
My Toronto hotel, as seen from the harbour
We went to Montreal at the end of April (8 weeks after Toronto, but just before this post was published – it’s complicated). I’ll have a full report soon!
