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Published: September 16th 2007
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Maid of the Mist
Note the rainbow! Ontario - 31 August to 13 Sepember 2007
After a relaxing three weeks in Winnipeg, we set off to do some travelling around the province of Ontario, starting with the nation's capital, Ottawa.
Ottawa is snuggled up against the provincial border with Quebec and is home to Canada's parliament and most of the federal bureacracy. As a result, the city is very bi-lingual and it was common to hear French being spoken in the street and many people switched effortlessly between the two languages. Some people were so bi-lingual that they had trouble speaking English!
On recommendation, we stayed in a hostel which was Ottawa's old city gaol. It was certainly an interesting place to stay, as the rooms were old prison cells and the doors and windows still had bars. Unfortunately, the beds were rather old and creaky and any slight movement during the night was likely to cause enough noise to wake yourself up! We combatted this by doing as much as possible during the day so that we were totally exhausted each night!
The first outing took us to Parliament Hill which is much larger than we expected. The centre block, which includes the
Parliament in Ottawa
Compare this to Canberra! House of Commons, the Senate and the Library is perched on a hill overlooking the river and Gatineau, Quebec on the other bank. The whole thing is very picturesque and we wandered aimlessly around for a while, enjoying the sunny weather and the pleasant scenery. After a tour of the interior and some lunch on the grounds we wnt through a walk of the downtown area, moving slowly out of the financial district past bars, shops and even though a small residential area. Later that night, we splurged on a pub dinner and watched a sound and light show which was projected onto Parliament's facade.
On another day, we walked to Quebec. This took us past the historic Rideau Canal locks where pleasure craft can climb the hill up into town. In Quebec we went to the massive museum of civilisation which was much too large for the time we had allowed ourselves. Exhibits resembled entire suburbs and it seemed at one point that there was no way out at all! We really enjoyed an exhibition about famous and infamous Canadians.
Other sights we saw in Ottawa were the Byward Markets, the Art Gallery, the intricately decorated Notre
Dame Basilica and, unexpectantly, a hot air balloon festival. We were out walking around when several hot air balloons emerged from beyond the buildings in the distance. Several balloons became several more balloons and before long, the sky was filled with all kinds of colours and shapes, including cakes, rockets, bears. Although, according to the paper the next day, we missed Jesus sitting on his cloud.
The next stop on our tour of Ontario was Matthew's hometown of Bracebridge. Until this trip, Matthew had spent a grand total of three weeks in Bracebridge, nearly 24 years ago (i.e. birth til 3wks!). John, who hosted Matthew and his parents back in 1983, picked us up from the bus stop and took us for a drive along the river and to his Mother's lake house where we had dinner.
The next day we visited Bill and Jan, whose house was where Matthew's parents spent most of their time while in Canada. We then went on a tour of downtown Bracebridge which was much emptier following the Labour Day holiday. John took us to see the town falls, the old mill, the school where Matthew's Dad taught and the hospital where
Matthew was born. If it seemed like a massive Matthew ego trip... it was!
Later that day, however, we embarked on some non-Matthew related activities as we visited Ian, another friend of Matthew's parents, in Port Carling and went out on his beautiful 1960's era wooden boat around the lake. Ian took us on a tour of the beautiful and historic summer cottages as well as some of the monstrous mansions and hotels under construction. Ian has a fantastic memory and was able to tell us that this Ice Hockey player owns this one and this media mogul owns that one and so on.
The next day, John took us to some of the sights outside of Bracebridge. In the morning we went to the Muskoka wildlife sanctuary where animals who cannot be released back into the wild live out their lives. We found a black bear and a cougar living happily together. Appartently, the bear, who pretty much thinks he's a human and wants to 'play' with us all the time, was pretty lonely, so they pared him with a cougar and they get along just fine! We watched them being fed up close. Other cool animals
CN tower
Chela was showing Matthew how she really felt being that far up! at the sanctuary include: wolverines, badgers, a lynx, a bobcat, moose, hedgehogs, groundhogs and a shy skunk (descented of course).
After that we went on to Gravenhurst where we took a quick tour of a boat museum before Chela and Matthew were treated to a cruise on the steamship Segwun, the oldest operating steamship in Canada. The Segwun took us out on to Lake Muskoka much like it would have taken wealthy Americans to their summer cottages in the early 20th century. The sun was shining and we had a great time!
Next on to Hamilton, just west of Toronto, where we stayed with Jean and Denis, family friends of Chela. Jean is a photographer and on Friday night, we got to see 'Over There', a local exhibition she had of photos of the Vimy memorial in France, dedicated to Canadian WWI soldiers.
Jean and Denis took us on a scenic tour to Niagara Falls, which included the Welland Canal that has industrial locks, Niagara-On-The-Lake, an old town with a great main street and heaps of great houses, and a lovely lunch at a local winery. When we got to the falls themselves, we had such a
Toronto Island
With the CN tower in the background. great time, seeing them from the top, from behind and from right up close abord the the Maid of the Mist. It was a great day for it, and rainbows were everywhere in the mist created by the falls. We happened to just catch the last Maid of the Mist boat, and the colours were great in the setting sun.
In Hamilton, we also saw an exhibition of Zimbabwean sculpture at the Botanical Gardens, which included many items all through the gardens that were really fun to see. This might be coming to Sydney next year, so I'd look out for it! We finished that day off with marinated elk skewers for dinner that Jean made, which were really nice and a bit local!
Finally, we hit Toronto, visiting Marlies, another family friend of Chela's. The Toronto International Film Festival was in town, and although Chela kept her eyes peeled, she didn't spot Brad Pitt anywhere. Oh well, maybe next time. We did see somebody writing autographs, although he was nobody we recognised. In Toronto, we had a few whirlwind days, with Marlies guiding us around the city. Toronto is so much like Sydney, just bigger, and Chela
Rideau Canal in Ottawa
Looking at Quebec in the distance. enjoyed comparing places. The highlight was a walk around Toronto Island, which is a 10 minute ferry ride from downtown, and yet is like a country village, with only bicycle paths and lots of community life, including boating of course. We went up the CN tower, which wass still the tallest structure in the world at the time and within a few days, a building in Dubai overtook it.
We also went to the University of Toronto, where Marlies used to work, which has a huge downtown campus. Chela wishes Sydney Uni was so downtown! There was also another Legislature tour to add to the collection, and a trip along Yonge Street, the longest street in the world (about 1900 km long, although Wikipedia disagrees). We also went along Bloor St, the rich street, and Queen St, the alterno street. Toronto is blessed with heaps of public transport choice including trains, buses, a subway and streetcars. We took all of them at least once, with the most enjoyable trip taking us via the street car out to the Beaches area, which Chela thought was a mix between Manly and Collaroy.
By far the highlight of Toronto for Matthew
was going to see the Blue Jays take on the New York Yankees, which we happened to go to on 9/11 (or 11th September for all you normal people!) We got to see a big ceremony with bagpipes and the works, which was a cultural expereince in itself! Pity about the Jays losing 2-9 to the Yankees though!
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Morgan Renew
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An Objective Observation on an Oratory on Ontario
I liked that when you 'moved on' from Matthew related activities, you moved on to Ice hockey, baseball and more relatives! Enjoying all your photos. Looking forward to some South American Stylings !