Toronto to Niagara
The iconic CN Tower is hard to miss as it stands 550 metres above the city and the waterfront. We felt we had to add this to our viewing list and ride the highest glass floor panelled lift in the world which took us to the viewing floor at 342 metres in less than a minute! If you don’t get the chance to shuffle around and look down to the ground whilst you’re riding up, the LookOut observation deck has its own glass panelled floor section too. The world’s highest hands free external walk on a building is CN Tower’s EdgeWalk and the first of its kind in North America. If you’re brave enough you can walk the whole way around the Tower’s main pod on a 1.5 m (5 ft) wide ledge without any handrails. It looks very much like lots of orange puppets dangling from their harnesses above when they lean out over the edge, but there weren’t any daring people up there the day we went as it was deemed to be a bit too windy. For an extra $12 you can go up even higher to the smaller SkyPod sitting at 447 metres tall, but as we had an amazing view anyway we didn’t see any benefit. We did venture out onto the Sky Terrace, but as its covered in mesh the views aren't so good and I can definitely vouch for the wind! The CN Tower was the tallest free-standing structure in the world for 34 years, so if you’re in Toronto it’s worth a visit . Even since it lost the crown to the like of the Burj El Arab it still enjoys around 1.5million visitors a year so you might want to book the revolving restaurant in advance.
The Hop On Hop Off takes in all the popular venues as you would expect with 20 stops on just the one circuit. The whole route takes you out as far as Casa Loma which is a gothic style castle and down past the Royal Ontario building and the Scotia Bank Theatre down to the waterfront. These buildings don’t sound very interesting, but one looks like it has a Rubix Cube through the roof and the other is built of steel and glass pyramids which look like they’re growing out of the original brick building. The one we didn’t see was the huge dalmatian spotted box on coloured stilts sitting above the OCAD University as we were downstairs at that point. We also stopped off to have a look at the murals in Chinatown.
The area we enjoyed the most was the Old Town. This includes the Distillery District and the St Lawrence Market. The market has been there for over 200 years and is where to find the original ‘Peameal Bacon on a Bun’ signature dish. There are around 120 stalls and it was named the best food market in the world by National Geographic in 2012, but it’s closed on a Sunday and Monday. So, if you get caught out and visit on those days, pop down the road to The Distillery District which is an architectural treasure and a top destination for arts, culture, food, craft beer, entertainment and is the home of the Toronto Christmas Market. They still have two working distilleries - one making sake . What began as the Gooderham and Worts Distillery is now a National Historic Site of Canada and full of independent stores and eateries and definitely worth a wander. In the same area we found the original Gooderham Building, also known as the Flatiron Building due to its triangular footprint. The front is much photographed against the backdrop of the shiny skyscrapers behind and for the equally photographed full size tromp l’oeil mural by Derek Besant on the back which sits next to the Berczy Park dog fountain. The fountain features 27 cast iron dogs, one scared-looking cat, a lone bone, and it's fittingly located in the park area frequented by dog walkers, tourists taking selfies and office workers on their lunch breaks.
If the weather’s good, you can also take advantage of the Scenic Harbour & Islands tour from the waterfront which comes as part of the bus tour ticket. This also gives you great views of the city and the CN Tower from the water but If the weather’s bad, it’s time to shop! The Eaton Centre is right in the heart of the city and the main entrance doesn’t look anything special, but it hides 230 stores spread over 3 levels and makes it one of the largest malls in Canada. Our hotel had a discreet PATH sign close to the car park and this takes you into a labyrinth of a mostly underground pedestrian walking network. This covers 30kms of the city and connects more than 70 buildings and as PATH is the largest underground shopping complex in the world it explains why the city doesn’t have much of a shopping presence in the streets above. For a system that’s been in operation for so long and allows you access to over 1200 shops, it’s not very well signposted. More than 200,000 people work in the area connected by the PATH each day, there are six hotels and five subway stations directly connected to it, so expect to get lost – as we did several times!
Last, but definitely not least, we took a tour to Niagara Falls for the day. It takes roughly an hour and a half to get there and we were dropped off close to the falls to start taking photos before making our way to the funicular railway which takes you down to the boats. As we are on the Canadian side of the falls, our boats are operated by Hornblower. You’re provided with a poncho because whether you’re inside or out, you’re guaranteed to get wet! So, make sure you have something waterproof for your electronics. One thing I wasn’t prepared for was the wind that the falls create. This is a must do exhilarating experience if you’re in the area and worth every penny. We had lunch downtown which is like a mini Las Vegas before being collected for the second part of the tour. Niagara on the Lake is a beautiful town with quaint houses, lovely shops and restaurants and is a complete contrast to where we’d come from. You can take a leisurely pony and trap ride to admire the beautiful gardens and planters which were everywhere you looked. Our last stop was at a vineyard not far from here owned by Dan Aykroyd to sample some ice wine . If you’re a wine drinker this is an interesting visit to find out how they make it and taste several varieties. Because it’s so difficult to make, icewine tends to be fairly rare and expensive in the UK, so this is your opportunity to try before you buy.