America/Canada Adventure Part 7....

Day 8 another early start as we left Montreal behind on our way to Toronto, for a two night stay, via Ottowa.

Our first stop was Parliament Hill, Ottowa.

Parliament Hill colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in Downtown Ottawa. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural elements of national symbolic importance round the square.

Originally the site of a military base in the 18th and early 19th centuries, development of the area into a governmental precinct began in 1859, after Queen Victoria chose Bytown as the capital of the Province of Canada.

Following a number of extensions to the parliament and departmental buildings and a fire in 1916 that destroyed the Centre Block, Parliament Hill took on its present form with the completion of the Peace Tower in 1927. Since 2002, an extensive $1 billion renovation and rehabilitation project has been underway throughout all of the precinct's buildings; work is not expected to be complete until after 2020.

After a whistle stop tour of Parliament Hill we were back on the coach heading for our destination for lunch - ByWard Market a district in Lower Town, Ottowa, located east of the government and business district, surrounding the market buildings and open-air market on George, York, ByWard and William Streets.

The market itself is Canada's oldest continuously operating farmers' market, the market building is open year-round, and open-air stalls are operated in the warmer months offering fresh produce and flowers.

We didn't have a long stop over so we found a nice pub to have some lunch, the Aulde Dubliner,

and very nice it was too.

We were back on the road again, with a short comfort stop, arriving in Toronto late evening. We checked into our hotel - here's the view from our bedroom,

unpacked the necessaries and went out to a local restaurant before retiring for the night.

A good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast ensured we were read for our tour of the city.

The history of Toronto began in the late 18th century when the British Crown purchased its land, the settlement established became York, which lieutenant governor John Graves Simcoe designated as the capital of Upper Canada. The city was ransacked in the Battle of York during the War of 1812. In 1834, York became a city and renamed to Toronto.  Setting off on our tour of the city  we found the different styles of architecture interesting.

Our first stop was Queens Park  an urban park in downtown Toronto. Opened in 1860 by Edward, Prince of Wales, it was named in honour of Queen Victoria.

 The park is the site of the Ontario Legislative Building.

The building and the provincial government are both often referred to by the metonym "Queen's Park"

Designed by Richard A. Waite, the Ontario Legislative Building is an asymmetrical, five storey structure built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, with a load-bearing iron frame.  MWM asked this rather tall policewoman if she minded us taking a photo, she kindly said yes.

We were driven round the affluent part of Toronto, Forest Hill, with it's beautiful properties,

passed Casa Loma - (Spanish for Hill House)  a Gothic Revival style house and gardens in midtown Toronto, that is now a museum and landmark. It was originally a residence for financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt.

Through Chinatown, where we saw the piece of art 'cat on yellow pole',

 the oldest pub in Toronto, The Black Bull,

a car embedded in a wall.

We travelled down Yonge Street, (pronounced "young street")  Until 1999, the Guinness Book of Records repeated the popular misconception that it was 1,896 km (1,178 mi) long, and thus the longest street in the world; this was due to a mistaken conflation of Yonge Street with the rest of Ontario's Highway 11. Yonge Street is in actuality 56 kilometers long.  Yonge Street has many different styles of artchitecture,

The unique Brookfield Place an office complex comprising the 2.1 ha (5.2-acre) block bounded by Yonge Street, Wellington Street West, Bay Street, and Front Street. The complex contains office space and consists of two towers, Bay Wellington Tower and TD Canada Trust Tower, linked by the six-storey Allen Lambert Galleria. Brookfield Place is also the home of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

inside Brookfield Place

outside Brookfield Place

We were back on the coach passing the Steam Whistle Brewing Company

on route to the CN Tower

a 553.33 m-high (1,815.4 ft) concrete communications and observation tower.

The views from the main viewing level were magnificent

I even went on the glass floor

 but then we went up further, to the pod, the highest observation point on the tower!

Did I tell you I don't like heights??

City tour over, those of us who wanted were taken back to our hotel, others stayed and continued sightseeing.   We went back, grabbed a sandwich and a coffee from a nearby Subway and ate in our room, because we were meeting someone special at 2.30p.m.  My old school friend Kaye, who I met when we started senior school together over 50 years ago has lived in Toronto for 30+ years, was coming to pick us up at the hotel to take us out of the city.  We last saw her approximately three years ago when she was on a visit to England and she was thrilled to be able to meet up with us in her home city.   

Kaye collected us in her car and took us to the beautiful Rosetta McLain Gardens.

 It was full of black squirrels!

We walked round enjoying the late flowers before getting in the car again so Kaye could take us to Scarborough Bluffs,

(also known as The Bluffs) are an escarpment in the Scarborough district of Toronto. The Bluffs have been described as a "geological wonder" and a unique feature in North America.

The Bluffs were named after Scarborough, England by Elizabeth Simcoe, the wife of John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. The bluffs along Scarborough's Lake Ontario shores reminded her of the limestone cliffs in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. In her diary, she wrote, "The [eastern] shore is extremely bold, and has the appearance of chalk cliffs, but I believe they are only white sand. They appeared so well that we talked of building a summer residence there and calling it Scarborough."

After a lovely afternoon of relaxing in the sunshine and catching up with our lives,  Kaye took us back to her house in Scarborough to show us where she lives and made us a welcome cup of tea.   After tea she took us to a nearby pub, The Black Dog, where we had their speciality dish Guinnes Steak and Kidney pie before she took us back to our hotel.  

After a whirlwind tour of the city in the morning it was wonderful to catch up with a dear friend and see the countryside and suburbs of Toronto.   A perfect end to our two days in Toronto.

Please join me in Part 8 when we leave Toronto for the journey to Niagara.

America/Canada Adventure Part 6....

Day 7  already and a very early start for a day visit to

which took approximately two and a half hours, not including comfort stops along the way.

The heart of French Canada, Quebec City is the only walled city in Canada, it stands proud on the St Lawrence River and is an enticing blend of winding cobbled streets, ancient churches, Norman-style houses, stone buildings, public squares and the horsedrawn calaches..

We were enchanted with the different architectural designs of the houses

and this fun sculpture, which the people seem to be mimicking.

French explorer Samuel de Champlain chose the name Quebec in 1608 for the colonial outpost he would use as the administrative seat for the French colony of new France.  Our tour took us past this beautiful fountain forming a roundabout

 and the military museum (Musee les Voltigeurs de Quebec Manege Militaire)

on our way to Cape Diamond, the highest point in Quebec, to the Plains of Abraham, a historic area within The Battlefields Park.

The land is the site of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which took place on 13 September 1759,  part of the French and Indian War.. On that date, British soldiers under the command of General Wolfe, climbed the steep cliff under the city in darkness, surprising and defeating the French, through a single deadly volley of musket fire, causing the battle to be over within 30 minutes. Both Wolfe and the French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, died of their wounds, but the battle left control of Quebec City to the British, eventually allowing them to take control of Canada the following year.

Hundreds of acres of the fields became used for grazing, housing, and minor industrial structures. Only in 1908 was the land ceded to Quebec City, though administered by the specifically created and federally run National Battlefields Commission. The park is today used by 4 million visitors and tourists annually for sports, relaxation, outdoor concerts, and festivals.

The Joan of Arc Garden, is located in Battlefields Park, where a statue of a defiant Joan of Arc on horseback adds to the atmosphere.

A huge drinking water reservoir lies beneath this part of the Plains.


We boarded the coach to continue our tour to the magnificent Parliament Building

An eight-floor building designed by architect Eugène-Étienne Taché was built from 1877 to 1886. With the frontal tower, the building stands at 52 metres or 171 feet in height. 

The building's east-facing facade is adorned with a series of scultures that hearken back to significant events and figures in the founding of Canada and Quebec, if you zoom in on the picture above you will see them. Right in the centre is this Sculpture

of  General Wolfe and the French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, who died at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.  Carved above the main entrance is Quebec's motto, "Je me souviens", a reference to Quebec's evolution since 1534.

Back on the bus to the next part of the tour we passed this interesting sight

the Cannonball eating tree!  Legend has it that it has been there since 1759.

We alighted the coach near Chateau Frontenac, which you can see to the right on this photo.

Prior to the building of the hotel, the site was occupied by the Chateau Haldimond,  residence of the British colonial governors of Lower Canada and Quebec. The hotel is generally recognized as the most photographed hotel in the world, largely for its prominence in the skyline of Quebec City.

The next part of our tour took us down Rue St. Louis to Old Quebec

and down toward the St. Lawrence river,

passing the historic cemetary, the Côte de la Montagne Cemetery in Old Québec, marked with a simple cross.

This harks back to the days of early French settlers in North America. Nearby, the Notre-Dame-de-Québec Basilica-Cathedral houses the funeral chapel of New France’s first bishop, François de Laval, and a crypt containing the remains of about 900 people who have been buried in the Cathedral over the years, including four governors of New France and almost all the Roman Catholic bishops and archbishops of Québec.

At the bottom of the hill we found this mural on the side of a building.

Fresque des Québécois on Côte de la Montagne. This mural recounts the story of Québec City, weaving in visual allusions to its unique architecture and fortifications, and its larger-than-life personalities.  Looking closely at the building's windows: you can see some 15 historic figures and nearly a dozen of Québec's leading writers and artists,

isn't it beautiful?

We continued our walk round the quaint cobbled streets

by which time we were more than ready for something to eat so we had a fun ride on the Funicular

back to the top of the hill and Rue St Louis. The funicular opened on November 17, 1879, and originally used the water ballast system of propulsion, similar to that still used in Germany and it links the Haute-Ville (Upper Town) to the Basse-Ville (Lower Town),   The line was converted to electrical operation in 1907. On July 2, 1945, a major fire destroyed the structure, necessitating a rebuild that was completed in 1946. Since then, major renovations have taken place in 1978 and 1998. In 2004 it celebrated 125 years of operating

We had a lovely lunch in Pain Beni

then after lunch we continued exploring the alleyways, little shops and market stalls, we even found a Christmas Shop - in September!

We had about 45 minutes before we were due to meet the coach for the journey back to Montreal and as it had started raining  we had a perfect excuse to take the opportunity to sit and rest in an Ice Cream Parlour, of course we had to sample one of the delicious ice creams on offer before our journey back.

Leaving Quebec, in the rain, we crossed the St. Lawrence river and were thrilled to see the Queen Mary 2 harboured in Quebec, if you zoom in you should be able to see her.

I hope you enjoyed our day in Quebec, we certainly did.  Join me in Part 7 when we pass through Ottowa for our two night stay in Toronto.