Toronto
Date: 17 January 2009 00:11:24
I've already blogged about most of my time into Toronto here, but I finally got around to uploading some more photos. As I mentioned on the earlier posts, Toronto was to re-visit a friend whom I had not seen since 2001 and also to meet his wife. There are not a great number of photos of the city, sorry, as I have plenty from my visits before; this visit was more a relaxing catch-up with a friend than a sightseeing trip. But we did do a few things as you can see below.
I was expecting cool temperatures, but when I had arrived and some of the earliest snow had just fell, I was amazed. Even the view from my room at my friend's place to the backyard was beautiful; snow does make things stunning.
We took a walk along a park alongside Lake Ontario which looked stunning with snow. A number of people were out, many with dogs, and plesantries were exchanged.
We also took a drive down to Greektown and had a bit of a wander and grabbed something to eat. In fact, John & Bessie being of Greek heritage, Greek sweets and beautiful Greek meals featured a bit. There were some lovely views of the city too.
In the city, we wandered past the ROM [Royal Ontario Museum], which I had visited extensively on previous trip -- although a new façade seemed to have been added on one side which was very modern. It was also great to get off the subway and see the superb decorations, keeping with the museum theme, were still there too [Sydney's Museum Station has old advertisements which are interesting to look at [see bottom of that page].
Just opposite the ROM is this interesting [to me!] juxtaposition of old and new:
We then walked through the University of Toronto, where John studied. Some very beautiful buildings, and with snow on the ground, however sparse, there were beautiful views to be had. I particularly like buildings covered in ivy or plants as there was one there as you can see below.
As well as the fun games and dinner night, we went out one evening to hear St Michael's Choir School's Christmas Concert which featured a beautiful selection of Christmas songs and carols.
Before that we wandered down to the Hudson Bay Company store to look at their Christmas Windows display. An interesting selection I thought; one standard window
and a few not-your-usual-Christmas-Window-fare ones.
The city looked very nice all lit up at night; the second photo is of a new [to me] section of Toronto -- near the Eaton Centre if I recall correctly. My friend said they are trying to get it to look like Times Square.
On my last day, the snow had started to melt so their backyard looked a bit less white than it did on my first morning there. Still cool though so the fire was welcome!
There was also an inquisitive squirrel foraging around. Much to John's disgust, I seemed enamoured of it; they may be considered pests and troublesome when you live with them, but for visitors from foreign lands where we do not live, they are fascinating -- and dare I say cute?
A most wonderful, and relaxing, few days. It was great to see John, and his parents, again, and an absolutely joy to meet his wife Bessie as well as a number of their family and friends. And it was great to see Toronto in December after visiting in summer both times before.