Then we arrived in Toronto. All was great, until we arrived at the hostel. They didn’t have a room for us. A room that we had booked 4 months earlier! Apparently it was the booking agency’s fault. So, at midnight, we were in a new city, tired, cranky and with no place to stay. It was a weekend and summer and there were 3 Blue Jays games on. We eventually found a nice motel on the direct subway line to the city, so we booked it. A $60 cab ride and $350 extra in accommodation costs and we were set!
As a side note: The Hostel in Toronto tried to first blame the booking agent for the error. Then they tried to blame us, saying our credit card was expired when we booked, then they tried to blame the booking agent again. Lucky I’m not a pushover and I told both the Hostel and booking agent that I would be seeking compensation and taking the matter further. Suddenly we get an email saying the Hostel is admitting to their mistake and now it seems some compensation is on it’s way.
Anyway, the following day we decided to put our previous night aside and enjoy Toronto. Our first stop was CN Tower. Once the tallest building in the America’s and standing 553.33 metres high, CN tower provides a great 360° view of Toronto. We were lucky enough to have a clear day, and the views were pretty impressive. From the viewing platform we could even see planes taking off and landing from the little airport on Toronto Island.
After the CN Tower we decided to go to Ripley’s Aquarium. First just let me say, in all my travels, I have never seen a queue so long for an aquarium! It was ridiculous! Thank goodness we had the City Pass and skipped the queues. Once inside the jam packed aquarium, we saw many magnificent fish, sharks, rays and penguins. It was a beautiful aquarium and a great place to be on a super hot and humid Toronto day.
From the aquarium we went to the Royal Ontario Museum. Now you may be thinking ‘how did you fit it all in’? Well, thankfully on Fridays, the museum is open until 8:30pm. We didn’t really know what to expect when we got there. However, we were greeted by a giant skeleton of a an Futalognkosaurus, one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered. Immediately we were excited. Especially Adrian!
There were many cool artifacts from China, Egypt, Europe and the America’s, as well as some magnificent animal models from all over the world, but nothing really compared to the dinosaur display. There were many almost complete real dinosaur bone skeletons. They had a T-Rex head and partial cast, a stegosaurus, a pterodactyl, an allosaurus, a velociraptor and many more. It was actually very impressive and I have never seen Adrian so wide eyed! Needless to say, we closed out the museum.
The following morning, we set out to find Casa Loma. We now think there is a suburb called this, as well as the giant castle on the hill. Anyway, we eventually found it. Casa Loma (Spanish for hill house) is an historic mansion in midtown Toronto. It was constructed from 1911-1914 for financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, the man that bought hydro electricity to Toronto. It cost $3.5 million dollars to build and was considered to be quite outrageous at the time, even though it paled in comparison to most wealthy Southerners in the USA at the time. It was a very beautiful place, containing many war artifacts, amazing gardens and period pieces from the people who lived there. It was also the place where a lot of movies have been shot including, Cocktail, X-men, Chicago and many others. All in all it was a pretty cool place to see.
The afternoon brought our first real rain of the holiday, so we chilled out at a pub on the waterfront and enjoyed the cool change. In the evening we decided to watch a movie. Sausage Party. Hilarious and very strange. Just don’t let your kids watch it! This animation is not for the kids.
Following a bad start on arrival, Toronto turned out to be a really cool city. Very cosmopolitan and so much to see and do. So after enjoying our couple of days in Toronto, we picked up our hire car and headed for Algonquin National Park. But first, we made a stop at Toronto Zoo.
First of all, Toronto Zoo is huge! Allow a whole day. We were foolish enough to think we could do it in about 5-6 hours. It has impressive enclosures and some really awesome animals from all over the world. The African exhibits and animals were definitely some of the most impressive, with two giant white rhinos, zebras and giant ostrich. They had baby panda’s which we unfortunately missed due to time restrictions. They also had an Asian, Arctic, North American, South American, and even Australian section. Highly recommend this zoo if you have the time.
Once finished at the zoo, we made our way to Algonquin National Park. However, what should have been an easy 2.5 hour commute, turned into an almost 5 hour marathon. Unfortunately the coordinates that the hostel gave us, took us to the right degree north, just not to the right degree east. So initially we ended up literally in the middle of nowhere, 100km away from where we needed to be! Thankfully though, we found our way out of the forest and back to a service station, where we not only got our bearings, but spotted a black bear as well. He was just there rummaging through the garbage. We watched him for a minute or two (never getting out of the car) to try and get a photo, but he ran away pretty quickly.
Anyway, we eventually made it to our destination, the Wolf Den Hostel which was on the western edge of the park. And yes, it is as cool as it sounds. The hostel is an amazing super large cabin. It had a magnificent kitchen and the common area had an amazing array of books, games and musical instruments to keep you entertained. There was also no Wi-Fi and no TV. It really felt secluded and off the grid.
Algonquin itself is a National Park one third the size of Belgium! It is known for its over 1000 lakes, 100s of walking and canoe trails and wildlife, such as bears, wolves,
beavers, and moose etc. So, on our first day there we set off on a hike called Centennial Ridges, a 10km loop. This was one of the newer trails in the park, opened in 1993 to celebrate the park's 100th birthday. We had hoped to see some or one of the afore mentioned animals, but alas, we did not and we had to settle for two chipmonks and a garter snake! However, the hike was very pretty, taking us through beautiful pine forests and providing us with spectacular cliff and lake views along the way. It was a lovely day of hiking, with one other little lookout hike thrown in for good measure.
The following day, we had planned to go kayaking. Unfortunately the day turned into a rest day as we copped some pretty heavy rain. By this stage of the trip though, it was a much needed recuperation day.
Once again, the following day provided us with glorious sunshine. This time we decided to do the Track and Tower trail, a 7.7km hike. I personally enjoyed this one more than the previous trail. It was through lush forest, over a river and a dam, around the sides of a cliff, and it followed the old service railway track. The view from the top was also quite amazing. Again, we were hopeful of an animal sighting, but again we were out of luck.
Sadly, the next day it was time to say goodbye to our sweet digs and head off to Ottawa, Canada’s capital. However, we did manage to squeeze in one last hike to Beaver Pond. It was but a small hike of 3km, but there was the hope that we might see a beaver or two. It was an enjoyable little hike, with boardwalks that circled two seperate beaver dams. We were enjoying the views and marvelling at a beaver dam that had blocked off an entire river and we had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn’t see any beavers (a lady on the Track and Tower trail had told us that is is near impossible to see a beaver in the daytime) when out of nowhere a lovely family came along and alerted us to a beaver swimming joyfully up to the dam wall. He wasn’t very big, but he sure was a curious little guy. He swam up to everyone, had a look and swam away.
After a while admiring him, we thought we should carry on. We were absolutely thrilled with our sighting and stopped a little further down the trail to observe some more beaver lodges, when the nice family who alerted us to the first beaver, came along. The kid started telling us that they had spotted another one climbing the bank. So we decided to backtrack in hopes that we might spot him, and spot him we did. He was all the way up the bank, having a good old munch on the green leaves. He was so close and so cute. Both beavers as it turns out were yearlings. Yearlings being the previous seasons new born beavers. It was awesome. So on a high, we finished our hike and made the two and a bit hour drive to Ottawa.
Around dinner time, we made it to Ottawa Jail Hostel. It was a hostel literally transformed from an old jail. If you have the money, you can stay in your own private cell. We unfortunately, could only afford a dorm room in the hospital section of the jail. Thankfully our only dorm room of the trip.
Anyhow, the next day we got up early and went out to explore the city. I had been here many years ago, but forgot just how pretty it is. The Rideau Canal which is 202km long and was built in 1832, runs through the city and brings boats in via its lock system, was one of the first places we visited. One thing’s for sure, you wouldn’t want to be in a hurry to get from the lower part of the river to the higher part. But, it was cool.
We then walked up to Parliament Hill. The houses of Parliament in Ottawa are really a sight to behold and worth a visit outside of summer school holidays. Once again the crowds to do the tour were phenomenal, so we skipped doing the tour (which is free) and made our way to the Canadian Museum of Nature.
Once again this museum had a fantastic dinosaur display. It also had quite an incredible mammal and bird gallery and an amazing full blue whale skeleton. The juvenile (but still huge) blue whale is believed to have died after a giant ship ran over it and crushed it’s spine. Also, for the creepy crawly enthusiasts, it had an awesome live bug display. It was a fun place to visit.
The next day it was time to leave Ottawa. However, before doing so we did the free tour of the hostel. They take you through the old jail and explain how it used to operate. It was very interesting. It was a one of a kind test jail, which was only opened for a brief period due to it’s inhumane treatment of inmates and the high escape rate. It has no bars on windows. People used to get sent there for crimes ranging from not paying taxes or if you were a women, not having a clean house! All the way up to major crimes such as rape and murder. Cellmates would often be locked in solitary and beaten and starved. Three men were even hanged (officially). Unofficially there were at least seven more hangings! You can still see the rope marks in the beam and there is a cracked floorboard underneath where the dead bodies dropped. It was a brutal place. It has even been the subject of one of the ghosthunter television shows who claim to have made recordings of voices in the old death row cells!
Afterwards, we thought we’d try to get a free ticket to do the Parliament tour, but they were all gone. Instead we went for a walk to check out the giant spider sculpture out the front of the National Gallery of Canada. This 30 foot sculpture cost 3 million dollars when it was installed in 2005. This was highly controversial at the time as it was entire third of the museums annual budget! I thought it was pretty cool and certainly very unique!
After a quick cup of coffee it was time to head to the next destination, Montreal!
Holly.
