Blue Mountains

The last few days of the holiday were as the Blue Mountain resort. A ski resort in winter and in summer dedicated to hiking, mountain biking and general leisure activities. It was quite a commercialised location as you might expect with everything on site. Generally very expensive.

We enjoyed a guided hike up the tiny mountain, a cable car down, a wonderful/horrific rollercoaster, crazy golf and paddle in the pool.

The following day we visited the neighbouring town of Collingwood for a trail walk and stopped briefly at Wasaga Beach on Lake Huron.

On our final day en route to the airport we had an afternoon at the historic site Saint Marie amongst the Hurons - a location where for 10 years early Europeans set up a mission to convert the locals and in the process killing off large parts of the population with many of the diseases they brought with them.

Overall a very successful trip with lots of great sights and activities.

Arowhon Pines

Over the next two days we enjoyed fabulous breakfast, pack lunches and dinners. We canoed, kayaked, hiked and swam in the lake with a game of scrabble in the evening.

Lovely morning views from the cabin.

Arowhon Pines Algonquin

We left Ottawa in torrential rain and headed for Algonquin Provincial Park. We stopped for a walk around a beaver lake where we saw the dam, a good number of lodges and marvelled at the huge area of forest cleared by these clever animals.

Our lodge at Algonquin was very nice with great views out to the lake.

Dinner was fabulous with high quality starter and dessert buffets, soup course and small main course.

More Ottawa

A morning walk along the Rideau Canal - about 1 hr out and 1 hr back with the heat again limiting how far we could go. Very busy with lots of weekend joggers and cycles.

A very pleasant city with loads of different trails and walks available.

In the afternoon we visited the modern art gallery and then in the evening enjoyed a fireworks display.

Parliament

In the morning we had a great tour round the Canadian houses of parliament. Very much modelled on the UK parliament. Great views from the peace tower.

Later found a very lively part of town for dinner.

Ottawa

Onwards from Montreal to Ottawa. Staying at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier - very grand !

Enjoyed a nice swim in the very nice pool. It was surprisingly quiet. We had dinner on the terrance overlooking the river and parliament and went to the Son Et Lumiere in at around 9.15 pm.

Mont Real

Last day in Montreal and we headed for a lengthy walk up the hill that gives the city its name. A nice steady gradient made for a pretty pleasant walk.

After some lounging at the hotel pool in the afternoon we went for a very fancy dinner at an expensive Italian restaurant (Ristorante Beatrice). The espresso creme brulee with dark chocolate sorbet was amazing!

Montreal Old Town

In the morning we sorted out our laundry and bought some fabric for Cherry to make a coat on her return. We then headed to the old town and caught a concert in front of the cathedral by an indie band call Bellflower. Very good with some very accomplished musicians.

We went into the cathedral which was pretty impressive (for North America).

The rains then came which was actually a bit of a relief after the very high temperatures of recent days. 

Montreal - Botanic Garden, Biodome, Planetarium

A busy day in the Olympic area just adjacent to our hotel. We started at the Botanic Gardens which were amongst the best we have ever been to. Large area with lots of different styles of planting. Really enjoyed the extensive areas laid out with useful and edible plants. Very wide range of crops on display and all looking excellent.

The Biodome was pretty good. A fairly short stroll through a range of different habitats most of them with a Canadian theme.

At the Planetarium we watched a couple of shows which were both really good. The first was about Dark Matter and Energy and the second was on the Aurora Borealis. 

Kingston and onward to Montreal

We headed off in the car towards Montreal with a short break on route at Kingston where we had around and hours walk along the first part on the long trail from Kingston to Ottawa. It was still very hot which limited how far we wanted to go.

A bit of walk round the local Olympic area on arrival at Montreal.

Prince Edward Island

The next morning we travelled a fair distance to David and Debbie's house in Prince Edward Island. We enjoyed some great hospitality and a great tour of the area. A lovely location on Lake Ontario with lots of nice scenery. Some very nice meals out and visits to cheese factories and wineries.

Niagara

We drove down the very scenic parkway to Niagara passing the many vineyards of the area. Niagara was hot and busy. We enjoyed the cable car across the whirlpool gorge which was a bit quieter and away from the main falls. The falls were spectacular although the queues weren't much fun. The Journey Behind the Falls was a bit disappointing.

In the evening we went to the theatre in Niagara on the Lake to see Mrs Warren's Profession as part of the Shaw Festival.

Hamilton - Royal Botanic Gardens

We left Toronto in the morning after picking up the hire car and then drove just over an hour to the gardens at Hamilton. Spread across a number of different sites this was a big garden. Very nice although it was such a hot day we ran low on energy pretty quickly.

In the evening we drove on the Niagara on the lake to our pretty B&B.

Toronto Day 3

On the third day in Toronto we started with a bike ride along the lake shore in an easterly direction and then a walk in the other direction

In the evening we saw the wonderful Cirque De Soleil show Luzia with a Mexican theme.

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Toronto Day 2

In the morning we headed out to Casa Loma the extravagant residence of a millionaire with no sense who in the end lost his fortune. I liked the visit but Cherry didn't think much of the house.

In the evening we went to see the local baseball team the Bluejays win against the Miami Rays. After nearly 4 hours we decided we wouldn't be going to too many more baseball games.

Toronto Day 1

A busy first day. After breakfast at Tim Hortons we travelled by ferry to Toronto Island for a wander around the pleasant parks.

Great views on the way out of the city:

And some really nice corners of the island with quaint cottages:

After returning to the mainland we soon had another boat trip on the sailboat Kajama which took us just out of the harbour and into the main part of Lake Ontario.

In the evening we had dinner at the CN Tower revolving restaurant. We arrived about 6.30 pm and were able to hang around at the observation levels to watch the sunset.

Travel to Toronto

We started the holiday to Canada in style with first class seats to Toronto. Very nice. Arrived at the hotel quite late so took a few photos out of the hotel window before getting off to sleep.