Coddiwomple Stardate 180911

Tuesday 4^th September. It was hard to get up at 3.30am. Our flight left St Johns at 5.40am. From St Johns we flew to Toronto and gained 1½ hours. Then another flight to Quebec, we arrived at 11.10am. Our accommodation was 22km away and decided Uber was the best way of getting there. We arrived at Hotel Le Chateauguay at 12.15pm. Check in time wasn't until 4.00pm. Fortunately the owner took pity on Sharon and gave us a room straight away. We had 1½ days in Quebec we needed to work out what to do. We had decided to spend the next day at Old Quebec and the rest of today at Montmorency Falls as they were only 4.3km away from our hotel. Ordered another Uber and off we went. The falls are 83m high 30m taller than Niagara Falls. There are also traces of old fortifications dating back to the Battle of Montmorency on July 31st, 1759 between the British and French. They have zip-lines over the falls and a gondola to the bottom of the falls. The falls freeze over in winter and would be fantastic to see. After our wander around we walked back to the hotel.

Wednesday, and it was Uber into Old Quebec. Most of Old Quebec is inside of the old fortifications. We spent 6½ hours here just wandering around. I would of loved to have gone to the Citadel the old fortress but I don't think Sharon would have enjoyed more guns and military campaigns ( Sharon told Evan he could go into the Citadel many times through out the day, saying I would be happy wondering around the shops! I think he was scared I'd buy everything. I did end up buying a nice piece of art which Evan approved of :) . We spent the day looking at flowers, black fluffy anti social squirrels and old buildings (Hence why he wanted to do the manly Citadel). We did walk along the boardwalk at the front of the Citadel and read what I could about the history of Quebec. That is, the few we found in the dual language. A couple of events stood out. The first was between 1776 and 1783, 10,000 German troops were helping the British defend Canada against American rebels. This force was up to one-half of the British Forces. After the war 2,500 made Quebec home. The other was during the same period there were not many women in Quebec. To keep Quebec French they brought over from France many orphaned girls. It is an amazing city with buildings dating back to the 17^th century. It definitely had a very European feeling about it. Even though it is Canada, it really was wonderful the way they have held onto there history and you could easily believe you were in France. Everyone is speaking french and many signs are only in French. All the shops were unique and we did not see any international retail brands. We did see a McDonalds & Subway but neither were glaring with their advertising. Their facades blended in with the 17^th century feeling of the whole area. Quebec really is a must to add to a Canadian itinerary.

Thursday, another Uber drive to Quebec City Train Station. Today we are heading for Montreal. We found it easier to use Uber in Quebec than public transport. Although the city was only 8km away the buses ran 1 hr apart and took 3 buses and over an hour to get anywhere. Our Uber to the train station was a Tesla Model S. I have been reading all the advancements in EV's but never been in one. The driver had the windows down. So just as noisy as any other car. Wasn't until he was merging into traffic and you then could feel the power and torque of the future mode of transport.

We walked to our hostel from the Montreal train station. Checked in at 12.30pm but could not get into our room until 3.00pm. Left our bags had some lunch and worked out what to do for the next 1½ days. I decided we would walk to Le Mont Royal. It was only 1.5km away. I neglected to inform Sharon it was an extinct volcano with many steep steps before reaching Chalet du mont Royal and a grand view over Montreal. All the cursing from Sharon (only once, and my family say I exaggerate!!) I received was worth it. From here we walked to Lac aux Castors. It is a lake surrounded by grassy play area and a waterfall. It reminded me of Kings Park Western Power Playground. Le Mont Royal was first climbed by a European on October 2^nd 1535 and named Mount Royal. This is where the name Montreal derived from. The park was originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted co designer of Central Park New York. We followed my offline maps to take us through less travelled paths until we came across a construction area. Sharon didn't want to go back up the hill and decided to follow another family of three through other random tracks. We ended back on a track that took us down steps onto the main road. These were the steps I wanted to come out of anyway. The bottom of the steps were barricaded off and looked impassible. I was prepared to go back but Sharon and the others we were following decided they could get through. After forcing our way out we were greeted by not to friendly workers. I ignored them and walked off, with Sharon following. The other three got a stern lecture about what we had done (apparently I'm a bad influence to Evan..lol)

Friday, I needed a haircut. The last one was in Kellispel redneck country. The last barber I use to go to was Clarke at the hub shopping centre over 15 years ago. Sharon's been cutting my hair until we left. One of the unexpected joys of travelling is going to different barbers. This one was no exception. It was on the second floor of a nice old building. They only had women barbers but no alcohol like a few I have been to. They did supply chilled water, coffee pods & charge point for phones. Nice old furniture with a small display of old barber products.

From here we walked through back streets of Montreal to a park called Parc La Fontaine then made our way down to Old Montreal. We found it harder to find things to see. We both found Old Quebec far more interesting. Sharon decided to go on their Ferris wheel which was far more comfortable than the London eye where you have to stand. This one had comfortable seating. We had booked into the light show at the Basilica Notre Dame for 5.30pm. We filled the rest of the time by wandering around the streets and going to a nice micro brewery.

The light show at the Basilica was our highlight of Montreal. When you entered the Cathedral which was stunning in its architecture by itself. They had small light shows on the sidewall illuminating their religious displays. The main show went for 15 mins and it was an amazing show of light and sound. Not only did they highlight the religious displays, the lighting also projected images of nature on the cathedral roof. It was all perfectly timed with the music and was an event not to be missed.

Saturday and back on a train to Toronto. This one was 5.5 hours long and speeds up to 150km/h. As we got closer to Toronto the train travelled very close to Lake Ontario. Most of the area is cleared land which gave you views across the lake. Outside of Toronto they had white beaches and plenty of walking and cycling paths near the lake. Lake Ontario is the smaller of the Great Lakes and only 1 of nearly 3,000,000 lakes in Canada. Niagara Falls flows into Lake Ontario. Canada holds 20% of the worlds fresh water. The lakes size is still impressive at 311 km long and at the widest is 85 km. It was a cloudy day and we could not see the other side of the lake. It was just like looking out to an ocean and there where even waves with people surfing.

We arrived at Toronto Union Station on schedule. In Montreal they wanted people to check in their luggage. We normally just walk on with our packs which can be awkward trying to get them into the luggage racks. I checked in both our packs. The train was full of passengers and leaving the platform I could see why they wanted to have checked in luggage. There was only one narrow escalator to get down onto the station. It took us 15mins just to get on the escalator. They were only letting a few people through at a time. When we arrived at the baggage claim, only a few bags were coming through. When we finally received our bags over an hour had gone by since we had arrived in Toronto there were many unhappy people who had connecting trains.

I was going to use the subway to get to our accommodation. It was only 3.5km away. It took us so long to get our bags we decided to get an Uber. The first one was only 2mins away. We kept waiting and then they cancelled the pickup. We were right near the taxi stand and thinking we should just get a taxi. But we tried Uber again. It was only a minute away. Again took longer than that and eventually he turned up. Jumped in the Uber and he told us that Uber's were not allowed to pick up passengers near the taxi stand. There is too much animosity between the two companies. He said he tried to ring Sharon to get picked up at a safer location that's when we both realised Sharon still had her Australian number with Uber not her Canadian number. That explained the cancellation of the first Uber which we got charged for.

Our Uber driver was from India and only been in Canada for twelve months. We asked how his first winter was. He was from a dessert area with temperature's up to the high 40's C. He enjoyed the snow and cold at first and very quickly tired of it. We get the impression he will move somewhere else.

When we arrived at the Hostel and went to pay, they would not accept Mastercard, only cash or Visa ,our first knock back with Mastercard. We have come across some machines that don't accept foreign cards and we have had to use cash. Fortunately we travel with a Visa card as well. The hostel is over the road from a shopping mall which is convenient and walking distance to the places we want to see.

Sunday, because Sharon will talk to anyone who wants to listen (pfft), we find out what people recommend us to see. We usually try tripadviser but I find most of the recommendations are by companies paying for advertising. The two places (recommended) that we saw by people here in Toronto was a long way down the list on Tripadvisor. Something you would not normally see. Our two recommendations were Casa Loma and the Bata Shoe Museum.

Casa Loma is a castle built in 1911 for Sir Henry Pellatt and is 6011m2. The original cost was for $250,000. 10 times the cost of the average home at the time. The cost ballooned to 3.5 million dollars and was never completely finished. Sir Henry at the time controlled 25% of Canada's wealth. Unfortunately the tall poppy syndrome struck and by the time he passed away at the age of 82 in 1939 he was penniless. He only lived at Casa Loma for less than 10 years. If you love history have a look at his life it is a very interesting story. 

When we arrived we needed a toilet so we went down to the lower level. Waiting for Sharon they had a monitor showing film scenes. We had no idea that the castle was used for so many movies. Some of the well known ones are two X-men movies, Cocktail, The Pacifier, The Vow, The Love Guru, Mortal Instruments, Tuxedo, Chicago and many more. We then went and had a look at a short film about Sir Henry Pellatt. It was showing in a room that would have been the swimming pool if it was finished. Sharon realised it was also where one of the scenes from the Pacifier was shot. We then followed a tunnel for 800ft and came out at the garage that has some vintage cars, stables that were used during the second world war to develop sonar and a hot house. When we went outside we couldn't believe how far we had travelled underground from the castle. When we walked back through the tunnel we climbed up to the turret and then made our way back down through the floors. We spent 3.5 hours here and loved it.

Next we walked to the Bata Museum of Shoes. Now I'm sure most of the guys reading this blog is wondering why any man would go to a shoe museum. I can tell you all the guys waiting in line with their wives were thinking the same as me. I'd rather be at a pub right now. The museum opened in 1995 by Sonja Bata. Sonya had been travelling the world since the 1940's and collecting historical footwear. Some of the examples go back 5000 years and is truly fascinating. The museum has four levels and the outside of the building is shaped like a shoe box with a raised lid. The first three levels is all about the history and has some 14,500 exhibits. I loved these levels. The fourth level is more modern shoes and Sharon loved this level.

After this we found a nice bar around the corner from the hostel to remove the taste of shoe leather from my mouth.

Monday and it is wet. Today we have booked a tour to Niagara Falls. A return trip from Toronto is about 280km. We looked at catching trains, buses or car rental. Tour seemed the easiest although probably the most expensive. We needed to walk to a local pick up area 1.5km away. A nice walk in the rain with our wet weather gear. The bus was late due to heavy traffic and we arrived at Niagara Falls at about midday. Niagara Falls has 22,000,000 visitors a year. To go on a 20 min boat ride in the peak of  the summer season can take you up to 6 hrs out of your day. Being on a tour we didn't have to wait. Although Niagara Falls are not the highest in the world it does have the largest volume of water over the falls. 567,811 Litres per second.

Our boat was the Hornblower for our 20 min journey. At the height of season they hold 700 people all wearing red sperm suites (poncho's). 20,000 people per day can go on these boats. That is only from the Canadian side. The USA side has the Maid of the Mist. Only one vessel a time is allowed near the main Horseshoe falls. Everyone had their poncho's on except me. I had being wearing my full wet weather gear all day. I also couldn't imagine 40,000 ponchos a day being thrown out. I'm glad we went on the boat and not do the walk behind the falls it was fantastic to get absolutely saturated by the falls.

After this it was a buffet lunch at the Sheridan on the 13th floor overlooking both falls with views of Lake Erie where Niagara Falls flow from. Most people who have gone to the falls say go to the Canadian side you will get a better view. It is not until you see the falls you realise why. The Canadian side you can view both falls at once even along the walkway at ground level. On the US side they have a walkway that extends out over the canyon but you still would not be able to see both falls. You would definitely have to go on a boat to get the view of them.

After lunch we drove along Niagara River Parkway. Stopping at the Whirlpool Rapids a class 6 rapid then a few drive by's and stopped at the worlds smallest chapel then onto try Ice Wine. They have a red and white wine to sample. It is more a dessert wine. What is so unique is the grapes are left on the vine until outside temperature is between -10 to -15 degrees Celsius. This is when they pick the grapes by hand and at night. Once picked they are crushed immediately. A normal unfrozen grape usually produces 6-8 drops of juice. These will only produce 1 maybe 2 drops. 1000 grapes are required to produce 200ml of wine. There is also 200 grams of natural sugar to every litre of wine. Which makes the wine extremely sweet. 200ml cost $30 which is reasonable considering the process. But far too sweet for Sharon and I. Then it was back to Toronto. We were gone for 12 hours.

Tuesday and we leave for Vancouver on a train at 10.00pm. We are booked into the hostel until Wednesday morning so there was no need to rush and find something to do for the day with our bags. Sandy who we met in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island drove to Toronto to spend time with us before we leave. It was great seeing her again but once again difficult to say goodbye.