And another week has passed! Last Saturday, we were doing laundry in NYC, doing some exploring on foot and repacking our bags in preparation for an all-day train ride, from New York City to Niagara Falls.  Today (Saturday), we did laundry – again, walked around the local neighbourhood, repacked our bags, because tomorrow, we board another train! But instead of being a 10-hr train journey, it will be a 5-day/4-night journey from Toronto to Vancouver!

However, before we get on the train, let me tell you what we have been doing this week. Firstly out of the kindness of my heart, the cold I had in Washington/Roanoke, I didn’t want to be greedy so I passed it onto Nick! So we have been doing stuff, but also taking it a bit easy so he could recover.

Our mode of travel was on the Amtrak “Maple Leaf”, Train No. 63, which travelled through places I’d heard of in movies and on television, but you mean they were real?? Yonkers! Poughkeepsie isn’t spelled “Pa-kipsy”, Schenectady – I had now idea how I imagined it would be spelled! We also went through Rome & Amsterdam, all without leaving the US of A!

And then when we reached the border, we were 30minutes ahead of schedule and we couldn’t turn up early, so we sat between stations until the correct arrival time! Off the train, through border security (no stamp in Passport 😞) and then out into the rain to find a taxi to take us to our hotel.

There is a lot that I didn’t know about Niagara Falls, including that at the main road level, it is a huge National Park (on the Canadian side) and not many hotels. There is an upper area and most of the hotels are up there. We were staying not far from the Falls Incline Railway, which means that we weren’t far from Table Rock. We had planned on a full day in Niagara Falls before catching a bus to Toronto, so we bought tickets to walk behind the Falls.

These days, there is a large building with 2 Bistros, a Food Court, 2 Souvenir shops and a couple of outlets where you can buy tickets to various activities around the Falls. This was built onto of a 130-year old tunnel that was built behind Horseshoe Falls and you calm along there to see the water from behind and then you can go out to the side of the Falls and watch the fury of the water as it plummets over.

We then walked all the way up to where the Canadian version of the “Maid in the Mist” departs from. We decided not to do the boat ride -we had seen the boats come up to the bottom of the Falls, heard the tourists squealing because they were getting wet and then head back to dock and get the next load of tourists. It looked like the boat ride was only about at minutes long and we had already stood and watched the water for as long as we wanted.  There was also a Zipline that took you down to the shore of the river – I was tempted but felt that it was a bit of a rip-off.

Lots of walking that day, over 20,000 steps! Tuesday morning, Nick had had a bad night with his cold, so I managed to get us a late checkout, so he could sleep until noon. And then it was on the Megabus to Toronto. When they call it a “Megabus”, don’t confuse the name with the idea of leg-room, because there wasn’t a lot of that! But we were allowed to bring our luggage!  A word of warning – unless you are doing one of the long distance train trips, VIA Rail are not keen on you bringing suitcases than are bigger than “carry-on” size onto trains, so we had to travel by bus. Bonus was that it was about 25% of the cost of the train, there were 6-8 buses a day vs 1 train a day, and the length of journey was almost the same!

So we arrived in Toronto Union Station on Tuesday evening and caught a cab to our AirBnB. We have been staying in”Little Italy” and I disappointed that we are missing the Annual Festival by 1 week!  But our first activity on Wednesday was to get our butts into town and head over to the St Lawrence Market for a Canadian Food Tour. Point of Interest – Front Street (in Toronto) is called Front because that used to be the water frontage of the Lake.

Anyway, back to the food tour – apparently Canadian food staples include Coffee, Apple Cake (from Mystic Muffin – absolutely delectable), PeaMeal Bacon Sandwich, Butter Tart (think of a Pecan Pie without the pecans), Polish Pirogies & Empanadas. I asked about Poutine and was told that the best description of Poutine is to eat it when you’re drunk, or hungover!!  So the Canadian Food Tour is more about the different ethnic foods that have been introduced to Toronto & Canada by the various emigrant groups that have settled here. So, a bit like Australia!

We also explored around Union Station, making sure that we would know where to go and what to do on Sunday when we come to board The Canadian. And we also managed to get a paper map of Toronto and Transport Cards that can be used on the Subway (2 routes), Streetcars & Buses. And bonus, we managed to swap our new Passes for Seniors Passes and saved a whole $1.25 per trip!

Thursday saw us heading back into town, to see the CN Tower (from the ground), explore the Roundhouse Park with all the old trains while we were waiting for the Train Museum to open. And I’m happy because Nick bought me a Train Conductor’s Pocket Watch to wear when I’m working on the Historic Steam Train out of Warwick!  In out travels around Toronto, we also found the Firefighters’ Memorial – over 900 names and that is only for the province of Ontario! Yes, the names have been recorded since mid-19th century but that is still a lot of Firefighters killed in the line of duty!

Friday was dismal weather, with lots of intermittent rain. We wanted to go down to the foreshore to look at Lake Ontario but the rain caused some hesitation. Thanks to a very helpful Security Officer at the Subway, we managed to find “The Path”. “The Path” is a pedestrian walkway and is mostly underground but is also sometimes a flyover, and it spans more than 30kms, which is a lot of space for tourists to get lost in.  You can recognize the tourists because they are holding either a map or their phone, looking for a vague sign, turn left, no right, no left… But on a rainy day, it was a good way to get down to the waterfront. The problem with the path was that the PATH finished but the rain didn’t! However, we managed to get under an awning before the heavens opened, again! And, when I walked around the corner, to stand on the banks of Lake Ontario, I saw a skunk!!!

Another historical fact – The first tunnel of The Path was built in 1900!

And that brings us to today, with washing, walking, packing and writing.

Was 5 days in Toronto too long? I would say “Yes” but it worked for us and Canada is such a big country that to travel elsewhere, like Montreal or Quebec, either takes all day on a train or dollars to pay for flights.  Instead, we have managed to absorb some of the atmosphere of Toronto and we have enjoyed it!

As I mentioned earlier, tomorrow will be the start of our trans-Canada train journey and internet will be a bit sketchy, so you will have to wait until we have experienced Vancouver Island to hear about the train.