stepping off the edge

This wonderful, thought-provoking sculpture stands over 10′ tall (I should say 3 metres, since we are in Toronto) in front of our high rise home exchange condo. I should have taken a pic of the back. It shows clothes sticking out of the man’s suitcase. You can imagine an immigrant family embarking on a new life in a strange country.

Well, we have come from the charming, old world European Quebec City to the bustle of high rises and elevated highways of Toronto. Not the worst walking city we have been in but definitely has the rush and crowded streets you would expect in a big city.

Now we had to try, or I had to try, the famous butter tart of Toronto. It was super sweet and buttery. I could very well have the city of origin wrong, it could be Montreal, but we found our first readily available one here.

Our apartment is on an upper floor of a high rise (20 story) condo building. Our host, Amir, has a nice, albeit small unit with a commanding view.

The architecture is bold and varied…

We spent one day at the old distillery, go figure, us in a distillery! Where lampshades meet laundry…

On another day we took a short ferry to Centerville Island. It’s a great place filled with children’s play areas, amusement park rides, a pier, and great paths to ride bikes and walk. And one of the most Canadian signs I have seen so far …

The only way it could have been more so is if there was a sign next to it apologizing for the first sign!

On the pier…

View from the ferry across the harbor…

A bit of harbor life taking up residence in one of the ferry dock bumpers…

The famous seafaring couple on the ferry…

Naturally we had to visit the indoor farmers market, which did not disappoint. Only a 15 min walk from our place.

Now as you may have gathered if you are a regular reader, Mrs T and I completely depend on the Google map technology to get us places. I have often said that if the GPS satellites ever fall from the sky we would have to take up permanent residence in whichever town we happened to be in. We also use it, as so many others do, to find a place to eat in new locations. Here in beautiful Toronto we were intrigued by the selection of places. Sushi one night, French bistro food another, but we also wanted to try one of the many Korean BBQ restaurants listed. Well, this was not to be. Some were holes in the wall for takeout. We should have jumped on that. Another, which was a 40 min walk from the market caught our eye. Full dining room and a great looking menu. Wanting this experience and Mrs. T grinning at the prospect of adding another 6,000 steps to our day, we set off. A few wrong turns later, and yes, we were using Google but even that can be defeated by the wandering Terminis, we finally found our Korean sit down spot. Boo hoo, it looked open, it said it was open on the map app but no, furious remodeling was being done inside. Oh well, we had to “settle” for great onion soup, a salad, and a beautiful bowl of mussels swimming in white wine and garlic butter. Poor, poor travelers.

Looking forward to our next planned stop, Niagara Falls…