Toronto Islands and all that

Beautiful Casa Loma, always a sight for sore eyes

Entrance to the Distillery

Traveling and touring are my passions so whenever I go to a new city, the first thing I do is to check out if they have hop on hop off buses. These I have found, give you a great insight into the city but some tour guides tend to be flippant, so before you report anything they say as a fact, it helps to verify.

I was reminded of this when one tour guide, in an effort to boast about the high tolerance Canadians have to integration, (no doubt in an effort to tactfully criticize their neighbor which seems to be vocally intolerant of immigrants of color these days) declared that Mandarin is the most widely spoken language after English. He even reinforced this by asking passengers beforehand what they thought the answer was and most had correctly shouted French, but he said this was not so. 

One of the man-made lakes on Centre Island

Well, their information is totally incorrect as whereas in some provinces you do see an abundance of Chinese people,  some 20 % of the Canadian population have French as their mother tongue as opposed to only a little over 650,000 persons who have Mandarin. The question he should have posed therefore was  'what is the most widely spoken language after the two official languages, French and English?' 

Until recently too, I have always had 100%  satisfaction from these tours, however, unfortunately, on my recent trip to Toronto, a badly trained guide marred their reputation somewhat.

 I had told her I wished to get off at the Distillery to which she replied, "That's stop 16."

Royal Ontario Museum

Shortly after, I heard an announcement; "We are at stop 17."

When I went to her, would you believe she never apologized for not stopping where I wished to get off until I raised my voice in disgust?

View from the scenic Scarborough Bluff

 After an eventual reluctant apology, she then indicated that I could return to that particular venue by walking a few blocks north.

Stupidly I took her advice but after walking a few blocks and seeing no sign of a distillery, went back to another hop on hop off stop. When the next bus arrived, I asked for the distillery and was informed it was stop 20!

(For the  benefit of those who are not familiar with the Distillery, this is an interesting 19th-century district close to the famous St. Lawrence Market, which has been beautifully restored and boasts attractively restored buildings, excellent restaurants, galleries, bakeries etc.)

Lots for kids to do on Centre Island

 After that, I did get dropped at the correct place and the reputation of the tour company was minimally restored.

Anyway, after doubling back to the comprehensive tour on the bus and visiting attractions of interest to me, I returned to a place which brought back amusing memories, Centre Island and the harbor downtown on the large Lake Ontario.

I love water so much that I think I was a fish or mermaid in my past life.

Centre Island is one of the cays in the Toronto Island Park. These are around fifteen minutes away by boat from the Harbor Front. The ferries also run approximately every 15 minutes from the pier.

One of the reliable ferries

These luxuriant cays which play an important role in bird life and preserving a healthy environment in general for Canadians, include Centre Island which is joined by a bridge to Ward island and is near to Hanlan island which has residences and an airport.

Pier at Centre Island

I have a special attachment to Centre Island as when I lived in Canada decades ago, I visited that island to view the popular Caribana parade and we rented a canoe there, only to capsize in one of the man-made lakes.

Centre Island remains today a favorite among families as it has numerous rides for kids and remains a peaceful, clean, scenic place to visit.

Despite the modernization of  the Victorian Toronto which I knew, I was still shocked to discover that on Ward island which has the best
beaches, clothes are now optional!


Yup, for me Toronto is now quite an attractive, interesting and fun place to visit, but only in the summer.