Hi all,
Well here goes with the penultimate blog of our travels.....!!
From Vermont we caught the greyhound bus over the border into Canada and arrived without incident in the centre of Montreal. It was lovely for me to see lots of french language around and feel that if needed I was finally somewhere where I could speak a language easily! Our hostel was right in the centre of the Latin Quarter so we spent the afternoon just walking the streets and treating ourselves to a Mexican meal.
Friday we flew from Montreal to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where we met a friend called Krista who was our housemate and work colleague in Franz Josef, New Zealand. Her brother works for the beer company, Molson, and he kindly arranged for us to get free VIP tickets to the Molson Skybox at the Halifax Arena for an Ice Hockey game...! The Halifax Mooseheads vs the Montreal Juniors. Free beer and pizza all night and some great ice hockey action including a good spectacle on the ice where two of the players had a good old punch up... I hadn't realised that when two players fight in ice hockey the referee can't stop them until one player hits the deck, oh and they also have to take their helmets and gloves off so they're equals when punching each other!!! Hilarious!
Saturday Krista drove us to the coast where we visited the very pretty and quaint fishing village of Peggy's Cove and also saw the memorial to the Swiss Air flight which crashed there in 1998 killing 229 people. A very beautiful yet haunting place.
On Sunday it was Canadian Thanksgiving so we were invited round to Krista's Mums house for a huge turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It was really lovely to be in a big family environment again so we had a great afternoon.
Monday we were given a lift back to Halifax by Shane, Krista's brother where we spent the night at a hotel by Chocolate Lake on the city outskirts.
Tuesday we flew back to Montreal and spent the next two days exploring the Old City and Old Port areas of Montreal. Beautiful Fall colours still on the trees.
Thursday we picked up a hire car and drove west to Belleville, Ontario where we met Patsy and Gerald, relatives of Carl's. They very kindly cooked us a delicious meal and put us up for the night. We in turn bored them to tears with stories of our travels I'm sure! Their daughter-in -law was also there with her two young sons so we played with them a bit which was lovely.
From Belleville we drove west again to Niagara Falls. The town wasn't quite what we were expecting..... It is one giant theme park with a huge ferris wheel, casino's, games arcades, wax museums x many, lots of fast food joints and lots and lots of neon! We went to the falls on the Saturday morning and whilst it is a beautfiul and enormous wonder of the natural world we were disappointed at how built up the area around it was. Unfortunately because we visited Iguazu in the rainforest where there are butterflies, monkeys and racoons to see as well, we didn't really like Niagara surrounded by hotels, Starbucks and theme park rides.. Sorry to any Canadians who read this.. It's just such a shame that the natural parks and woodland surrounding the waterfalls were built on years ago...... That afternoon we drove to Niagara on the Lake which is a really pretty village with boutique antique shops and a beautiful view over the lake.
Sunday we drove early into Toronto to return the hire car only to find that the Toronto Marathon was on and the streets were all blocked so it only took us three hours to get the car back!! On the upside we felt that we had got a real grip on the city's streetplan! That afternoon the weather was beautiful so we went up the CN Tower to the very top skypod anbd looked down over the city. Very cool. The highest observation desk in the world..
Monday we did boring jobs like internet and laundry and then met my Godmother Brenda and her husband Alan who live in Toronto for a meal in the downtown area. There too we bored them with long stories of our travels....! Think what you lot back home have to endure when we get back!! haha. No, we had a lovely evening chatting with them and eating delicious food.
Tuesday we caught the Toronto Island ferry across the water from the city to get some nice city shots with the camera and then walked to the University area and the historic Distillery area of the city. Did some window shopping in the many many shops and underground malls.
Yesterday (Weds) we caught our penultimate flight from Toronto to Chicago. We are staying with a lovely couple who we met in Patagonia, Argentina called Matt and Andrea who have opened their doors to us for the time we're here. We went out for a nice meal with them last night and are off sightseeing in the city today because the weather is beautiful. Tomorrow we'll also sightsee and then on Saturday there is a big American Football match which we're going to watch in a bar and then Sunday we'll spend the day in the city with Matt and Andrea.
Monday our flight leaves at 6pm US time and we arrive back at Heathrow at 0635 Tuesday morning..
CAN'T WAIT TO SEE ALL OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AGAIN!!! XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Becs and Carl xx
