kevin_cambs_uk
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2003
- Messages
- 305
Canada Day 1
As part of the holiday package you were taken to and from the airport, which was great, the car could stay in the garage for once and I did not have to drive back after the overnight flight.
I took the day off before departure day and did all my packing. Me and the wife pack separately as I hate anyone packing for me ! So I spent the day finishing off all the housework, cleaning the car, charging all the batteries for camcorder, PSP etc, and all last minute instructions for our daughter.
I had spent hours on google maps and street view looking up all the cities we were going to, for restaurants, shops and to get a visual image of what these new places would look like. I had a note book with all this info in, and routes and maps all hand drawn so I would not get lost and would know how to get to the things we wanted.
Most of the trips were pre booked, and I had to ring Toronto today just to confirm pickup on Thursday from the hotel to go to Niagara Falls.
Next day up at 6. 6.30 our driver turned up to pick us up and drive us to the Airport. Very nice chap, and the traffic to Heathrow was bad, and I am glad I did not have to drive. Dropped us off at the terminal and in we went. We were flying Air Canada, again a first.
Through to departures, and when you reach here, I can't help but think, blimey theres thousands in here and its too small. We had a lovely breakfast at a place called Marmalade, but not cheap, £40.00 for the 2 of us.
but were on holiday I suppose !
The gate eventually popped up on the screen and we wandered down. There was not enough seating so we had to sit near the corridor, and even the Ben and Jerry ice cream vending machine was not working.
Onto the plane, and the seat at the back system was great, superb selection of movies which you could pause and rewind at your leisure, plus the seats had USB sockets in them so you could charge your USB things.
I had become addicted to Pearl Jam live albums and had recently purchased an iPod Touch, so I listened to that for 7 hours, but also used the iPod to write all my notes about the holiday on, and also played solitaire for hours ! I had also downloaded a currency converter app.
The iPod proved to be so useful it was unreal, 3 out of the 5 hotels had free Wi Fi so we were able to keep in touch with home, notes were better than the pad I had always used, and there was no more guessing about currency costs. I never used the PSP ever while on holiday, plus its a music player too.
We arrived in Toronto and when we touched down and looked out the window it was just like in Florida!, it reminded me of it so much. Through customs with one very simple form, which you just handed in when exited with your luggage. Nice big airport and then we had to find the bus terminal in the airport to get the appointed bus company to collect us. I found the wrong bus terminal but they pointed us in the right direction, and when I arrived they had already called them for another customer so we just had to wait to 10 mins.
Lovely warm weather awaited us outside but not humid. Drive to the hotel was about 30 minutes, and there was just us and one other couple on the bus. Arrived at the Hilton and in we went. Check in was smooth and swift, straight up to the room, 22nd floor and a superb view of the tower !
Great room, nicely decorated, in room safe, and nice coffee machine.
We dropped the bags off and straight out. We had one problem, in that I did not realise that our mobile phones were not Tri Band, and so did not work when we got off the plane. My Father in Law had been diagnosed with a terminal illness about a month earlier, and so my wife wanted to keep in touch. We set off from the hotel to try and get a phone !
I had done my research and using Google street view, easily recognised the streets, and where to go, so we headed off to the Eaton Centre where we got a phone, but the phone with a descent amount of credit set me back around £80.00. The exchange rate for us when we left was only 1.36, so everything was very expensive, and we had a look at the hotel restaurant for an evening meal, and it worked out it would be around £100.
So instead of going mad on the first day we found the food court in the shopping mall, and ate there, exactly the same as the Florida Mall food court. My wife had chinese, the usual 2 mains plus noodles ! And I had a greek dish.
It was here in Toronto that we saw a lot homeless people. Most would sit outside shops, like the 7-11 or would open the doors at shopping centres offering their Starbucks cup for money. Few would have funny card board slogans as a temp for you to give them some money, but while we were eating in the mall we were approached twice for 'spare change'.
I felt really sorry for them, its something I just didn't expect and it kind of ended the first day on a sad note for me, as I would hate to be in that position, but I gave them money when I could, guilt maybe? Dunno.
Anyway we finished up the food, and wandered round and ended up by the lake front, a really really nice place with superb views or Lake Ontario, we had an ice cream then wandered back to the hotel, found the 7-11 got some milk and juice, back, and then sleep, next day would be our visit to Niagara Falls !
First day over, great flight, nice to get here, Toronto was great, welcoming people, friendly, nice wide streets, easy to get around, some land marks to visit, but more importantly for me I felt really safe. It was as safe as walking in Cambridge where I live, and I liked that.
As part of the holiday package you were taken to and from the airport, which was great, the car could stay in the garage for once and I did not have to drive back after the overnight flight.
I took the day off before departure day and did all my packing. Me and the wife pack separately as I hate anyone packing for me ! So I spent the day finishing off all the housework, cleaning the car, charging all the batteries for camcorder, PSP etc, and all last minute instructions for our daughter.
I had spent hours on google maps and street view looking up all the cities we were going to, for restaurants, shops and to get a visual image of what these new places would look like. I had a note book with all this info in, and routes and maps all hand drawn so I would not get lost and would know how to get to the things we wanted.
Most of the trips were pre booked, and I had to ring Toronto today just to confirm pickup on Thursday from the hotel to go to Niagara Falls.
Next day up at 6. 6.30 our driver turned up to pick us up and drive us to the Airport. Very nice chap, and the traffic to Heathrow was bad, and I am glad I did not have to drive. Dropped us off at the terminal and in we went. We were flying Air Canada, again a first.
Through to departures, and when you reach here, I can't help but think, blimey theres thousands in here and its too small. We had a lovely breakfast at a place called Marmalade, but not cheap, £40.00 for the 2 of us.
but were on holiday I suppose !The gate eventually popped up on the screen and we wandered down. There was not enough seating so we had to sit near the corridor, and even the Ben and Jerry ice cream vending machine was not working.
Onto the plane, and the seat at the back system was great, superb selection of movies which you could pause and rewind at your leisure, plus the seats had USB sockets in them so you could charge your USB things.
I had become addicted to Pearl Jam live albums and had recently purchased an iPod Touch, so I listened to that for 7 hours, but also used the iPod to write all my notes about the holiday on, and also played solitaire for hours ! I had also downloaded a currency converter app.
The iPod proved to be so useful it was unreal, 3 out of the 5 hotels had free Wi Fi so we were able to keep in touch with home, notes were better than the pad I had always used, and there was no more guessing about currency costs. I never used the PSP ever while on holiday, plus its a music player too.
We arrived in Toronto and when we touched down and looked out the window it was just like in Florida!, it reminded me of it so much. Through customs with one very simple form, which you just handed in when exited with your luggage. Nice big airport and then we had to find the bus terminal in the airport to get the appointed bus company to collect us. I found the wrong bus terminal but they pointed us in the right direction, and when I arrived they had already called them for another customer so we just had to wait to 10 mins.
Lovely warm weather awaited us outside but not humid. Drive to the hotel was about 30 minutes, and there was just us and one other couple on the bus. Arrived at the Hilton and in we went. Check in was smooth and swift, straight up to the room, 22nd floor and a superb view of the tower !
Great room, nicely decorated, in room safe, and nice coffee machine.
We dropped the bags off and straight out. We had one problem, in that I did not realise that our mobile phones were not Tri Band, and so did not work when we got off the plane. My Father in Law had been diagnosed with a terminal illness about a month earlier, and so my wife wanted to keep in touch. We set off from the hotel to try and get a phone !
I had done my research and using Google street view, easily recognised the streets, and where to go, so we headed off to the Eaton Centre where we got a phone, but the phone with a descent amount of credit set me back around £80.00. The exchange rate for us when we left was only 1.36, so everything was very expensive, and we had a look at the hotel restaurant for an evening meal, and it worked out it would be around £100.
So instead of going mad on the first day we found the food court in the shopping mall, and ate there, exactly the same as the Florida Mall food court. My wife had chinese, the usual 2 mains plus noodles ! And I had a greek dish.
It was here in Toronto that we saw a lot homeless people. Most would sit outside shops, like the 7-11 or would open the doors at shopping centres offering their Starbucks cup for money. Few would have funny card board slogans as a temp for you to give them some money, but while we were eating in the mall we were approached twice for 'spare change'.
I felt really sorry for them, its something I just didn't expect and it kind of ended the first day on a sad note for me, as I would hate to be in that position, but I gave them money when I could, guilt maybe? Dunno.
Anyway we finished up the food, and wandered round and ended up by the lake front, a really really nice place with superb views or Lake Ontario, we had an ice cream then wandered back to the hotel, found the 7-11 got some milk and juice, back, and then sleep, next day would be our visit to Niagara Falls !
First day over, great flight, nice to get here, Toronto was great, welcoming people, friendly, nice wide streets, easy to get around, some land marks to visit, but more importantly for me I felt really safe. It was as safe as walking in Cambridge where I live, and I liked that.
Meals at the airport are always the most expensive of the holiday, it's just rip-off Britain milking you the last time before you disappear!
