Tourists in Toronto

Our trip to Canada was a family holiday and we didn’t have to put much effort into working out our agenda for the week - our Canadian-based relatives saved us the trouble. With a white Christmas and frantic Boxing Day shopping ticked off the list, we embarked on a day trip to Niagara, over an hour south of Toronto.

Niagara Falls...tack-o-rama

Before visiting eponymous famous falls, we stopped in at Niagara on the Lake, a quaint little town (extremely touristy but not lacking in charm) filled with immaculately tended historic wooden buildings, specialty shops, cafes and restaurants. From the lakeshore, the view was less than spectacular on account of the rainy, foggy weather – the temperature had once again bounced above zero. But you could still make out the impressive Fort William across the other side of Lake Ontario, on the US side of the border. I had a delicious bowl of steaming Atlantic mussels in a curry-flavoured broth at the local Irish pub for lunch.

I had been forewarned about the town surrounding Niagara Falls, so my expectations were well-managed. It’s probably the tackiest, most gimmicky place in Canada, rivalling Vegas with its bright neon lights, casinos and kitsch entertainment.

The Falls...pretty misty unfortunately

There’s an imitation Tussaud wax museum, some kind of Ripley’s Believe it or Not amusement and the streets are bursting with “Canadiana” souvenir shops selling maple leaf everything. I guess Niagara Falls is what happens when a town wants to attract families to its one tourist attraction, which is awe-inspiring for adults to gaze at but not necessarily all that interesting to kids. 

Unfortunately the fog hung low, adding to the mist clouds already generated by the raging falls, obscuring much of the best bits. The Niagara River forms part of the border between the US and Canada, and a smaller, less impressive version of the falls lie on the US side. It was amazing to stand right up close to the Canadian part and be drenched in mist, watching thousands of litres of water cascade into the abyss each second. But the falls paled in comparison to the much larger and leafier Iguazu Falls we visited on the Brazil/Argentina border in September, and made me wish I had seen Niagara first! 

Toronto City view from CN Tower

Now in full tourist mode, we descended on Toronto’s city centre. Our first stop was the CN Tower, which at 553 metres lays claim to being the world's tallest tower. As you might imagine it offers an unparalleled view of Toronto’s city, suburbs and out over Lake Ontario, although you might as well be looking out to sea because you can’t see as far as the other side.

The first viewing level, at 346 metres, is pretty tame, although it has a section of glass floor where you can look directly down to the street right below you. It makes your stomach churn a little (or a lot if you have a fear of heights!) when you walk out onto it. But it seemed only adults were being struck by vertigo, as it was most popular with kids, who were splayed across the floor, posing for photos and gazing down at the microscopic world below. We were then whizzed up to the second viewing platform, 100 metres higher up, which was a smaller circular walkway boxed in by slanted windows. You could lean over the barrier and stare directly down to the city below, which gave me a pretty good rush of blood to the head. 

Waiting for the Zamboni to clean the ice

We attempted ice skating at the downtown rink, but our timing was terrible. After waiting in line for nearly half an hour to rent skates (which were totally blunt and made my ankles roll in weirdly), we jumped on the ice only to be called off five minutes later so the cleaning machine could do its rounds. We shivered as the wind howled through – it was about -10 degrees - and our toes quickly went numb. Right on cue, the cleaning machine broke down, so it took about half an hour for the ice to be cleaned. We resumed skating, but it was so crowded with kids and teens in full-show off mode, weaving in and out of the hordes that we’d had enough after about 10 minutes.

A trip to North America wouldn’t be complete without attending a sporting event. We went to the NBA, witnessing the season’s first home game of the Toronto Raptors. Taking our seats in the nosebleed section, it soon struck me how incredibly steep the bleaches in basketball stadiums are. I suppose it means that more people can be crammed in without feeling too far away, so everyone gets a reasonable view of the action. 

Raptors' fan central!

The Raptors’ opponents, the Indiana Pacers, got away with an early lead in the first quarter, but by half time the scores had just about evened up. After this, the Raptors pulled ahead at times, but were then equalised by successive three-point shots from the Pacers. The Pacers then pulled away by about 10 points late in the third quarter, and despite valiant efforts by the Raptors to make up the difference, the Pacers ended up winning by five points. 

Although I like basketball, I don’t  follow the NBA so the game's outcome had no bearing on my enjoyment. I loved the atmosphere, the enthusiasm of the home side supporters, especially their attempts to psyche out the visitors by waving around complimentary white sports towels every time they had a foul shot.

The NBA is played at the Air Canada Centre, which is right in the heart of downtown Toronto and within easy reach of a string of bars and restaurants, to which we gravitated after the game. We had dinner and drinks at Fionn Maccools, yet another Irish pub. While it followed the standard Irish pub format, the food menu was a standout – I had the most delicious beef and kidney pie, topped with mash rather than the usual tough, flaky pastry. The burgers enjoyed by other members of our party looked equally delectable. 

We continued to posh Belgian-inspired beer hall Bier Markt. Again, this concept is nothing new, but the interior was pretty cool, very minimalist, dark and almost club-like, and there was a DJ who was playing some great old skool hip hop tracks – I even heard one of my favourite Pete Rock and CL Smooth tracks, The Real Hip Hop. And, unlike most bar DJs, he was actually mixing the records together properly! 

The most remarkable feature of Bier Markt is, unsurprisingly, beer. It has to have the most extensive selection of beers, Belgian and French (no really, there are other French beers besides Kronenbourg), German and Dutch, as well as drops from right around the world, the humble Coopers’ Sparkling Ale being the Australian contribution. 

So as well as having traditional Belgian abbey-brewed stalwarts like Leffe in bottles and Hoegaarden on tap, there were also Bavarian beauties Paulaner and Erdinger, Canadian boutique drops and a surprising number of US brews that seemed a cut above the terrible Budwiser and Miller brews.

After this much colder day, there was a pretty decent snowfall. We went for a stroll walking on a trail through the woodlands of suburban Toronto the next day as delicate snowflakes fluttered consistently down to a now sizeable blanket of snow. Winter wonderland achieved!