Across the harbour
A short ferry ride
5 September 2007
I had suggested to Jean-Jacques that we ought to take a boat ride out across the harbour to the islands opposite Toronto. I could remember making the trip twenty years ago and although there might not be much to see or do at this time of the year it would give us a view of the skyline and the CN Tower from a distance.
What to do with old gloves
The subway was just a trifle more packed now that everybody was back to work but had us down to the railway station within the half hour. Although it appears to run well the Toronto Transit Authority have advertisements on the subway asking for opinions about the future of local transport. Toronto it explains is broke and after years of underinvestment the transit system is in a mess.
Walking down to the harbour we were just in time to catch the ferry heading over to Wards Island and fifteen minutes later we had docked on the far side.
I had been right in thinking that we wouldn't have much to do, but neither of us felt like walking any further and we were here for the view and the sunshine. Our day had started out museum weather grey and had even threatened to rain but by the time we had reached Casa Loma the sun had come back out to play again.
I tried taking some photos from along the shore line but the sun was just in the wrong position so we wandered on a little further. People live on the island and we walked across one of the wee bridges by the marina and down through the houses.
It was all very tranquil with sprinkler systems watering the gardens and the odd cat here and there basking in the sun. We found a bench on the water's edge and sat down to watch the world go by for an hour.
A feller came along in a wet suit looking for one of the other marinas and was intrigued to find that we we were from France. JJ started to talk in English but the guy insisted that he didn't get much chance to use his French and that he wanted to talk to us in French.
He asked us about house prices and said that what he would really like to do in life was buy a villa in the south of France. We explained that in that case he would need to start saving his centimes because we were under the impression that Canadians found house prices expensive in France. Perhaps not somebody from Toronto but others I have had out on the battlefields have expressed their dismay at housing costs.
Our hour and a bit was up and we wandered back to the jetty and our ferry back to Toronto. We picked seats in the front of the boat to get a good view and off we went: around the island, which was an unexpected turn of events.
As we docked at the second jetty of three on the island we could hear a lot of noise and singing - it was a party of the local university freshers who were on their way back to campus.
We had already come across a multitude a few days before hand in the Eaton Centre on Yonge Street. Each faculty was wearing different coloured t-shirts and that first time a lot of the science people were purple. Today everybody was just people coloured.
The boat was soon crammed with giggling youngsters, vows of eternal friendship, and how all this was just so awesome.
I stood and took photos as we sailed round to the next jetty and then headed for Toronto. JJ sat on the bench surrounded by awesome students, who were having an awesome time and were in general awesomed out. Not sure that I heard that anything had been neat as well.
The good thing about our unexpected and elongated traverse was the fact that we were now coming back into Toronto by a different angle with the sun behind us. I had been worrying about having photos bleached by the sun but the views were exceptional.
Once more on dry land we wandered back to our hotel.
A late salad whilst watching Arsenal beat Plymouth in Hoop's Bar and we were ready for an early night. Tomorrow was Jean-Jacques' big day. A dream come true, we were off to see Niagara Falls.
An early start with a train to catch. JJ was already so excited he hadn't slept properly for days.
See also