Toronto Day 1
Seeing Niagara had been my wish for long. In 2001 I went to USA but since my travel happened just after 9/11, I could not visit many places and came back without going to Niagara. Now before leaving Iceland, I thought it is a good opportunity to visit Toronto, which is 5 hours flight from Iceland and the programme was made. My daughter too planned to accompany us and came to Reykjavik, so that we could go together.
We knew that my children’s Maths teacher in Tripoli had immigrated to Canada and they were living in Toronto. We had a few visits to their home in Tripoli, so I called them and asked them to book B&B for us. Both husband and wife were too generous to offer us to stay with them. For a strict vegetarian like me, it was more than a boon. I saluted their goodness, warmth and hospitality and started our journey from Reykjavik to Toronto. Iceland has two of top 10 waterfalls of the world. I had seen both and was very much excited to see the one more in the top 10…i.e. Niagara Falls. We reached the tiny airport and boarded the flight for Toronto. The excitement level was high….will Niagara be more beautiful than Gulfoss ?
Gulfoss Golden Falls in Iceland
Soon the plane left the airport and we were airborne
Iceland airport
After about 3 hours we entered the terrain of North Canada. Although it was end of April still the whole area was frozen and was looking beautiful. I could see the frozen rivers and remembered the Discovery Channel’s ice-road truckers who would be driving on these frozen rivers
Arial view of North Canada -all frozen
The small Canadian islands were looking like paintings from above…. almost the whole of North Canada looked unpopulated.
small canadian islands
At around 7 pm we reached Toronto airport. Our friend Sukhdev was waiting for us at the airport we were meeting after 18 years..Sukhdev had become mona from turbaned sikh so I did not recognise him, but he recognised us and came and hugged us with real Punjabi warmth.
We were ferried to Missisauga, a suburb of Canada, just 15 mnts drive from the airport. Sukhdev had a beautiful house which was going to be our shelter for the next 5 days.
Missisauga, where we stayed
Punjabi market in Canada
The next day we went to the nearby train station (Streetsville) and took the train to Toronto… the train dropped us at central station in 35 minutes
Metro station
So finally we were in the city of Toronto !!! बड़ा शोर सुनते थे पहलू में दिल का… जो काटा तो कतरा खूं का ना निकला was the first lines which came to my mind. Anyone who has lived in a small town in India and has never seen any foreign country, will certainly like Toronto. I was actually not happy to see Toronto, as it was a common city with lot of high rise buildings and construction going on almost every where. The name Canada and Toronto had made some beautiful impression in my mind, which was shattered and Iceland suddenly started looking more beautiful.
Anyhow we moved towards CN tower which was first on the watch-list. From outside it did not look impressive. I have seen Eiffel Tower many times and gone on top of it 8 times… hence CN tower was no excitement. The only good thing was that it offered a Edge-walk where they would tie ropes around the person and one can walk on the outside walls of the tower, feeling like one is hanging in the sky…but the sheer fear of height did not allow us to try that. Weather was also not clear hence the views were not awesome and our 48 dollars per person seemed wasted on CN.
CN Tower at a glance
CN Tower reception
Posing with a model of CNT
View of Toronto from CN Tower
The lift also had glass floor and watching down brought goose bumps…. the lift’s speed was very high and soon took us to the first floor, which is about 1000 feet from the ground
Lift’s glass floor
View of Toronto from CN Tower
Some portion of the tower was made of strong glass and we can stand over it. Seeing down from the height of about 1000 feet brings shivers in the body.
View from glass floor
View from highest point sky-pod
from sky-pod
After enjoying the tower heights we came down and saw a 3D movie and a ride simulator, which was included in the ticket. Besides CN is the Ripley’s Aquarium which is biggest and best in Canada. We entered the Aquarium.
Ripley’s Aquarium
The dangerous lagoon in the aquarium is the place where they have kept sharks and there is a tunnel over your head…. sharks are roaming freely with other fishes, not eating them. It was first time I saw a shark so near.
Sharks area
Shark
She is angry ? or shakal hi aisi hai?
Diver feeding and playing with sharks
sting ray
Jelly Fish
another type of jelly fish
Quite refreshed by the aquarium, we came out. The weather was still bad so we decided to return home and come back the next day to finish Toronto yatra..
(will continue in next part)
???? ?????, ???? ??? ?? ??? ???? ??????? ??????? ?? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ???? ???, ????? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?????? ?? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ???????? ?? ????? ???? ???????. ??? ???? ??? ?? ? ?? ??? ??? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ???????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ?? ????. ??????? ?? ???? ????. ???? ??? ?? ??????? ?? ?????? ?????.
(?? ????? ??? ‘??-???’ ???? ?? ??? ????? ????? ???? ?????-???? ?? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ?? ?? ???-??? ?? ???? ?? ?? ????? ??????-????? ?? ?????? ?? ?? ????? ?? LOL..).
??????? ??????? ??… ????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??
beautifully written and equally supported by awesome pics , especially first one.
Thks Mahesh ji
Nice description and some beautiful photos. Waiting to see your next post published soon and we don’t wait much to get the charm of it.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Anupambhai.. hope I will post soon
I have same/similar feelings about big cities like Toronto. I have been there only once (2001) for 2 days and that should not count but yes those big tall buildings of HK or KL or another place, kind of just doesn’t make the cut. But the Aquarium looks awesome. Thank you for sharing these beautiful pics.
Awaiting next chapter.
Tks Nandanbhai. If we remove Niagra from Toronto… nothing is left…
Hello Sir,
Good to see you back here :-)
Flawless description as usual, hoping it will pick up steam as we get close to Niagara.
Regards.
Thanks Bhaskarji… happy to see you after long time
Hi SS Sir
???? ????? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ????
???? ??? ?? ?? ?? ?? ???, ?? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??? ??? !
?? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ??????? ???? ??, ?? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ???????
??????? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ??? ???? ??? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ???… :)
???????? ????? ??… ?????? ????? ??????….
????? ????? ????? ?? ????? ?? ????? ??? LOL
I just felt awesome looking at those awesome aquarium pictures….I so wish we have something like that in India…
The jelly fish pictures are too good.. too…
Thanks Prasadji for your time to read and comment
S.S. Sir,
Sorry for the delay. I was on Yamunotri and Gangotri tour and could not check the site.
Nice post with good description .Awesome pictures, totally speechless. No words to describe.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Sehgal ji.. gr8 that you went on 2 dham yatra…
Please share your travel to Yamunotri and Gangotri because many like me may be waiting to know the situation after the calamity last year..
Thanks for your comments
Hello S.S. Ji….
As always your this post is so excellent, Informative and fill with so nice of colorful pictures of around the Toronto city.
Pictures just like professional and Wonderful.
Thanks
Ritesh Gupta
Thanks Riteshji… purane mitron ke comments ka hi intezar kar raha thha :)
Hi SSji,
Beautiful post and beautiful photos of Toronto!
Why do Indian planes have streaky windows – can never get such clean and clear photos looking out of them!
Nirdesh ji Thanks for your comments. Last year I travelled in Air India dreamliner on Del-Frankfurt route and this time the windows were very clean.. see the photos in my Himachal yatra series.
Icealandic planes are washed before flying to remove the ice etc and there is no dust here perhaps that is why the scenes were visible :)
SSji, there have been several reports of windshields cracking in AI Dreamliners. Maybe in your flight they had removed all windows – that is why you got ‘clear’ view!
LOL… that was a technically very classic joke… Tks Nirdesh
S.S. Sir,
Nice description with mind blowing snaps. For the people like us who never peeped out of India it is a treat to eyes. CN Tower seems exciting……8 times on the top of Eiffel, sounds great…you are fortunate enough sir.
Thanks for sharing….
shukriya bhalse ji
Hello SS ji ,
My Apologies for not reading this post before.I seriously missed the chance of meeting you.We live very close to CN tower. Infact your picture (View from highest point of Sky deck) covered my building too.Alas!
Good to see your post.I was recalling all my memories of last year when we visited CN tower for the first time.Aquarium is really good.
Thanks for sharing such a nice post.
Regards,
Abhee
thanks Abhi.. yes I really wanted to meet you… may be next time :)