Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Canada

  • United States – Amtrak Trip Cancelled but Canada on the Horizon

    United States – Amtrak Trip Cancelled but Canada on the Horizon

    With some sadness, I’ve ditched my plans to complete the next stage of my Amtrak adventures in the United States when I wanted to go from Chicago to Seattle and then back down the west coast to Los Angeles. I’m not confident that I would be safe under the current political leadership, but, instead, I’m switching my attention to Canada and seemingly they have something called Via Rail which is the equivalent of Amtrak.

    Here’s the route map and it all looks rather lovely, so I’m now on the lookout for a cheap flight to Canada….

  • Toronto – Toronto Zoo

    Toronto – Toronto Zoo

    Just photos from Toronto Zoo, and these are from a phone camera in 2015, so they’re not very sharp. The other highlight of this large and well managed zoo were the pandas, now sadly departed to another location. On the suburbs of the city it took me a relatively long bus journey to get there, but it was worth the trip and wasn’t particularly busy. The zoo first opened in 1974 and has been expanded on numerous times over the years.

  • Toronto – Toronto Zoo (Pandas)

    Toronto – Toronto Zoo (Pandas)

    These photos date back to 2015 and were taken when Toronto Zoo had two pandas on loan, the female Er Shun and the male Da Mao. The pandas were on a ten-year tour of Canada, spending five years in Toronto from 2013, until they moved to Calgary in 2018. They were to give birth to two cubs whilst they were in Toronto and the whole family later moved to Calgary, although the two young pandas (named Jia Yueyue and Jia Panpan) went back to Chengdu in early 2020.

    I was impressed at this display at Toronto Zoo, as although there was a bit of a queue, it got visitors nearer to the pandas than in some other zoos. This didn’t detract from the amount of space that the pandas had and they seemed happy enough. It seems that several videos of the pandas went viral from their time in Toronto and it helped the zoo reach some record attendances. It must have been quite sad for the keepers to have to say goodbye, as it also meant the closure of the entire panda area.

    One of the information boards.

     

  • Montreal – McDonald’s Poutine

    Montreal – McDonald’s Poutine

    I remember spending quite a lot of time in Montreal popping into restaurants for drinks and snacks, as it was so cold outside. Fortunately, Montreal is interlinked below ground, so it’s possible to travel quite long distances without surfacing into the snowy city.

    Back in January 2015, before the advent of self-service terminals.

    I had to try their “world famous” Poutine.

    For my tastes, I still think the cheese curds bit is superfluous, but the fries in gravy were delicious. I’m wondering though what chips, feta cheese and gravy would taste like, I bet it’s delicious.

  • Montreal – Snow

    Montreal – Snow

    Above are some of the history information boards, which I cleared to read the interesting facts underneath. The left-hand side was in French, so I saved time by leaving that half. And below are some more photos of the city under a reasonable covering of snow back in 2015.

  • Montreal – Five Guys

    Montreal – Five Guys

    One of the reasons I keep this blog up is that otherwise I forget easily where I’ve actually been. Looking back on these photos from 2015, I hadn’t realised that I had been to a Five Guys in Canada. It was back in January 2015, when there was snow on the ground and it wasn’t exactly warm outside.

    Unlimited soft drinks.

    It’s hard to photo Five Guys hot dogs to make them look appetising, as they fall apart and don’t look very interesting. But, they’re excellent, and the little fries aren’t really that small a portion.

    I can’t add much to this, since I’d forgotten that I’d even been here a few years ago, but I’ve checked and the restaurant, which is located on McGill Street, is still trading. Well, it will be when this virus is over.

  • Montreal – Berlin Wall Fragment

    Montreal – Berlin Wall Fragment

    This piece of Berlin Wall is located in the World Trade Centre in Montreal.

    The section of the wall was given to the city of Montreal in 1992 from the city of Berlin, as part of the Canadian city’s 350th birthday.

    The section was brought from a location near to the Brandenburg Gate. It’s from the fourth stage of the wall’s construction, known as Grenzmauer 75, which was built between 1975 and 1980. There were 45,000 pieces of concrete involved in that rebuilding effort, which lasted until the war fell in 1989.

  • Montreal – Montreal Library (Duplicates)

    Montreal – Montreal Library (Duplicates)

    I wonder just how many copies of a book that one library needs….

    These were the Lonely Planet books in French, there were an equal number in English….

  • Montreal – Valentine

    Montreal – Valentine

    It’s important to visit independent restaurants when travelling, but I can’t resist popping into some local fast food chains as well to see what they offer. Valentine is a burger and hot dog restaurant which was founded in Quebec and which now has around 100 outlets.

    It was a hard decision, hot dog or burger…..

    I went for the burger. Poutine is often called the national dish of Canada, although it is from Quebec and they’re very proud of it. To be honest, I’m quite happy just with the chips and gravy, I’m not too bothered about the cheese curds, but when in Montreal I felt the need to eat like the locals….

    All was fine, pretty good value and I’d happily go back.