Lake Ontario Area

Tuesday afternoon we set off from Ottawa to Kingston passing by the Thousand Islands. The Thousand Islands are actually a group of over 1800 islands of all sizes in the Saint Lawrence River, some of which are home to very expensive houses or entire estates. On Wednesday, we planned to visit the military museum in Kingston, a city with a rich military history. However, we found the entrance fee to be too expensive, so we simply drove through Kingston in the car and admired the beautiful houses by the lake. After that, we continued on to Sandbanks Provincial Park. Luckily, we had caught one of the few sunny and warm days (this year being the rainiest year in 135 years, which has already caused a number of floods), so we were able to swim in the cold waters of Lake Ontario at a great sandy beach. After warming up in the sun, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset at Dunes Beach before continuing on to Oshawa, where we once again slept in a Walmart parking lot.

The next day, we took the train from Oshawa to Toronto, which was much more pleasant than driving with Trudy into the city. Upon arriving at Union Station in Toronto, we first walked to the nearby CN Tower to inquire about a reservation at the 360 Restaurant, a revolving restaurant located in the CN Tower at a height of almost 360 meters. Luckily, they still had tables available for that evening, so we were able to combine this attraction with dinner (if you order at least 2 courses in the restaurant, the otherwise charged ride up the tower is free). Full of anticipation for dinner, we took a stroll through downtown. Strangely enough, we liked downtown with all its skyscrapers much better than the neighborhoods with low-rise buildings that were right next to the skyscrapers. Downtown just seemed much cleaner and more organized than the surrounding neighborhoods. Overall, we found Toronto to be a much more pleasant city than Montreal. Our dinner in the CN Tower was accompanied by another beautiful sunset and a great view of Toronto (the restaurant completes a full rotation every 75 minutes). The food itself was good: the appetizers were okay, but the main courses were very good. Afterwards, we took the train back to Oshawa and spent the night once again in the same Walmart parking lot. Friday morning, with a small detour to Cobourg, a nice little town with a beautiful town hall, we headed towards Rice Lake.