Toronto (12-20.11.18)

With the taxi we drive to 8th Charlotte Street in the middle of Toronto's entertainment district. The view over the city lights from the 26th floor is nice.

We start our first day in the city with a walking tour. Dave, our guide, gives us some information about the history and some facts and figures about the city. Only about 12% of the population are Canadians (whatever that means). Torontonians speak over 180 languages. A real multicultural society. Ruedi, whom we meet for lunch, says, 'No one cares about color, religion, etc. either you're sympathetic to me or not'.

Dave's machine-gun staccato, fortunately in understandable English, demands a lot of concentration. He shows our small group some sights across the city and explains how the 'PATH', Toronto's underground, works. Some of the stars on the Canadian Walk of Fame are surprising. Besides the great Canadian hockey stars and some well-known, great artists like Glenn Gould, for example, the 'actress' Pamela Anderson surprises (ok, she is a 'starlet') or Michael J. Fox (I didn't know he's Canadian). Even Captain Kirk was in the service of the United Federation of Planets (William Shatner). The discussion heats up at Céline Dion's star as to whether she is Canadian or Swiss. We agree that she has probably become more of an American in the meantime. The story surrounding the statue of Mr. Rogers, the mobile phone pope of Canada, in front of Rogers Centre, the baseball stadium and home of the Blue Jays, is also special. It is widely cordoned off because sports fans repeatedly try to topple the statue. In front of the hockey stadium, the Scotiabank Arena, there is a sculpture showing various hockey greats from the Toronto Maple Leafs team, that's what the fans want to see, not self-presentation by rich sports patrons.

The PATH system connects entire city blocks in the city center through, mostly underground, pedestrian tunnels. It is over 27km long and expansion is underway. The city constructs and operates the tunnels between the buildings, while the respective property owners take care of the spaces below their buildings. Over 1,200 shops, around 5,000 jobs, offer their services and products in this underground city, including restaurants, bars, fast food stands, car rental companies, banks, and more. After the cold, cutting wind in the streets during the first few minutes of our tour, it is clear why PATH is a success.

The Harbourfront Centre, a non-profit cultural center, offers public ice skating and a cool bar in addition to events of all kinds. One project of the city is especially worth mentioning: artists can apply for a fully equipped studio in the complex for which they have to pay very little rent. They also have the right to offer their products in the cultural center's store and earn money. The art committee of the center, responsible for admissions, recommends the best artists for regional and national exhibitions and provides a grant for transportation and on-site installations. This allows aspiring talents to reach a broader market and has sparked a small but sustainable 'culture culture' in Toronto.

The CN Tower serves as a welcome point of orientation for our explorations. Union Station impresses mainly with the masses of people that crowd its venerable halls and corridors during rush hour. Over 250,000 passengers use Canada's railway system via this hub every day. The station is overloaded and needs to be expanded. We were a little proud when Dave explained to the group that engineers had traveled to Zurich to study the renovation of Zurich's main station, with the subsequently built underground floors to accommodate the cross-city line. Santiago Calatrava, as can easily be seen, is the architect of the Brookfield Place. The old facade, which was integrated into the building, is very successful. St. Lawrence Market impresses with many local products and several impressive meat displays.

To be prepared for the coming cold days, we visit various shops on Queen Street, one of Toronto's shopping streets, the next day. Because the smaller stores no longer have all sizes and colors in stock, we drive to Yorkdale, a mega mall late in the afternoon. Exhausted but successful and satisfied, we return to our perch with snow and cold-resistant shoes, jackets, freshly waxed hiking pants, and city-ready corduroy pants. The dinner at Khao San Road right across from our entrance was so good that we had to visit the restaurant a second time. We just found it better than the food at Pai, the 'most mentioned best Thai' in the city.

Nina has booked tickets for the Christmas market in the Distillery District for Friday. Very nicely done, all the shops in the area are participating and are part of the market. We are particularly interested in the tasting bars of the local distilleries and breweries in combination with the kitsch at the stands in the alleys. While eating raclette, Nina tries to explain to the staff in a quiet moment that for a Swiss raclette, the cheese is melted longer and then scraped off the loaf. In Switzerland, you don't just heat the surface and then cut the cheese with a cheese scraper. 'They want me to do it like that', fully open to feedback and extremely adaptable :-).

How versatile and diverse the city is can be seen, among other places, in its various neighborhoods. Shops are often labeled in the original language of the operators or residents. Whether it's Polish in 'little Poland' on Roncesvalles Avenue with its many small shops, cafes, and bars, 'little Portugal' or Chinatown. At 'Mother's Dumplings' we treat ourselves to the house specialty before heading to Kensington Market, where you can find an eclectic mix of crazy and wonderful things. For cool pics of downtown Toronto, we first head to the roof of the parking garage. Later, we stroll through the streets lined with small vintage shops, bakeries, chill-out cafes, record shops, and often vegan, slightly quirky hipster hangouts. It becomes clear to us, especially when it comes to the marijuana vapors during their workshops, that Kensington is also a hotspot of counterculture alternative artists.

Our excursions through the city take us to many beautiful places where we can hone our camera skills. Nathan Phillips Square, Yonge-Dundas Square (Toronto's Times Square), Atrium Mall, Gooderham Building (also known as Flatiron), Skywalk Union Station, Brookfield Place, and Polson Pier, to name just a few.

After the 'kitsch' at the Christmas market, of course, we had to see the totally commercialized Christmas parade on Sunday. In addition to the Planters nuts, countless Ronald McDonalds, and the light blue teddy bear of the Montreal Bank, at least the Toronto Maple Leafs and Santa Claus passed by.

The next part of our trip is not yet completely planned, but we will meet Ruedi, a Swiss who leads the country's branch of a renowned chocolate manufacturer in Canada, on Monday afternoon. Thanks to his information, we can partially finalize the travel route to Quebec and book some overnight stays after lunch.

Toronto has a lot to offer, we really liked the city. We leave it a bit reluctantly, as we haven't seen everything yet. On Tuesday, we zoom off to the Niagara Falls in our rental car.

http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/craft/