A few pictures from our three days in Toronto.
I arrived the day before and stayed at a Mariott Courtyard Hotel at Younge and College, a 10 minute ride by the subway to Union Station. Surprise, my Presto card from last year had 9 bucks of credit on it. Not sure where that came from, unless I had to put value on the card when I bought it, and didn't end up suing it because I also bought a day pass.
Back to Union Station on Friday and a ride on Go Transit to Kitchener and the ION light rail between Kitchener in Waterloo. A full day.
Cab car end of our very long GO train.
Kitchener train station. It's also used by VIA for its Toronto-Sarnia trains.
ION light rail that connects Kitchener to Waterloo. We had to walk about 10 minutes from the GO station to the light rail stop, but according to a sign near the light rail stop, they will be building a new train station right nearby. The ION service is mostly light rail but runs as a streetcar through downtown Kitchner and downtown Waterloo.
No Macy's or Nordstroms in Canada! We had lunch in a food court in a mall right out of the 1980s or 1990s. Nearly all the stores were occupied, and business traffic seemed decent. Obviously retail trends in Canda are a bit different than those south of the border.
The war memorial in downtown Kirchener. While other conflicts are mentioned, the focus seemed to be on World War I. Kitchener's name has an interesting history. The area was originally settled by Germans and the town was called Berlin. I imagine things got a little uncomfortable after 1914, and after some discussion the name of the town was changed in 1916 to honor Lord Kitchener, who was a famous British General and the Secretary of State for War until 1916, when he died after the ship he was traveling in hit a German mine.
Seating accommodations aboard the GO trains. They were reasonably comfortable, though I though the seat cushions were a bit hard. But I guess most GO rider don't travel the 2 hours it took us between Toronto and Kitchener. The trains cruised at ~100 km/hr, though they went faster after we left Guelph. In any event, we got back to Toronto at about 4 -4:40 PM.
A quick stop at the Library Bar at the Royal York Hotel for a very good, if expensive martini.
Toronto Union Station. The subway back to College, and then a nice dinner at a Persian restaurant where I enjoyed borani bademjoon, a grilled eggplant and yoghurt appetizer and Fesenjoon, chicken stewed in pomegranate and walnuts.
And that was it for the first day of the Gathering.
I arrived the day before and stayed at a Mariott Courtyard Hotel at Younge and College, a 10 minute ride by the subway to Union Station. Surprise, my Presto card from last year had 9 bucks of credit on it. Not sure where that came from, unless I had to put value on the card when I bought it, and didn't end up suing it because I also bought a day pass.
Back to Union Station on Friday and a ride on Go Transit to Kitchener and the ION light rail between Kitchener in Waterloo. A full day.
Cab car end of our very long GO train.
Kitchener train station. It's also used by VIA for its Toronto-Sarnia trains.
ION light rail that connects Kitchener to Waterloo. We had to walk about 10 minutes from the GO station to the light rail stop, but according to a sign near the light rail stop, they will be building a new train station right nearby. The ION service is mostly light rail but runs as a streetcar through downtown Kitchner and downtown Waterloo.
No Macy's or Nordstroms in Canada! We had lunch in a food court in a mall right out of the 1980s or 1990s. Nearly all the stores were occupied, and business traffic seemed decent. Obviously retail trends in Canda are a bit different than those south of the border.
The war memorial in downtown Kirchener. While other conflicts are mentioned, the focus seemed to be on World War I. Kitchener's name has an interesting history. The area was originally settled by Germans and the town was called Berlin. I imagine things got a little uncomfortable after 1914, and after some discussion the name of the town was changed in 1916 to honor Lord Kitchener, who was a famous British General and the Secretary of State for War until 1916, when he died after the ship he was traveling in hit a German mine.
Seating accommodations aboard the GO trains. They were reasonably comfortable, though I though the seat cushions were a bit hard. But I guess most GO rider don't travel the 2 hours it took us between Toronto and Kitchener. The trains cruised at ~100 km/hr, though they went faster after we left Guelph. In any event, we got back to Toronto at about 4 -4:40 PM.
A quick stop at the Library Bar at the Royal York Hotel for a very good, if expensive martini.
Toronto Union Station. The subway back to College, and then a nice dinner at a Persian restaurant where I enjoyed borani bademjoon, a grilled eggplant and yoghurt appetizer and Fesenjoon, chicken stewed in pomegranate and walnuts.
And that was it for the first day of the Gathering.
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