31 May - Gatineau to Toronto - Day 27 of TCE

It was a relatively short drive this day to Toronto. The timed the departure from Gatineau in such a manner as to beat the morning peak. However, by the time I was in Ottawa the morning rush hour was evident. Thereafter, the drive was smooth, without any holdups. The pleasant drive on the Trans Canada Highway brought me into Toronto earlier than I had anticipated. When I had looked up accommodation in Toronto on booking.com I had come across highly priced ones in downtown and the only one that looked reasonable was the one offered by North York University. I booked the accommodation there keeping in mind the experience I had in a University accommodation in North Bay. However, the one in North York University disappointed deeply.

I had a message from those in charge of the booking that I should get to 324 Cook Road and text to a number given on the door. When I reached there I found a number to call. The person at the other end asked me to go to another building for the check in. when I reached there a person of Chinese origin, with little knowledge of the English language, after a bit of muddling through, gave me instructions to take the key to a room from under the mat inside the building where I was to stay! He gave me a note mentioning the door number, WiFi password and the number lock. When I lugged the bags to the room mentioned I found that it was not ready for occupation. I went back to the building to meet the Chinese guy yet again. This time a Chinese lady, with lesser understanding of the language addressed my concern. She gave me another room on the third floor! The room was ready but was so bare that it did not have any facilities for either heating food or water. Ridiculous, I thought and surely will intimate the site to mention this prominently against the facility. The main door was meant to be kept locked, but it never was, giving free access to all and sundry compromising security. The building itself is very dingy and gave off smells that put me off totally. Since the rent for the accommodation had already been taken from my credit card there was very little I could do. I had to stomach it and stay for two days in that lousy accommodation.

After getting over the shock of the accommodation and sleeping off the frustration I called up a Chevrolet service station in the Auto Hub. They told me that they could attend to the matter. I reached the Roy Floss service centre soon and described the problem to a lady at the desk. She came out and checked the warning on the dash and told me that that I would have to get her the authorisation from Hertz to change the oil, as I was not the owner of the vehicle. I connected to Hertz Customer Care and got her the requisite permission. I had to wait just over half hour in the lounge when the oil change was done and the car was given a decent wash. The service was free and I only had to sign the invoice. The attention at the Roy Foss service centre was immaculate and I was happy that the matter had been resolved. I could be at peace for the rest of the two week journey.

The next task was to find appropriate parking near the CN Tower, around which most of the attractions are situated. Uncle Google came to my assistance. It pointed me to the Torpark facility, almost bang in front of the Tower. The pleasant guy at the entrance charged me C$ 20 and said that I could park there till 11 pm, which gave me about five hours in the area. On the way to the CN Tower, toward my right, was the massive Rogers Centre, the home of Blue Jays, the local baseball team. It was a great experience to watch three double decker Go Trains all at once passing a busy intersection near the Rogers Centre. I managed to get a combo ticket online for the Tower and Aquarium, helped by the girl at the booking counter who said that would be cheaper to do that instead of buying at the counter. She even connected me on WiFi to their network to complete the transaction. Once the ticket had been bought I decided to go through the Ripley’s Aquarium first so that I could take the Tower in time for the sunset and lights.

Near the Aquarium I spotted a few railway coaches and engines parked. I went closer to the exhibits and hit pay dirt. It was the massive open heritage rail museum. The centrepiece of the museum was a turntable serving a roundhouse that may have housed up to 30 steam locomotives in a lot. The massive roundhouse, the steam locomotive shed, has now been converted into an entertainment, event and food centre. The place is so vibrant that I didn't feel bad about the passing away of the steam era, for once. Many relics of the steam era, including the Don Railway station, has been preserved for people to visit. Most of the attractions, including the CN Tower, stands on erstwhile railway land. The Canadian National Railway had built the tower in 1976 and hence, its name.

The Ripley's Aquarium of Canada has been wowing visitors since 1997. It holds more than 5.5 million litres of water to house more than 16000 sea and freshwater exhibits from all over the world. There are shallow tanks to feel a bamboo shark and crab. The exhibits are extremely well explained and there is so much information about marine and aquatic life that one needs more than a couple of days to do full justice to the facility. In Ripley’s inimitable style it has a frogfish on display that cannot swim but can only walk. It shoots water from its gills to move. The Bichir is a fish with primitive lungs that makes it surface every now and then to breathe! The female Mouth Brooder lays her eggs by holding them in her mouth for ten days and the mantle shrimp has a punch the force of a .22 calibre bullet!

The CN Tower was one of the tallest freestanding structures of the time when it was inaugurated. The lift takes one up 114 floors in 58 seconds, travelling at 22 km per second! At the heart of all visitor tours, this tower provides panoramic views of the city and the neighbourhood. Of particular interest was the outlying Toronto Islands that are under imminent threat of flooding due to continuing rain. Local TV networks carried warnings about it. The views as the lights come on are magical. The sunset view was poor due to misty conditions.

After a sumptuous dinner of Pizza Poutine at the Boston Pizza outlet I drove back to the accommodation via the Casa Loma. The museum looked majestic in the lights and a wedding function was on at the time of my visit, as it is rented out for functions after museum hours.