Hello Canada!

Sunday 7th September

We venture into Downtown Toronto

We were up at 6 a.m. for a decent cup of filter coffee using the room's coffee maker, then down to a breakfast of fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fried potato cubes, toast, marmalade and coffee ... pretty much like a typical English breakfast, except that in Canadian hotels, the toast always seems to come ready-buttered.

We took a taxi from the rank outside the hotel and paid $39 for the 20 mile trip into the centre of Toronto. We were dropped off at the harbour front and jumped straight into a boat doing trips on Lake Ontario, around the harbour area and the Toronto Islands, from which we had a magnificent view of the city, its skyline dominated by the massive CN Tower and the "Skydome" sports arena.

Residents on the islands use ferry services to pick up provisions in Toronto, and during the winter, when Lake Ontario is frozen to a depth of 4 inches an ice-breaking ferry is used.

When we got off the boat, we thought that having committed one challenging activity, (flying the Atlantic) we decided to challenge ourselves further by ascending the CN Tower. This is 1800 ft tall and is the tallest structure in North America. There is more concrete under the ground than above it. Ascending in one of the lifts (sorry, elevators for North American readers!) is either terrifying or exhilarating, depending upon your frame of mind at the time. The tower contains four continuous "windows" extending from top to bottom behind which each of the lifts operate. The lift doors are made of glass, so that once you start the ascent (at a speed of about 15 m.p.h.) and rise above the base of the tower the rapidly disappearing ground is starkly and continuously visible. The more squeamish occupants turn round and face the back of the lift! The main viewing area near the top is at about 1400 ft., but there is another observation point at the top. We didn't do that one. There is a revolving restaurant. Studies at the design stage showed that the average three-course meal took people about 70 minutes, and so the mechanism was timed to complete one complete revolution in 70 minutes. Just below the restaurant and main viewing area there is another viewing section with a glass floor apparently strong enough to support a large number of hippopotami. (None was present to put it to the test!) You could stand on this glass floor and look straight down to the ground. Scary! People were skirting around the glass panels like frightened rabbits.

At lunch time we tried several waterfront cafes but they were so busy we felt we would never get seated, but eventually we found one specialising in sweet and savoury crêpes, so we sat there on the open terrace under a sunshade devouring cheese and ham crêpes with side salad, and a glass of orange juice, watching the world go by. It all felt very Mediterranean, except that people were speaking English.

After lunch we bought tickets for a two-hour conducted tour of the city by minibus. The driver was very chatty and treated us all like friends and delivered a highly impressive and informative commentary on all the sights, drawing from a wealth of statistical information stored in his remarkable brain. How he did all this whilst simultaneously negotiating all the traffic was a minor marvel. All the people on our bus were "Brits" (including one of Pakistani origin who ran a Post Office in Nottingham). The driver told us that a few years ago all his passengers were Americans. Now, he said, since "9/11" "Americans weren't going anywhere", and in any case "they didn't like the Canadians any more since they had refused to join Bush's Iraq war!" He said that most of his passengers these days were British.

Toronto is a clean and pleasant city with attractive buildings, new and old. Their policy with regard to old buildings of historical interest is that when building new skyscrapers on the sites of such buildings, they preserve the old building within the lower part of the new structure; a novel approach. New development is also required to be accompanied by some form of "street art". Crime rates are low, and during the whole day that we spent in Toronto we saw less than half a dozen policemen and perhaps a couple of police cars (and there was a big baseball game on as well in the Skydome, attracting big crowds).

Our taxi driver picked us up at 6 p.m. and took us back to the airport hotel. A fantastic day was completed with an excellent dinner in the hotel restaurant; Chicken Pasta for me and Seafood and Couscous for Pauline.

On the Road

Monday 8th September

Wrong side of the road, wrong side of the car!

Now we start motoring. Discount Car Hire sent a driver to collect us and our luggage from the hotel. When we arrived at the car hire office he said "just leave your baggage on the footpath while we go inside and do the paperwork." We were concerned, but he said, "don't worry, nobody is going to touch your bags". And no one did.

After the paperwork they took us out and gave us a Chrysler Sebring - automatic gearbox, air conditioning, and cruise control. This was not my first experience of driving on the "wrong" side of the road, because we had driven many times in continental Europe, but always in our own car. This was my first time behind the wheel of a left-hand drive car, and it felt really weird. My perspective was shot to pieces. I pulled out gingerly into the road and off we went, desperately trying to gauge how close I was to the side of the road to my right. It was difficult to remember that I had half a car to the right of me, instead of just the familiar thickness of my door! The problem became acute when we hit the expressway to get out of Toronto travelling north. Multiple lanes of traffic, all full, large trucks with blaring horns, and road signs which were hard to understand in the heat of the moment. I nearly ran into the side of a truck to my right, because I had temporarily forgotten that most of my car width was now on my right hand side instead of the familiar left.

We missed the slip-road (they call it a ramp) for our road north, because we were in the wrong lane and couldn't get back into the right one. So we had to come off several miles along the road, turn round in a residential area and get back on the expressway in the opposite direction until we found our link with the road going north towards Owen Sound (our destination).

We had lunch in a charming little roadside restaurant and bar in a small village called Singhampton. The place looked nothing at all on the outside but was very nice and homely inside, and the lady running the place was charming, and kept asking "What would you like now, dear?" I had a Caesar Salad, garlic bread and some spaghetti. After lunch it was onwards to Owen Sound, on the banks of Georgian Bay. We only got lost once. We found the Best Western Inn on the Bay, on the waterfront, which was to be our stopover for the night; a pleasant hotel.

Dinner was Greek Salad, Georgian Bay Whitefish and baked potato. Every time we thanked somebody for something the response was the same - "You're welcome!"

That evening I tried out the mobile phone for the first time since arriving in Canada, and rang Roberta to let her know that we had successfully crossed the Atlantic. It was good to establish that the phone really did work on this side of the pond.

Then I received a text message from the phone company informing us that we should not use the charger because it was dangerous. We should contact them about the sending of a replacement. Now they tell us - just when we've arrived in Canada with a phone purchased specifically to use in North America. We decided that we'd have to carry on using the charger, if required, until we got home, and just keep a careful eye on it. (In the event it never did catch fire, so we didn't burn down any hotels!)

Heading for the USA & our First Internet Friend - Roberta

Tuesday 9th September

Bluewater Bridge Border Crossing

Today we headed for the USA, going west from Owen Sound and south on Highway 21 towards Sarnia and Bluewater Bridge (the US border). Whilst still in Ontario traffic was minimal, but we had to drive at the very sedate maximum speed of 55 mph on dead straight roads stretching into the distance for as far as we could see. It was relaxing, sometimes too relaxing, but when we hit the Interstate between Toronto and the USA the traffic was more intense, and as we approached the border at Sarnia we came up against several miles of trucks all backed up and queuing for the cross-border inspections. Fortunately, we could use the free outside lane to speed through to the border crossing. On arrival at the customs point the officer noted we had no Visa Waiver form and I asked if I could get one at this point. I also asked if I could use a "rest room" (i.e., toilets!) to which he replied I would have to go to the immigration office "to be inspected" first. I asked which part of me they would like to inspect, to which, fortunately, he laughed. We parked up and entered the Customs & Immigration office and we were seen by a very pleasant female officer. We filled out the required forms, showed our passports, and she wished us a pleasant vacation.

It has to be noted that our experience at this border crossing was a pleasant one, and all the officers we met, talked to, or observed talking to others, were good-humoured and courteous. (It was - to be honest - not quite what we had expected.)

And so we crossed the high bridge over the St Clair River into the USA and headed south and west, towards Romeo, Michigan. We arrived in Romeo about 4 p.m. and I was astonished to find I almost knew my way around the place, having talked to Roberta about it so much, as well as looking at Romeo websites, descriptions and maps. It was therefore easy to find her road of classy looking houses and also where we would find Brabb House - our B&B for this night.

We checked into Brabb House, which was run by a very pleasant lady. It was all Victoriana, and there was a lot of wedding stuff about, because she also had weddings conducted here. Our bed was the highest we had ever seen and a footstool had been provided to help us climb up on to it! Having sorted out our luggage we phoned our friend Roberta and arranged a suitable time for us to walk round to her place and meet up for the first time.

We walked comfortably to her house, and it was exactly as we had come to know from photographs. Her husband and two boys greeted us outside, and we went in to find our friend standing in her front room looking a little nervous.

We gave her a great big hug, and she opened the bottle of champagne I had sent her many months ago, and which she had been saving for this occasion. We doled out all our gifts, including some from our mutual friend from Shropshire, Jennifer (see left). After we had chatted for a bit we all travelled in their MPV to a restaurant called the Appletree Inn where we had a splendid meal. The waitress was well versed in all the varieties of everything that there was to be had. Salad? What kind? Dressing? What kind? Potatoes? What kind? I was introduced to a fish called Orange Roughy, which I had with French Fries. Delicious.

After the meal we returned to Roberta's house, and discussed our next meeting which would be in Algonac in a few days time, then walked back to Brabb House for a good night's sleep.

Crossing Michigan

Wednesday 10th September

From Delightful B & B to 4th Rate Motel

After a long breakfast chat with the owner of Brabb House we strolled around parts of Romeo, We drove out at 11 am, heading for Interstate 69 to start the next part of our journey, heading westwards across to the other side of Michigan. I was disappointed with the physical condition of the Interstate Highways; they were mostly made of concrete which, at the best of times, tend to make for a noisy ride, and some of this stuff was not in great condition. We had a lunch stop at McDonalds half way across. We noted that American McDonalds Restaurants seemed to be more civilised than those in the UK - i.e., fewer screaming kids and less noise from the oven alarms in the kitchen. In fact they seemed not to make a big deal of kids meals like they do at home. We picked up the I-96 at Lansing, heading for Grand Rapids, then the I-196 to a place called Holland, where we checked in to a Days Inn motel.

This was a miserable place, looking more like army barracks (inside and out). Our room was OK but it smelled a bit odd, and although the brochure left in the room stated that "for our convenience each room includes ironing board, iron, hair dryer and coffee maker", none of these actually existed. When we protested to the girl on reception she professed total ignorance of what was written in the brochure, and made some lame excuse about printing errors. (On our return to the UK I wrote a letter of complaint to the company's CEO in the USA. After several weeks it was returned as "undeliverable") This encounter was a significant deviation from the normal American concept of service.

The motel location was out of town on a busy cross-roads carrying a lot of commercial traffic. After taking our life into our hands crossing various roads, we eventually found a half-decent little restaurant serving Italian food, so at least we had a good evening dinner. By mid-evening we were the only ones left in the restaurant, and we began to get the general sense that Americans who go out to eat, start and finish their evening meals much earlier than we do.

Amish Country

Thursday 11th September

We get lost on the way

"9/11" ... a poignant date in the American calendar, and everywhere there were flags flying at half mast.

Today would see us in the Victorian Guest House, Nappanee, Indiana (Amish country).

This morning we left the Days Inn dump in Holland and travelled via Saugatuck, Michigan, where we stopped and had a walk around this beautiful little exclusive lakeside yachting community. (Feast your eyes on the public toilets mosaic!) Unexpectedly, we spied a Mini parked in the town - a reminder of home. After Saugatuck we headed south towards Indiana. Soon after crossing the State Line we got ourselves lost! Instead of skirting round the edge of South Bend on the Interstate, we took the wrong exit and found ourselves heading right into the middle of the town, then Benton Harbour which turned out to be a map-reading nightmare, but Pauline did her usual sterling map work and we eventually found our way on the road to Nappanee. Before reaching there we stopped off at Amish Acres - a beautifully developed commemoration of the Amish way of life, with visitor centre, theatre, restaurant, and gifts shop selling stuff prepared by the Amish people or goods developed in the style of the Amish people. It was here that I examined a fancy box of soap, only to discover that it had been made in Bradford, England!

There was a busy freight railroad nearby and we counted 130 wagons on a passing freight train.

The Victorian Guest House in Nappanee was an absolute delight, run by a pleasant lady (who was also very religious). She recommended a restaurant called the Country Table for our evening meal, so we took a walk down to the shopping area to find it. We encountered quite a few Amish buggies and some were tied up outside the local supermarket. (These buggies were driven at a fair old lick and were a match for any car in urban areas with a 30 speed limit.) The restaurant was a disappointment - friendly enough but the food left much to be desired, and I felt we'd have done better in the local Burger King! It was unlicensed too, so my stringy steak and over-cooked vegetables were accompanied by a glass of lemonade. The coffee tasted like washing up water. (Come to think of it, we'd not had a decent cup of coffee in a restaurant since we entered the USA.)

Sleep was difficult this night, on account of the freight trains running through the town every 20 minutes or so, with their mournful horns blaring and bells clanging at each and every crossing (of which there were many).

Second Internet Friend - Sue

Friday 12th September

Visiting Elkhart Indiana, then on to Ohio

Breakfast with all the other guests around one large table. A volunteer for saying Grace was called for, but there was none forthcoming, so the lady of the house said it for us. (I said she was religious, didn't I?) It was an interesting breakfast - fruit cake, bacon, some kind of quiche, muffin, coffee. Table conversation was lively and interesting. There was a couple from Northern Ireland, but he had come over to the US years ago to work with Boeing.

I telephoned Sue from the guest house, and she said she was on her way from Elkhart to Nappanee to take some photographs in connection with one of her community development jobs. She would meet us at the guest house. It wasn't long before she arrived and we met face to face for the first time. None of us felt the need to run a mile.

She suggested we join her on the photography session she had planned at a local housing development for elderly single people. We were introduced to some of the community development people and a couple of the residents, and also inspected some of the building work still ongoing. It was all very interesting, and the people we met were tickled pink about the fact that we had come from England and the reasons behind our visit.

We then followed her back to her home town, Elkhart, travelling through minor rural roads (all dead straight of course, and with many of those accursed 4-way Stop signs at cross roads) and finished up outside her apartment. She showed us around her stained glass studio, and we were pleasantly surprised when she told us she had made us a piece specially take back home. (It now hangs in our dining room window and looks stunning in sunshine).

We visited her local coffee bar together. Pauline and I had coffee and she had some weird fruit juice and iced tea concoction, then we had a walk and a chat by the river, before we had to leave and wend our way eastwards to Ohio. She told us that she would shortly be visiting London, to see the partner she had met on the Internet. She sounded serious about eventually moving to London to live with him, in which case we could easily keep in touch with each other.

Third Internet Friend - Marcia

We headed for the Indiana/Ohio toll road which would take us to our next overnight stop - and our third internet friend, Marcia. We were heading for Milan in Ohio (forget Italy! this is pronounced locally as "Mylen"). We arrived at the Red Roof Inn at about 6 p.m. and checked into a pleasant enough room, finding that our Marcia's daughter had been there before us and left us a basket of goodies - another example of the generosity and kindness that we found throughout this trip.

We had previously arranged to meet Marcia at the Homestead Inn Restaurant, Milan, and duly turned up at 7.30 p.m. just a few minutes before she arrived, accompanied by her daughter and her little girl.

We all had a good meal, during which our friend's daughter told us all about her drug awareness talks to schools (as a result of losing her brother to a heroin overdose a couple of years back).   See the Website  The meal was excellent and introduced Pauline to Clam Chowder (which she enjoyed) and as for me, well having had Orange Roughy the other night, I decided to have to same again, but our friend had Perch, and I tried a bit of that. I've never eaten it before, and I thought it was OK.

A lot of fish on restaurant menus in this region of course comes from the Great Lakes.

Norwalk, Ohio

Saturday 13th September

We find Marcia's house, (and a 1969 Pontiac Firebird!)

Breakfast at the Red Roof Inn was a spartan affair - self-service, with paper plates and plastic cups - juice, coffee, donuts, bread or toast and jam. After that it was off to Marcia's house in Norwalk. We got lost in the maze of residential roads thanks to some duff route instructions from Yahoo maps. We got there more or less by instinct, and found our Marcia's husband in his garage polishing their beloved 1969 Pontiac Firebird.

The housing estate was very pleasant, nice gardens, and plenty of trees.

We were taken around Norwalk town for a look in one or two shops and lunch at Berry's Restaurant, where I had veal cutlet and fries. The restaurant was very pleasant inside - classic 1930s.

After lunch we drove out to Milan and visited Edison's birthplace, which included a demonstration of his original phonograph.

The weather was unbelievably hot, and we were grateful for the car's air conditioning on the drive back. We then said a temporary goodbye to our friends and returned to the hotel to freshen up and get a change of clothes, before returning to Norwalk to join the family and friends in an evening "cookout" on the back patio. Everyone was incredibly nice and the kids entertained us with little performances of song and dance.

Algonac, Michigan

Sunday 14th September

We head West, North, around Detroit and on to a riverside retreat

We awoke to continued hot and sunny weather, checked out of the Red Roof Inn and headed back to the Ohio Turnpike, to go west towards Toledo, then north via Detroit - Interstates 75 and I94 - making for our next destination - Roberta's week-end house in Algonac, Michigan, next to the St Clair River. We appreciated her great generosity in letting us have the exclusive use of this house for three days and nights. It was a welcome change from hotels! The next-door neighbour had been forewarned of our arrival, and we knew where to find the front door key.

The freeways through and around Detroit were a high-speed nightmare but we made it without getting lost or hitting any other vehicle and finally found ourselves (after yet another McDonalds lunch) travelling eastwards along the shoreline of Anchor Bay towards Algonac, arriving there about 3 p.m., and found the delightful little house backing on to a little cut connecting with the St Clair river. All the properties round here had boats. In fact the general appearance of the place put us very much in mind of some parts of the Norfolk Broads. The Algonac waterfront along the St Clair river was clean and spacious with pleasant houses and boats, intersperced with an abundance of green open spaces.

Roberta and her family came over from Romeo and we all went out for dinner at a local restaurant. Pauline had a Sea Food Platter (which inexplicably included frogs legs!). There were butterfly shrimps, clam strips, cod, and walleye. I treated myself to butterfly shrimps with curly fries and coleslaw, with chocolate sundae to follow. It was all very good. On our return to the house we sat up late chatting and getting to know each other a little better. We all got on well, which was a relief and suggested, to me at least, that it was possible to turn internet friends into real friends. They returned to Romeo late evening leaving us the run of the house.

Our 41st Wedding Anniversary in "Motown"

Monday 15th September

A Tour of Detroit

There had been some overnight rain, but the day promised to be another dry and sunny one, which indeed it turned out to be. Roberta had programmed the coffee maker so that fresh coffee was ready for us when we got up, and we had a breakfast of coffee and banana bread, reading a copy of the Detroit News.

Roberta reappeared about 10.30 a.m and drove us into Detroit, for a tour around the city which included a visit to her radio station where she works as a well-known reporter and news anchor. We met her colleagues and also watched two of them working on air. It was a new and interesting experience. We stopped in the middle of Detroit for a Coney Island Hot Dog in a rough and ready diner - great! Roberta said that because I was wearing a jacket everyone would assume I was the boss taking his two secretaries out to lunch. I thought that was fine by me! After lunch we went to the Henry Ford Museum, where we saw a fascinating and widespread collection of vehicles ranging from the original Model T Fords to more modern cars. There was also the biggest steam locotomotive I'd ever seen. The collection included an MG sports car circa 1930s, and the car in which President Kennedy took his final fateful ride; still on the theme of assassination, the chair in which President Lincoln was shot whilst at the theatre was on display. (Lincoln's assassin, Wilkie, was hurt whilst escaping, and was eventually treated by a Doctor Mudd, much to everyone's disgust, from which the expression "his name is mud" is said to have originated.)

After the museum we made our way to a large arts and crafts superstore, in which Pauline spent a long time totally immersed in the vast collection of bits and pieces. This was followed by Roberta driving us into a Taco Bell drive-thru restaurant where she purchased a couple of large examples of their fare for me to eat in the car just so I could say I had partaken of a typical American fast-food meal. I had some difficulty eating it without exploding it all over the car dashboard. On our return to Algonac we had yet more food - roast chicken and garlic potatoes. We chatted all evening and listened to music on the CD player.

Final Day in Algonac - Final Day in USA

Tuesday 16th September

We inflict an English Roast Beef Dinner on unsuspecting Americans!

Continuing sunshine and dry hot weather, and a shopping expedition in Algonac for a parting gift, also some food shopping for Pauline's proposed roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding dinner - entertaining our friends to a meal this evening in their Algonac property. We found a superb supermarket called Farmer Jack and they had a good selection of international foods; we were able to pick some Australian wine, English mustard, English and French cheeses, horseradish sauce and an excellent piece of beef. On our quest for a gift we found a garden centre at which we bought an ornamental bird bath and placed it on the decking at the back of the house.

We got ourselves a picnic lunch from Farmer Jack's and drove to Algonac State Park near the St Clair River, and sat under the trees eating our sandwiches, watching the gigantic freighters plying up and down the river. Then it was back to the house to start preparing for the evening's "English Meal". We switched on the oven and filled the entire house with thick smoke! PANIC STATIONS! We opened up all the doors and windows and put the extractor fans full on. Eventually conditions returned to normal (after about half an hour) and the beef went into the oven.

We had Parma ham and melon for starters, then the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with peas, carrots, parsnips, broccoli and roast potatoes, followed by cheese and crackers, and some fruit tart that our friends had brought over. The meal appeared to be a success, (the Americans are so polite!) - there were no stomach cramps or food poisoning and there were even a few demands for seconds. Surprisingly the English mustard (much hotter than the American varieties) went down well.

After dinner our friends took us out in their motor launch on the St Clair river. We cruised upstream under power for about 3 miles and then drifted back with the current. Bliss.

We said our final good-byes late that night, there was much hugging and kissing and some tears.

And so we settled down for our last night in the USA feeling somewhat sad. Tomorrow we would start the return journey to Toronto, via Niagara Falls.

Back to Canada

Wednesday 17th September

Next Stop - Niagara Falls

We left Algonac at 10 in the morning to commence our drive back to Canada, crossing the Bluewater Bridge into Canada about an hour later. We had a long but uneventful journey to Niagara Falls (via London, would you believe!) arriving about 3 p.m. As usual we got lost trying to find our hotel, but eventually located the Skyline Inn. The place was packed; their car park was full and we had to get a hotel ticket allowing us to use the public car park on the other side of the square.

After settling into what seemed much like a block in an army barracks, (though the rooms were good enough), we took a walk around town, taking in the cacophony of sounds - music and voices blaring from loudspeakers outside shops, restaurants and amusement arcades. We suddenly found ourselves looking across a deep gorge, facing the famous Niagara Falls. (These are made up of three Falls - the "American", the "Bridal" - a small one adjacent to the "American" - and the "Horseshoe" Falls. ) The "American Falls" are on the U.S side of the river (that surprised you, didn't it?), and the "Horseshoe Falls" stretch from the American side to the Canadian side.

In the evening we had difficulty finding a decent restaurant. We tried the Hard Rock Café, but the music was so loud you couldn't speak to each other, and the lighting was so dim you couldn't read the menu, so we walked out, deaf and blind, and eventually found a very nice restaurant, where we had an excellent meal served by possibly the cheeriest waiter in the whole of Canada, for £30 per head. Here I tried Sea Bass for the first time and was not disappointed.

Niagara Falls

Thursday 18th September

Getting Wet, "Hello again USA", & a High-rise Romantic Dinner

Breakfast in the restaurant adjoining the hotel: two fried eggs, three sausages, hash browns and four slices of toast (all on one plate!). The Canadian practice for serving toast appears to assume that you want it ready buttered. It would have been a good breakfast had it been (1) hotter and (2) served on separate plates.

After breakfast we walked down to the Falls, and in Falls Avenue we encountered something totally unexpected ... a collection of old London Routemaster Buses being used for tours.

It was very strange seeing them here (complete with original sign boards for London destinations), as I used to go to school on these buses back in the 1950s. (Routemasters earned a reputation for reliability, longevity, and ease of use and a few are still being used in London today.

Sadly, and controversially, they are due to be phased out). The river below the Falls was about 180 ft below us. We took the lift down to the jetty for one of the "Maid of the Mist" boats. The assembled crowd donned the issued blue plastic waterproofs and we piled on to the next boat for a spectacular cruise, first alongside the American Falls, then up to the Horseshoe Falls (as close as we could get without being drowned or shipwrecked). It was an awesome experience with all that water cascading down at 150,000 gallons per second causing a perpetual mist and a noise like thunder.

On our return to the jetty, we took the lift back up to the terrace overlooking the Falls and had a snack lunch and a glass of beer.

We spent the afternoon shopping in Niagara, then walked over Rainbow Bridge into the USA (US Customs again!) to see the Falls from the American side viewed from a pleasant park alongside the water's edge just before it plunges over the edge. Returning to the Canadia side of the border, we did a bit more shopping and took a ride up the Falls Tower (a scenic revolving ride which reaches the top with a disconcerting bump before taking it's gentle spin down to earth again).

Evening saw us dining in the splendour of the Restaurant at the top of the Brock Plaza Hotel, overlooking the Falls which were by now spectacularly illuminated. It was the most spectacular setting and we had an excellent meal: Anti-pasta, Rack of Lamb, Tiger Prawns, Chocolate Mousse, Deep Fried Ice Cream.

Back at the hotel we watched TV for news of the progress of Hurricane Louise which had been devastating the United States eastern seaboard. It looked as though the tail end of the hurricane would be passing over us and into Toronto at about the time of our return to Toronto Airport. I phoned Air Transat for an update on flight times, and learned that our flight would only be 10 minutes later than expected, and would be flying to Manchester via Gatwick Airport (which was a bit of a surprise - we hadn't expected to be flying to the south of England to reach the north of England).

Our Last Day

Friday 19th September

Driving in the Tail-End of the Hurricane

The last day of our fabulous adventure: it ushered in the first bad weather we had encountered in two weeks ... the tail end of Hurricane Louise. We had a wet and windy drive on the Queen Elizabeth Way highway back to Toronto. We decided to come off the expressway before we hit Toronto, having bad memories of the traffic and chaos of interchanges and weird signposting, and so we had a leisurely drive through the western suburbs of Toronto, before finally returning our car to the Car Hire people. We completed the paperwork (from which we learned we had driven 1,800 miles) and they drove us to the airport terminal.

We had a late evening flight and so had time to wander around the terminal shops and sit around reading in the departure lounge (after the usual security checks). We finally took off on schedule leaving a wet and windy Toronto behind us.

The overnight flight was fine except for about half an hour of turbulence which was badly timed, being just after completion of our in-flight meal! We landed at Gatwick mid-morning of Saturday 20th September and re-adjusted our watches to UK time. Here some passengers left the flight, and some others who were en route to Toronto (via Manchester) got on. We spent a boring hour in a transit lounge before re-embarking for a 40 minute flight from Gatwick to Manchester. We landed in a cloudy, damp Manchester and made our way to the Radisson Hotel to pick up our car from the VIP Parking Service.

We were home by early evening, and settled down to ponder what it was we had actually achieved over the previous two weeks.

Lionel Beck

North Yorkshire, UK.