Canada

Vejret i Canada var varmere end vejrudsigten havde antydet 14 dage tidligere - godt 24 grader de 3 første dage men så faldt temperaturen også dramatisk med 10 grader på hver af de følgende 2 dage, så det var næsten vinter inden vi tog hjem igen. Også i Canada var der mange hjemløse på gaden, men tilsyneladende er det ikke indvandrerne, men de etniske canadier der er ramte.

Der er vildt mange forskellige nationaliteter samlet - det ses især på de mange farvede, som fylder gadebilledet. Det er tilsyneladende kun den vestlige verden, der er ude for dette fænomen med udskiftning af den oprindelige befolkning.

Vi boede på Holiday Inn, 30 Carlton Street meget centralt i Toronto, hvor mange seværdigheder lå tæt på the Waterfront, men afstandene var alligevel mega, så Max's vedholdenhed ikke at ville tage metroen, gjorde det temmelig tidskrævende at komme fra en destination til den næste, men vi fik da set både Ripleys's Aquarium, Casa Loma, Kensington market og CN Tower (i sidstnævnte havde vi udsigt over det meste af den store by men jeg var lidt skuffet over afskærmningen efter at have været i Dubai's Al Khalifa).

Vi var på en heldagstur til Niagra Falls, hvor vi tog afsted omkring kl. 9 om morgenen og først var tilbage kl. 19. På turen mødte vi bl.a. en sød ung britisk pige, som havde taget turen over alene. Det var åbenbart ikke første gang, at hun gjorde sådanne rejser alene. Da vi ankom til destinationen virkede som det kun var kinesere, der havde valgt samme udflugtsmål. Det var næsten umuligt at se andre nationaliteter, da vi stod i kø for at komme om bord på den båd The Hornblower, som skulle sejle os tæt på vandfaldet. Med 1 mia. kinesere i verden bliver det nok ikke et særsyn fremover. I øvrigt var der så meget gang i vandfaldet, at vi måtte søge ly for vandet, da vi kom helt tæt på. Det virkede ret voldsomt. Vi fik en god middag på Sheraton on the Falls og besøgte også en særlig by på vejen hjem Niagra-On-The-Lake. Det er en af Nordamerikas mest velbevarede byer fra 1900-tallet og noget af det mest idylliske og fine lille by med smukt anlagte haver, et hyggeligt klokketårn og meget mere. Det er ikke unormalt, at folk kører rundt hestevogn her. Den mindede mig om samme slags turistattraktion uden for Shanghai, hvor man har bevaret en gammel by, som man skulle betale for at komme ind i.

Jeg plejer ikke at bryde mig om museer men Royal Ontarium Museum har den flotteste samling af natursten der ligner smykker i sig selv - de er så flotte, at de ikke kan beskrives. Desuden er der alle mulige andre flotte samlinger lige fra det gamle Kina og Egypten til alle mulige fortidsdyr.

Desværre nåede vi ikke Toronto Zoo et godt stykke uden for byen på grund af vejret. Det regnede en del dagen før vi skulle hjem, hvor det var planen at nå dertil. Selve Toronto er i øvrigt nem at finde rundt i og meget moderne i lighed med andre vestlige storbyer - især bemærker man de mange meget dyre biler uden at jeg dog har kendskab til landets bilafgifter.

Vi spiste både på kinesiske, japanske og thai restauranter og nåede ikke at finde ud af nationalretten i Canada.

Vi kunne sagtens have brugt et par dage mere, men samtidig er man træt efter at rejse rundt så meget. Det er jo hårdt at holde ferie, og Canada er heller ikke ligefrem et billigt sted.

The weather in Canada turned out warmer than the weather cast had predicted 2 weeks before - almost 24 degrees centigrade the first 3 days of the stay, but then the temperature fell dramatically with 10 degrees each of the following 2 days, so we ended practically up with Winter before we went back home to a climate just as cold despite the time of year. As in Cuba Canada also has many homeless people on the streets. Very strikening it is not the immigrants on the streets but the etnic Canadians.

There are  many different nationalities in Toronto - you can tell by the many colored people in the streets. Exchange of the native people is a phenomena only seen in the western world.

We stayed in Holiday Inn, 30 Carlton Street with a very central location to the many sights in Toronto,many of which were close to the Waterfront, but distances were mega non the less, so Max's perseverance not to take the metro made it a rather time demanding issue to get from one destination to the next, but anyway we did get to see both Ripleys's Aquarium, Casa Loma, Kensington market and the CN Tower (the latter did give us a peak over most of the big city although I was a bit disappointed because over the fencing in compared to the Al Khalifa in Dubai).

We did go on a one day tour to Niagra Falls leaving around 9 a.m. in the morning not returning until 7 p.m. in the evening. During the tour we talked to a nice young British girl pige, who had made the journey across all by herself. It was obviously not the first time that she did such a holiday alone. At the arrival of our destination it seemed as if only chinesee had chosen the same excursion. Cueing for the boat The Hornblower, which should take us close to the waterfall you could see no any other nationality but the Chinesee. With more than 1 billion Chinesee on the planet that will probably not be a rarity in the future. The water fall was so heavy that we had to go indoors on the boat when we came close up. It seemed pretty rough. On our way back we visited an ancient very tidy looking town Niagra-On-The-Lake dating back from the 1900 century. It is one of North America's best preserved Towns and very idyllically with beautiful gardens, a cosy belfry and a lot more. It is not rare that people in this town drive around in horse-drawn carriage. It reminded me of a small town with the same purpose in Shanghai that I visit but with the difference that you had to pay to get in.

Usually I do not fancy museums but Royal Ontarium Museum has the most amazing collection of natural stones and many being a piece of jewelry in itself - they are so spetacular that you need to see them to understand. Besides these stones there are all sort of pretty and interesting Collections from ancient China and Egypt as well as prehistoric animals.

Because of a rainy day we did not make the Toronto Zoo some 1½ hours' ride outside town so we missed a tour on our tour pass tickets. It is easy to find your way around Toronto city, which is very modern similar to many equally big cities in the western world - specifically noticable is the many very expensive cars not that I know how much you tax pay on cars.

We ate both in Chinesee, Japanesee and Thai restaurants and really did not find out what the national dish in Canada is.

A couple of days more for exploration would have been fine, but at the same time you are very tired after a long time moving around. Holiday is hard Word and Canada isn't exactly a  cheap place to be.