A Day in Toronto and then On to Dublin!

June  2:  Toronto

We awoke in a fine bed in a really nice hotel.  We both enjoyed wonderful omelets at the expense of Canada Air and  we headed out for downtown Toronto.  We traveled from the hotel to the airport by a shuttle.  From there we caught a bus that took us to a subway.  We then rode the subway into the city.  It was a good experience.  We met a gentleman who was willing to help us pick the correct stop once we got into the heart of the city.  Finally we crawled aboard an open top double decker for an interesting tour of the city.  The young ladies that made the presentations were interesting and well informed. 

It rained on us several times but with plastic rain ponchos and umbrellas, we were

CN Tower Toronto

fine.  Toronto is an interesting huge city.  It is sprawled out on the north shore of Lake Ontario.  One point of interest that our son Scott suggested we hit was the CN Tower.  It is a tall free standing structure that is about 1000 feet tall.  From the top of the tower, the panoramic view of the city and the adjacent harbor is spectacular.  There is a glass floor near the top on which the strongest of heart become a bit squeamish when we first step out on it and look down.    



Look down through the Glass Floor



One of the tour guides told us of a local favorite food called Poutine.  I decided to try it along with a hot polish sausage.  The poutine is fresh cut French fries covered with cheese and gravy.  It was so filling that I got though only about half of both items.  Interesting food.  It doesn’t come up to the standard of Spam with mayo on a nice piece of wheat bread.



Looking over Toronto from CN Tower



We traveled around the city viewing many interesting and historic buildings .  I would enjoy going back to Toronto and spending more time, however, we needed to head back to the airport and prepare for a 9:45p flight to Dublin.  We had stored our luggage at the hotel so we needed to hit that stop before the airport.  We arrive at the air terminal at around 5:00p.  We did not have a boarding pass although we had been assured that we had a confirmation number for our flight.   



Walkway to the CN Tower

In the airport, we were greeted with very long lines at the boarding pass assistance counters.  There was one spot that had very little business.  That was labeled “Ticketing” so we headed to that one first.  A supervisor type person walked along our little line and noticed that I had my passport and a number of papers in my hand.  She commented that I had too much paper for this to be a typical problem.  She took my papers, went to a computer, and came back telling that I had all I needed and all I had to do was use a kiosk to get my pass.  So to the kiosk we went and after 5 attempts to get the pass, we decided to heed her (the machines advice) and seek assistance from the boarding pass assistance line.  We waited at least 45 minutes.  At the finale of the line, we met a very nice lady who quite quickly provided us with our boarding passes.  Luckily, we were not riding on a last minute thread to get on that plane.

To me, the plane was huge.  In the economy class section, the plane was 7 seats wide and we were served by 4 flight attendants.  The seats seemed to be somewhat wider and with more leg room that on most of the domestic fights on which we have traveled.  We were provided with pillows and blankets and served a multi course meal (well that’s by airline standards) and complimentary legal beverages.  We got off the ground 9:45p and arrived in Dublin at 9:00a on June 3 or 6 hour and 45 minutes flying time when you move the clocks up 5 hours.  That amazes me when you consider it took Charles Lindbergh 33 ½ hours to make his historic flight.  We were also served a very light continental breakfast as the sun began to rise. 

I figure that I got about 2 hours sleep.  The plane was amazingly quiet and the ride was very smooth.  But, sleeping in a belted in chair just doesn’t work well for me.  We landed in Dublin to a pleasant sunny day.  Much better than the ugly weather warnings that we were provided by those who had been there before us.