| So my brother is in town, together with his wife and | | | | Railway). Its monumental scale, classical detail and |
| 2 friends from my little home town in Austria. It is | | | | rational, ordered planning were hallmarks of the style. |
| everybody's first time in North America and their | | | | The station is massive and takes up an entire block |
| initiation to Toronto. Just to give you ideas of | | | | on Front Street between York Street and Bay |
| dimensions: Austria has a population of about 9 million | | | | Street. The Great Hall of the Station is 250 ft. long |
| and the country extends about 900 km from east to | | | | and 84 ft. wide.Our walk continued further west on |
| west while the Greater Toronto area nowadays | | | | Front Street past the Convention Centre to the base |
| probably has about 4 to 5 million people and Lake | | | | of the CN Tower and the entrance to the Skydome, |
| Ontario alone is over 300 km long. The first thing my | | | | Toronto's multi-purpose stadium with a retractable |
| visitors noticed was the difference in size: the size of | | | | roof, now called the Rogers Centre. We then snaked |
| the city, the size of the lake, the size of cars, the | | | | our way up through the Entertainment District to |
| size of supermarkets, and even of refrigerators.On | | | | Queen Street where we admired Osgoode Hall, built |
| Sunday we started off with a little driving tour of | | | | in the 1830s, and now an oasis of green in the city. |
| Toronto where I first took my visitors down to the | | | | An ornate iron fence, built in 1867, renowned for its |
| lakefront by the historic Art Deco style R.C. Filtration | | | | peculiar "cow gates," surrounds the property and its |
| Plant. All of them love water and to have a lake as | | | | beautiful gardens. The cow gates in particular |
| big as an ocean so close by fascinated them. After a | | | | fascinated my visitors.Our next stop was at New |
| leisurely drive on Queen Street through the quaint | | | | City Hall and Old City Hall, opened in 1899, which |
| Beaches neighbourhood we parked the car close to | | | | racked up construction costs of more than $2.5 million |
| the St. Lawrence Market and started our walk | | | | at the time which caused great controversy in those |
| around.Since my brother is a chef and always loves | | | | days. Continuing past the Bay Department Store on |
| to purchase market-fresh food, I initially took him to | | | | Queen we passed the Metropolitan United Church, an |
| the St. Lawrence Market which always has an antique | | | | English style cathedral dating from 1872, whose |
| sale on Sunday. The food market is actually closed | | | | churchyard was filled with people enjoying the warm |
| on Sunday. We checked out the wares from old | | | | day.Once back in the car we drove through the U of |
| furniture to cameras to various knick-knacks.Our | | | | T campus, my Alma Mater and we stopped briefly to |
| exploration continued westwards along Front Street | | | | check out Hart House and Kings College. Then we |
| past historic 19th century houses and of course past | | | | headed down to Chinatown at Spadina and Dundas |
| the famous triangular-shaped Flatiron Building which | | | | and my visitors marvelled at this exotic, busy market |
| has a mural on its west side. Approaching Yonge | | | | area. Our last stop on the tour was Kensington |
| Street we walked past the Hockey Hall of Fame, a | | | | Market, a lively little neighbourhood full of food and |
| historic Beaux-Arts former bank building, the | | | | clothing stories and restaurants where we ended up |
| magnificent Royal York Hotel, built in 1929, once the | | | | picking up fresh vegetables, dry beans, and a variety |
| largest hotel in the British Commonwealth.One of the | | | | of cheeses for some of the scrumptious meals to |
| things that fascinated my visitors most was how old | | | | come. My brother, the chef, marvelled at the variety |
| and new can coexist right next to each other: shiny | | | | of food avialable here, combined with the inexpensive |
| skyscrapers are located right beside historic | | | | prices a food lover's dream.We took our loot home |
| sandstone churches. Our walking tour continued past | | | | where my husband was waiting for us with a big |
| Union Station, Toronto's impressive central railway | | | | brunch to strengthen ourselves for attending a |
| station, built between 1914 and 1927 as a joint | | | | birthday party of one of my friends that had the |
| construction project by the Canadian Pacific Railway | | | | motto of "let out your inner child". |
| and Grand Trunk Railway (now the Canadian National | | | | |