Beginning the Canadian Adventure (en route Toronto - Montreal on VIA train)

So far our Canadian Adventure has gone like a dream. Great flight (thanks Air Canada) – smooth passage through Toronto and out of the airport in our Nissan Sentra in under an hour. Lunch stop at Niagara on the Lake (or NOTL as it’s known), the more genteel mother town of the brash Niagara Falls destination. We can certainly recommend The Grill on King if you’re ever there for a visit, although we reckoned that the Niagara region wines, while generally OK, were overpriced for their quality against our more usual Aussie and Chilean (or South African) favourites. We’d definitely recommend staying in the Marriott Fallsview at the Falls, simply outstanding views of the Falls – what a view to wake up to or come back to or frankly at any time of the day or night.

Friday in the hands of Magnificent Tours for the Full Monty of attractions in and around the falls area – great taking the tour – we went to loads of things that we wouldn’t have gone to on our own – and learnt more facts than we can remember or imagine about the world’s premier waterfalls (not the highest, but definitely moves the most water – equivalent to 1 million bathtubs full every minute. Do the tour if you’re ever in town, things not to miss – Journey behind the Falls, an up close & personal view of the magnificence of the massive waters; the Skylon Tower for an all-round view of the area and over to Buffalo and Toronto; and, of course, the perennial Maid of the Mist voyage for that drenching with fresh water mist.

Excitement on our way to Toronto’s Union Station came in the form of complete road closure of the access to the station – including the rental car return location. Which gave us a personal police car escort through the area – now there’s something that won’t be available next week during the G20. And the train is full of Rotarians from near and far (near being downtown Toronto; far, apart from us, being our closest neighbours in the carriage from Antigua and Grand Cayman)

More from the Convention and Montreal as the week progresses.