We packed up and headed to the airport first thing in the morning as we had to be there at 8:30am for our flight at 10:25am. Halifax airport was about 30 minutes from where we were staying. We had to fill up the car – fuel is basically the same price as in South Africa it seems so you pretty much have to mortgage your house to pay for a tank of fuel for a Buick SUV!
Check in was painless and while there was a small wait at security it also went relatively easily. We were able to get into the Air Canada lounge (theoretically we were one person short of access rights but the lady at reception didn’t seem to care). The flight to Toronto was absolutely full. H actually remarked at one point (when people just kept coming onto the plane) that she wondered if they weren’t exiting out the back again! Unfortunately S & K had middle seats as by the time they checked in there were no aisle or window seats available. They seemed to have survived the flight though.
We landed 30 minutes early in Toronto. The plan was to try find somewhere for lunch at the airport but basically there were no decent options at all so we took a taxi and headed into the city. We couldn’t check in to our AirBnB apartment until 4pm so we had 3 hours to kill. We found a Subway store and ate a sandwich lunch. S managed to message the AirBnB host and he said he could let us leave our luggage in the apartment while they were cleaning. That was quite helpful and then we headed out for a walk along the shore of Lake Ontario. Ice creams, some birding, people watching and some grocery shopping managed to ensure we killed enough time to get into the apartment. They were just finishing off cleaning when we got in but within 5 minutes they were gone.
We are staying in an apartment on the 56th. The views are incredible. Hopefully some of the pictures will do the views justice! At about 4:30pm the fire alarm went off. No, I’m not kidding. After waiting a bit to see if it was faulty we went out and both K and I could smell smoke! So we grabbed our backpacks/passports etc and started down the 56 flights of stairs. One guy ahead of us but no one else at all descending. The alarm rang on. At the 22nd floor we met a guy coming up who is a resident in the block and he said it happens all the time but they usually do an announcement to tell you to remain in your apartment. No announcement this time. He continued up. We headed down. The AirBnB host said we could use the lifts. Tried them but they were shut off. Annoucements started shortly afterwards saying the alarm was triggered on 27th floor and the fire department were on route and then as we got to the 10th floor they announced it was a false alarm. At that point we took the elevators down to ground (because the lower levels are not connected to the upper levels) and then we took them back up again to our apartment. Change of shirt and showers needed!
My sister and brother-in-law and their family (1 nephew & 2 nieces) have joined us in Toronto. Crazily enough they are booked into the same apartments as us (done totally independently except for me suggesting the general area). Even more crazy is that they are staying on 57th floor in the apartment directly above us! We met up for dinner at one of the restaurants on the shore – Pie Bar Pizzeria. Nice to see and catch up with family.
Lots of walking again (and step descending) and so we were all ready for bed relatively early.
P, K (only one not criticizing the blog yesterday), S & H