We did get home safely on Wednesday. Unfortunately our flight back from London to Cape Town was delayed as Heathrow has a shortage of workers to do things including loading the baggage. We sat on the plane for over an hour while they loaded the bags and eventually took off at 11:45pm just before Heathrow’s midnight curfew kicks in.

As you may remember from pre-Covid days, I like to finish off with a series of thoughts about the country we have traveled. This is the first time we had visit Canada on holiday (I have been there numerous times on business) so here are our reflections on Canada:

1. Canadians are very friendly. There is a stereo-type that Canadians are friendly but in this case it is not without justification. Everyone we encountered was friendly. The check-in clerks, the waiters and waitresses and just the people you met in the street. We had random people ask us where we were from while walking on pier, standing in the road waiting for a shop to open etc. They inquisitive about where you are from. They make you feel welcome.
2. Canada is diverse multi-culturally. It is probably the most diverse country in terms of race and people groups that I have visited. I suspect it is because they are welcoming that they have managed to become so diverse. Through some quick googling, I found out that Toronto is officially recognised as the most multi-cultural city in the world.
3. Their food portion sizes are closely tied to US sizes i.e. BIG. They don’t have much in common with the US but their food portion sizes is one commonality. Obesity isn’t as noticeable as it is in the US but they still have a problem with it.
4. Service at restaurants is good but you pay for it. An average tip is 18% of the bill.
5. You literally can find maple syrup and maple products everywhere. Maple smoked bacon (one of my favorites), maple whiskey, maple syrup, maple liqueur … you name it and you can get a maple version of it!
6. We realised that we don’t know much about Canadian history. Where did the people come from, why did they go to Canada, who are the indigenous population etc. We never really studied any Canadian history at school or afterwards and so we felt we very little connection to the country.
7. A small handful of Canadian families are ultra wealthy. In fact, 25% of the country’s wealth is held by 1% of the families. You can basically take any business you see in Canada and trace it up to its ultimate owner and it will turn out to be a Canadian family. We did it a few times with supermarkets and drug stores and it held true each time.
8. Canadians are generally conservative when it comes to their health & well-being. It had one of the lowest amount of COVID related deaths. They were very concerned about it and took every precaution to ensure the health of their people was protected. As an example, many people are still wearing masks in stores even though there is no legislation requiring them to do so.
9. You can definitely see the British influence in Canada (as they are part of the Commonwealth) but it is also clear to see the US influence (as they are their neighbours). For instance, many of the packages in stores have measurements in both metric and imperial (grams and ounces). The speed limit is in km/h but they measure height in ft.
10. In Toronto, you can smell people smoking cannabis on a regular basis. Cannabis sales are legal and there are numerous stores around. We didn’t notice it that much in the smaller towns, but in Toronto it was noticeable.

We definitely all rated Niagara-on-the-lake as the best experience of the trip and definitely worth visiting if you visit Canada. A trip to the Niagara Falls and then spending time in the town and doing wine tasting at the vineyards is definitely worth it.

Until next time …

P, H, S & K

H & I went for breakfast at Sunset Grill – yes we saw the irony of the name. They were much more friendly than the diner we went to the previous day and they had a better range for breakfast. After breakfast, we did some last minute maple syrup shopping and then headed back to the hotel to do our final packing and check out.

We wanted to do some wine tasting before we headed back to the airport. There are numerous wine estates in the area but after some research (and a few recommendations that were made to us while in Toronto), we settled on visiting Wayne Gretzky Winery. It turned out to be a good choice. The servers were very friendly and knowledgeable. You can select four wines/beers/whiskeys out of around 20 that were available for tasting. We tried not to choose the same ones so that we could share and thereby try more of their range. We did all select the Ice Wine. 99% of the ice wine comes from the Niagara-on-the-lake region. They pick the grapes between Dec-Feb and only at night and only when the temperature is between -8 and -10 C. They take the grapes immediately to be pressed and basically get one drop of juice from each grape. The bottles are therefore all small and the wine is sweet. It is somewhere between sherry and port (in my view). We bought some back with us so be nice and I might let you taste it!

The server heard our accent and when she discovered we were from South Africa she asked how I thought their wines compared to South African wine. S said if you ask my opinion on something you should be prepared to get an honest answer and that answer was ‘I don’t think they come close to SA wines’. That resulted in our server saying I needed to taste more of their red wines and went off and brought us 3 more wines to taste at no cost. Admittedly they were better than the others we tried but they lack body against SA wines. H also loved their Salted Caramel Whiskey (who knew she would become a whiskey drinker). Admittedly it is very close in look to Amarula which most of the family love so that is probably why she likes it so much.

After doing some purchasing of their wines and whiskey, we started to make our way back up to Toronto and the airport. We stopped at a Wendy’s for lunch and then again to fill up the car and then onto the airport and arrived just before 4pm.

Our flight was only at 9:55pm but we were fortunately able to check in and then go to the lounge to kill the time and have some dinner before we got onto the plane. Our flight ended up being delayed by 30 minutes as the incoming flight was stuck for 40 minutes without being able to get a gate. It is such a short flight that we all tried to go straight to sleep. We landed in London at 10:30am and it took us until 1:30pm to get into our flat. We waited 30 minutes on the tarmac to get a gate (seems to be a familiar theme) and then passport control was being manned by trainees and they took forever with each person. There is also a train and tube strike today so the traffic was terrible in central London. A few hours to kill now in London – I am working – as our flight leaves at 10:25pm tonight for Cape Town.

I will do our trip summary tomorrow when we are back home.

P, H, S & K

We slept in and then H & I went for a leisurely breakfast at the Stage Coach Restaurant (the other two slept in). It is one of those typical diners you see on TV series where the waitress slams the plates down and comes around with a pot of coffee and constantly fills up your mug. Felt a little like we were in one of those movies actually! We both had French Toast with maple syrup (when in Canada you must at least once have a maple syrup breakfast) except I had mine with a side of bacon.

We headed out the Outlet Collection at Niagara to do some shopping. We haven’t actually bought much on the trip and so we thought this would be a good opportunity. The mall was somewhat disappointing as it wasn’t really just an outlet mall. The first store we entered was Polo and the shirts ranged from $125-$175 – I don’t consider that outlet prices! Fortunately my favorite store/brand is Banana Republic and they did have reasonable prices and on top of the marked price you could take 40% off. I managed to find quite a lot of things and H also managed to find something. H bought one other thing from another store and that was all we managed to find. S & K also didn’t really find much.

We had lunch in the food court and after lunch S & K got themselves another Beaver Tail which H & I also tried. They had the standard one with cinnamon and sugar and let H & I have a taste. S described it as tasting like a Woolworths Cinnamon doughnut which was pretty accurate. We stopped in at Walmart on the way back to our hotel. Not sure if it was just this Walmart or Walmart in general but we were sorely disappointed. The shelves were pretty empty, the store was in a mess, the range was very limited. All-in-all not worth stopping for that Walmart.

Spent the afternoon at the hotel watching some US Open golf, sleeping and then watching the finish of the US Open. We went to dinner at Oliv which is situated on the Strewn Winery. S & K had graciously offered to pay for both Father’s Day and also to say thanks for the trip. It was a tapas style restaurant. Really nice meal shared with a bottle of Strewn Riesling.

One day left!

S (for paying for dinner), K, H & P

We had a boat trip booked into the Falls at 9:30am so we left our hotel at 8:15am. It was about a 30 minute drive to the falls. Waze directed us to the nearest parking and we were amazed how easy it was and how close it was. Then I got out of the car to pay for the parking and found out that it required the selling of one child to be able to park there for the morning. Back into the car to find a parking area that didn’t require the re-mortgaging of my house. We found one but it was a 15-20 minute walk back to the boat departure point.

We figured booking an early boat trip was the thing to do to ensure we missed the worst of the crowds given it was a Saturday. Good call because we only had a very minor wait before boarding the boat. You get a poncho to ensure you stay reasonably dry (it’s impossible not to get wet even with the poncho). My sister had kindly told us that the best place on the boat was lower deck front right because the boat makes a turn as it exits the falls and you get to see the whole horseshoe for the longest. Everyone else was rushing to the top deck and so we basically had the bottom right front to ourselves.

The boat pushes right into the horseshoe as fall as they can safely go so you really do get drenched from the spray of the falls. It is definitely a worthwhile thing to do. I have been at the falls twice before and never done the boat trip so I was really pleased we did it. I would highly recommend you do it if you ever visit the falls. The view and the noise of the falls is almost overwhelming to the senses.

We also had tickets to the Journey Behind the Falls which is a series of two tunnels behind the falls themselves and a viewing deck that is just to the right of the last of the horseshoe falls. The noise in the tunnels is incredible – it is a constant thundering. The sheer volume of water coming down is amazing to see. H was somewhat overwhelmed by the noise and confined space and had to get out of there quickly. Fortunately the viewing platform was her escape. You really are as close to the edge of the falls that you can get. I have seen the Falls from both the USA side and the Canadian side and I definitely think the view is better from the Canadian side. You get a much better of the whole falls.

The Niagara Falls is neither the largest or the highest falls in the world. Angel Falls in Venezuela is the tallest falls and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe is both the widest falls (more than 500m wider than Niagara Falls) and has the most falling water per second in the world. But Niagara Falls is still impressive and definitely worth seeing. You can’t get as close to Victoria Falls as you can to Niagara Falls. Some (at least to me) interesting facts about the Niagara Falls are:

• An estimated 60 tonnes of dissolved minerals are swept over the falls every minute (that is why the water appears green – it is the high mineral content)
• The flow is regulated by a treaty between the US and Canada. The diverted water is used mainly for power generation. If they didn’t divert any water, the river would rise 5m immediately
• Over last 500 years, the recession (from erosion) has averaged 1 to 1.5meters per year. At the moment the recession is 1 ft per year
• The water that flows over in one second, is the equivalent to what 2 people would use at home for 6 months (this one thanks to S)

It was after midday when we headed back to Niagara-on-the-lake and to our hotel. I wasn’t feeling great and so a napped in the afternoon while the rest of them wandered around the village. Incredibly they bumped into someone from our Church back in Cape Town. We knew she was in Canada and coming to Niagara Falls but we didn’t expect to bump into her at Niagara-on-the-lake.

We had dinner at Corks Wine Bar & Eatery. After dinner, I headed back to the hotel but the rest of them walked down to the lake and managed to see a family of raccoon’s in the trees. They look cute but are apparently considered a pest for most people in N.America.

You might be wondering why I am now appearing last on the blog. My smart aleck son, whose IT skills surpass mine, has written a script that takes my initial and moves it to the end every time I sign off and send out the blog. So you’ll just have to ignore that and assume the last shall be first and first shall be last!

S (remember, first shall be last), K, H & P

Yes I know I didn’t post yesterday. The problem was simply I didn’t have any time to do a post. On Thursday the family went off to Yorkdale Mall which is north of the city but still on the subway line (about 30 minutes from our apartment). H has been googling to find the best carry-on luggage and she wanted to get an Away suitcase and they had a store in the mall. The mall had 280 stores and they spent the whole morning and early afternoon at the mall.

I had some earlier morning online meetings which I did from the apartment and then headed into the office late morning for some meetings with my staff. We had another dinner with clients but this time it was out of the city and in Mississauga (prize for anyone that can pronounce that without help!). As we left at 5pm we caught got in the rush hour traffic so it took us an hour to get to the restaurant but only 30 minutes for us to get back. S & K had wanted Dominos pizza and so they had that for dinner that evening. It was incredibly a fire alarm free day.

I had to get to the office early on Friday as I had a 8:30am meeting and then a full day of meetings in the office with the full Canadian team (some of them don’t live in Toronto so they came in for the day). It was my first time meeting 3 of the team face-to-face as they have joined us since I was last in Toronto (which was last year Sept/Oct).

H, S & K checked out of the apartment at 11am and then brought their luggage to office. They then headed off to the Distillery District for lunch and then they did some shopping on the way back. They got back to the office just after 3pm and we had just wrapped up our meetings – perfect timing. We took an Uber to the car rental and then headed out to Niagara-on-the-lake which is where we are staying for next 3 nights.

The drive down was well over 2 hours in the end because of traffic and one major accident on the main highway that you take. We arrived eventually just after 7pm and once we had checked in we headed out to find a place for dinner. Really pretty town and very glad we elected to stay here for the next three nights. We are staying at the Prince of Wales Hotel – really nice rooms and great location.

Until tomorrow …

H, S, K & P

I definitely spoke (or typed) too quickly yesterday about no fire alarms. As soon as I pressed send the fire alarm went off again. This time in the parking garage and again no doubt someone smoking. The fire department arrived and again declared it a false alarm. That is now 3 times in 4 days. There is no doubt that if a genuine fire alarm went off in this building people would die as they wouldn’t believe it. It is totally ridiculous that they haven’t done anything about it. You would think the Fire Department would insist on them doing something as they too must be sick of coming out to check the fire alarms.

I had a quieter morning work-wise so I joined the family in going to the St Lawrence Market. The market is comprised of two floors and housed in an historical building which has been there since early 1900s. The selection of fresh produce was quite amazing and definitely the best I have seen together in one place in all my travels around the world. Incredible selection of cheeses, fruit & vegetables and meat. They also have lots of imported products from all over the world. If you live in Toronto but originally come from another country then my guess is whatever you want to find you could find at the market. We saw ostrich steak, biltong and rooibos tea (as examples for South Africans).

We had brunch at the market after finding a store selling crepes. The selection of fillings was vast – from sweet to savory. H and I had a ‘Montreal’ which was egg, ham & cheese while K had nutella & strawberry and S had chicken and hoisin sauce. They didn’t skimp on the fillings and so you felt that you were getting reasonable value for what you paid. H & I also managed to find a decent coffee provider – they are few and far between in Canada. After brunch my sister-in-law wanted to buy some sliders (basically mini-hamburgers) as a starter for dinner. They had a wide range of strange sliders including emu, buffalo, crocodile, kangeroo, etc.

I worked the balance of the morning at the flat and then headed into the office early afternoon as I had a meeting with head of our Canadian business and then dinner again with a client. S & K went out to do some shopping and H basically got herself a coffee and spent the afternoon in the apartment just relaxing. I got back to the apartment just after 8pm and the whole family (including my sister and family) had finished having dinner together and again it was nice to just sit and enjoy the conversation with them. They are heading off to Quebec City this morning so it was our last opportunity to see them during this trip.

We had a prediction of severe thunderstorms yesterday but they fortunately never materialized. They are predicting thunderstorms for today as well. It is a pretty hazy morning at the moment so it might rain later but so far at least it isn’t. Even though it is a public holiday in SA today, I do have to work (unfortunately).

Until tomorrow ….

H, S, K (purposefully demoted for some cheekiness last night doubting my ability to close the window in the apartment when others had failed) & P

We are all somewhat stiff from the 46 flights of stairs down from Sunday still – walking down stairs requires the use of a handrail – and it isn’t just me that feels that way – even the 20somethings have the problem. The good news is that the fire alarm never went off yesterday (or if it did it wasn’t while any of us were here).

I had a client breakfast meeting so was out early and then after that I was playing golf with clients. Unfortunately the course (Deer Ridge Golf Course) is in Waterloo (no not the station in London) which is about 1.5 hour drive from Toronto so I had to rent a car and drive down there.

The rest of them went on a harbour boat tour around the Toronto islands and then back to Amsterdam Brewery for lunch. It is apparently named that because the city of Amsterdam donated the bridge that is nearby. S & H wanted to figure out how the PATH works. The PATH is a (mostly) underground network of walkways that covers more than 30 kms. It is particularly well used during bad weather and allows you to stay dry in rainy or snowy periods. There is a map of the PATH but they had all managed to end up walking around in circles so they wanted to figure out why they did that and how to avoid doing it again.

After all the activity they apparently had a mid-afternoon nap. All this while I was playing a round of golf in beautiful weather. It was 25 degrees C with a light breeze (my playing partners kept on calling it a wind but by Cape Town standards it was a breeze). Despite using rented clubs and never having played the course before I was pretty happy with my round. We had dinner afterwards and then I headed back into Toronto and dropped the car off before heading back to the apartment.

I got back just before H who had been out at a baseball game – Toronto Blue Jays playing the Baltimore Orioles at the Rodgers Stadium right near us. S & K had decided not to go but H decided to go with my brother-in-law, niece and nephew. If you’re surprised about H attending, so was I! She came back saying she thoroughly enjoyed it. She thought lots of action … some people consider baseball actionless so that was even more surprising. It was her first time to a ballgame though so I guess there was lots to look at and enjoy. Americans (yes I know we are in Canada) do know how to make sport entertaining though.

S & K went out last night for BeaverTails. They are fried dough pastries, individually hand stretched to resemble beaver’s tails, topped with either sweet or savoury ingredients. Not unusual to have nutella on top with or without bananas. It is a Canadian specialty and so worth trying. I failed to mention the other day that we had another Canadian food called poutine. That is a dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. We have managed at least of the local specialties so far.

Until tomorrow …

P, H (for braving a baseball game and experiencing new things), K & S