As nice as riding through rural areas is, it is refreshing to spend time in a highly urbanized city such as Toronto. The architecture of stately structures built in the 1860s to 1920s is stunning. In contrast to these older structures are the daring stylings of modern designs. Add in the many, many high-rise residential buildings and you have a very interesting, eye-catching experience.
Since leaving Cambridge, we put in two easy days of 35 miles +/-, overnighting in Burlington then Toronto. The ride from Burlington to Toronto was along the Waterfront Trail, and proved to be a true delight. Beautiful weather, beautiful scenery, beautiful day.
The Waterfront Trail is a 740 Km trail that runs along the north shore of Lake Erie, then wraps around the Canadian shoreline of Lake Ontario, then northeast to Quebec along the St. Lawrence Seaway. We intend to follow this Trail to Montreal, and then make some directional decisions at that time.
Yesterday was a non-biking rest day, and we took advantage of scenic tours downtown, plus used the City's transit system (bus, train and subway). Plus, we took a cruise of the Toronto Bay area ... most enjoyable day. After the tours were completed, Kim headed back to the hotel for a true rest. I stayed downtown, and just meandered around. As I proved in Portland, Oregon earlier this summer, if you meander around long enough you will eventually find what you were looking for ... walk relatively fast and people will not think you are lost. I also used the day as a non-helmet day so as to attempt to even out facial coloring ... yesterday morning my forehead was pale white ... this morning bordering on beet-red.
Yonge Street, one of the main entertainment areas downtown, was closed off to vehicles ... the street was jam-packed with people attending the Annual BuskerFest celebration. All kinds of street performers were performing and the masses were enjoying a weather-perfect day. The adjacent picture is a chalk artist's work, using the asphalt pavement as his canvas. Stunning talent.
So we are off again, heading for Montreal. As I mentioned earlier in this post, decisions are to be made upon reaching Montreal, which should be reached in eight or nine days.
Life is good, eh?
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