Jojo September 30th, 2008
After a nice breakfast we left our room in Toronto and took the 401 West (again), and switched to Route 8 at Kitchener. We took the 86 north and the exit at St. Jacobs. Although dubbed the german capital of Canada, from the road it wasn’t really visible. We didn’t visit St. Jacbos directly but intended to came back later. First we wanted to secure ourselves a room for the night, which we did, and now we’re in the “Olde Heidelberg Motel” in Heidelberg, Ontario ;) (they even have a town called “Breslau”, and seeing as there once was a “Berlin” here it’s kinda funny ;). After we got the room, we got back in the car and returned to St. Jacobs. On the main street we looked at all the stores (which weren’t that many) and took the tour of a small, but very well done (and free) Mennonite museum, which (in film and writing) explains the heritage of the Mennonite faith (and the status quo of Mennonites and Amish). The other part of St. Jacobs (with the market and the factory outlet “mall”) is 3km away, so we drove there. It was a little bit disappointing since the mall didn’t really have that many stores and bad ones at that. Anyway, , we bought some groceries and then went back to our hotel. Not quite hungry yet we decided to take a walk around town (chances are always good to see Mennonites on their horse-drawn black carriages, and we did a few times). After that we had schnitzel with sauerkraut, fries and the local brew (brewed at the Olde Heidelberg, you can see the machinery in the entrance).
Tomorrow it’s Niagara Falls, so expect nice photos again ;)
Jojo September 29th, 2008
Toronto was what filled the whole day, obviously. We drove the 10 miles into town and parked right in the centre, which for two people is still cheaper than using public transportation (and I’d guess much less stressful). We emerged from the subterrain parking deck and saw the city at light we had only briefly looked at yesterday night. First we took the University Ave north, until we hit the (guess what) University of Toronto (“The U of T”). At least that’s what we thought when we tried to get into the big old building that looked like it was the universities administrative or main building. Only when we saw the armed guards in front of it when began to question our initial guess. It turned out that the building we saw was in fact the Legaslative Assembly of Ontario, where, lucky for us, the house was in session. We were told to take the side-entrance, where we had to surrender basically everything we carried, then took the elevator up, were security-screened and then led into the gallery where we sat down to observe the House. The bill they were discussing was, coincidentally, about the Ontario health system, specifically about the very urgent need for more doctors, which led to proposals (from the opposition) about relaxing immigration policies concerning the fact that qualified immigrants cannot easily work in their field of expertise when they arrive, but have to drive taxis instead, as one member of the House put it. After some time we left, but still it was very interesting and not at all boring (but I guess it can be if you had to sit there day in day out ;).
After missing it at the first try, we walked around the campus of the U-of-T and continued on Bloor St until it intersected with Yonge. There we took a right, heading straight for the harbor, and getting a better look at the stores and skyscrapers (and Dundas Square). We paid a visit to Eaton Centre before we arrived at Front St. Our guide pointed out the Flatiron building (shaped like a wedge, much like the Chrysler-building) but we didn’t find it a first until we discovered that it was completely covered into construction rigs (so no photos for you guys). Frustrated we went straight to the CN Tower, but didn’t go up, partly because of our fear of heights, partly because of the hefty price-tag (an elevator-ride is seldom worth $16 in my oppinion). We looked at the Quay and the musical garden (dreamt up by noone else than Yo-Yo Ma himself ;) before we started noticing our feet again and decided to head home.
Tomorrow we’ll probably pay a visit to the german capital of Ontario, Kitchener/Waterloo, and St. Jacobs.
Jojo September 28th, 2008
The last two days weren’t really that exciting, which is why I’m only designating one post for them.
On Saturday we left our little cabin, had breakfast at the harbor and then went on to Rockport. There we took a 1-hour boat-cruise around the Thousand Islands (yes, that’s were the salad-dressing got its name) which let’s you see some of the expensive houses put there by millionaires on both sides of the border. Getting the material there certainly is one big challenge, and I can’t begin to think about how they manage to get electricity and water supply to these houses. Unfortunately the boat was packed with asian tourist. Now, I don’t mind asians, they’re friendly and small, so they don’t block your view. But I can’t understand why they have to take a picture about every 20 seconds, and not just a picture of the beautiful castle, but nooo, it always has to have grandma in front of the original motive, occupying about 90% of the image frame…
Anyway, we drove until Kingston (along a very scenic shore-drive) where we visited the marine museum (and the icebreaker Alexander Henry).
On sunday we left for Toronto, again along the shore. Prince Edward County was especially beautiful, and worth a trip. We even had to take a ferry at Glenora, which is free and just takes about 5 minutes to get to the other shore. But even in the 10 minutes we waited some nice canadian people walked up to our car and we had chat. We picknicked in Cobourg and then took the highway into Toronto. After securing a room for the night we drove downtown and right through Dundas Square, which is as close as it gets to Times Square in NY (Toronto is often used for filming scenes which are set in the big apple, which didn’t surprise us). We walked around town for about 2 hours and watched the sun go down and the bright TV-screens and ads light up, which was really amazing. What we immediately noticed is how clean Toronto is, even in corners where you wouldn’t think so. Satisfied we returned to our (also clean and nice) motel, to embark into the city tomorrow morning.
Jojo September 26th, 2008
Today we left Montreal southbound, along Lake Ontario. We stopped at Upper Canada Village, which is a must-see if you’re in that region and also one of the best examples (I know of) of how American/Canadian museums differ from those known in Europe. The village is an accumulation of houses that you find in the 19th century along the banks of the St Lauren’s river. Because of numerous dams and canals which had to be built in order to generate electricy and provide safe passage for vessels which had to conquer some pretty scary looking rapids before that, a lot of small villages and settlements were flooded. So the government relocated about 6000 people and also managed to put some of their houses and churches on flatbed trucks. A few of the particularly pretty ones were driven to the site where the Upper Canada Village is today (and a few of them were reconstructed). This process started in the 1950s and is still continuing today.
The village is a living museum, that means that you can’t only walk through the streets and look into all of the fully furnished houses, but also that there are actors employed which wear the era’s clothes and go about their daily business. For example there is a broom-maker who makes all the village’s brooms, there is a blacksmith and a saw-mill where all the wood needed for the village is cut into the right shape. Of course these people don’t talk exactly the way it was back then or pretend that we’re not actually living in 2008, but it’s still nice enough to see them around town and visiting one another.
After a very nice day there we drove one for a few miles and managed to get a nice cabin where we’ll spend the night.
Jojo September 25th, 2008
Having seen enough of downtown Montreal yesterday, we visited the Olympic Park today. As we had planned, we didn’t spend any money on public transportation or parking and instead walked there. Now, this took us about 1 1/2 hours (the way back was 2 hours), so you can see how we managed to spend most of our day ;).
Anyway, upon arriving we bought tickets to the Biodome, an indoor-zoo simulating 4 different climatic habitats (tropical jungle, laurentian forest, St. Lawrence Marine and the arctic). The cool thing is that you walk from one ecosystem into the next one and are right in the middle of the jungle and the animals for example. Check out the photos below to see a lot of cute animals (the puffins, which are Katrin’s new favorite animals, seemed to be having a lot of fun swimming against the artificial current).
After the Biodome we did not go up the Olympic tower (again, since we thought of it as being much to expensive for one elevator ride). We also didn’t pay the hefty entrance fee to see the botanical gardens (we knew we would get enough walking anyway). So we headed south until we hit the river and then made our way back to the old port (7km). Arriving at about 3:30 we picked one of the first restaurants we saw where we had a pretty expensive salad (good thing we saved on the means of getting there). At least we had one huge motherload of ice afterwards. Our feet even more exhausted we returned to the hotel, where I just measured today’s walking distance at about 15km.
Tomorrow we’ll be leaving for Ottawa, where I hope distances aren’t quite as big ;)
Jojo September 24th, 2008
Well, Katrin was right. After the bad impression I got yesterday, waking up today was much nicer. We had very good breakfast with toast, waffles, mini-croissants, bananas, juice, eggs and actual coffee (not the brown-coffee-flavored water you get in the US). Strengthened by this we went to the old port, the Vieux Port, of town. It is really nice and is in no way lagging behind what Quebec has to offer. We strolled around somewhat (the city was just waking up with some stores not yet open) and went back and forth quite a lot (at least we saw everything). Chinatown was on our route to Mont Royal so we had a look at that as well. As indicated we didn’t miss the view from Mont Royal (see the photos) which is a must-see, but also something you should be in shape for (we already had done most of this day’s walking before we went up which was pretty hard). After the really impressing view (and a lot of photo-taking, re-hydrating and watching squirrels) we returned to our hotel. While this article is short, our day was not and we walked for about 8 hours straight (my feet can tell you a story). Seeing how we managed to do as much distance as this we just decided that we would not take the car to the Olympic Park tomorrow (6km) as parking there costs too, but instead walk there (and back). Now, enjoy the photos ;)
Jojo September 23rd, 2008
We left our nice motel in Quebec today to head for Montreal. After a relatively short and especially boring drive there we arrived in the city, where the tourist information center is conveniently (not!) located right in the middle of this big city. This means driving through the whole of this loud and chaotic city only to arrive right in the middle, with one-way-streets in every direction, heaps of pedestrians and parking rates at about $6/hour…
So, we booked a hotel at the tourist information center which is located quite central (so at least we save the public-transportation). We have to pay $10/day just to have our car parked nearby on the hotel’s own parking lot and right across the street is a very fine selection of strip joints… We went down Sainte Catherine (the street our hotel is on), the main shopping street, and it was just awful. Not only are there only clothing-stores which repeat every 4 blocks, but the sidewalks are filthy, the streets are loud and lined with homeless people. To say the least, it was quite disappointing and I can only hope that the old part of town (and for our second full day here the Olympic Park) are better than what we saw today. Oh, I didn’t take any photos, partly because I was afraid my camera would get stolen, but also because there simply is nothing to photograph.
Jojo September 22nd, 2008
We simply could not have picked a better time to visit Quebec. 2008 marks the year of the 400th birthday of the city (founded in 1608), and today the old city (vieux Quebec) had a no-car-day, which meant that the streets were swarming with tourists and vendors which demonstrated bicycles and electric cars/segways. Also the weather was perfect, with a spotless sky and temperatures around 20 degrees. For it’s 400th birthday the city administration had built a few pavillons and other exhibitions at the piers and all the streets were decorated, as were the stores.
At about 9am we arrived at the public-parking area to take the bus-line ($2 all day long, created as part of the 400th-celebrations) into town, only to discover that indeed Quebec is somewhat french, and therefore relaxed, which is why the bus-line starts to operate at 10am. We grabbed a coffee and waited with a lot of very chatty old ladies until we got into town. Initially we followed the same route we quickly did yesterday evening. We climbed up to the Citadelle (yes, it is quite steep) but decided against taking the tour for monetary reasons. We went down again and then basically all around town (a few times, the distances are not that big, but still we walked about 5 hours straight). Quebec certainly has many nice qualities and almost no negative aspects. The streets are small and lined with restaurants, art-galleries and antique/tourist-shops, but there is no place that feels cheap or overly touristic.
The sidewalks are abuzz with friendly people and still everything is clean and in good shape. We observed that, with all the food and the wine and the many buses, people here look healthy, happy and are well-dressed (in harsh contrast to american cities of similar size). Bus drivers stop in the middle of a highway-exit in order to talk to colleagues and no-one complains (although the driving here sometimes feels french ;). The only thing you _could_ hold against them is that a lot of them don’t speak english one could call understandable (and that they don’t slow down one bit after discovering that you’re not a native french speaker).
After the city we stopped at a supermarket (yes, it felt very french too) and were shocked when we saw the prices of dairy products. Now we’re back at our motel and planning the trip for tomorrow, as we’ll be heading for Montreal, where, given good lodging, we may stay 2 full days (meaning 3 nights).
Jojo September 21st, 2008
Today we rose early and didn’t waste too much time before taking off. We had to leave Acadia National Park, unfortunately, and headed straight for Bangor. At Bangor we took the I-95 towards Waterville where we switched onto Route 201 North. The lady at the information center in Freeport told us to take this part of the trip early, as it is hunting season right now and wildlife might cross the road. Now, a badger isn’t that big a danger to a car like ours, but a moose, that’s quite a different story. Also she warned us that the area around the 201 would be remote. Well, she was right ;) We got through quite fast though, and had nice weather most of the time. I, again, am missing the words to describe the sheer beauty that is the Maine landscape (the indian summer got more visible up north by the way). Katrin was driving today so I had the chance to take some really good pictures. After cities like Moscow and Jackman we crossed over into Canada. The weather, which had been somewhat foggy, moist and cold up until the border immediately changed to warm and sunny. The roads also got better. After driving through some of Quebec (and stopping once at a really crowded Tim Horton’s) I am inclined to make the following observation: While Maine claims to be “The way life should be” (which is right in most aspects in my opinion), Canada is “The way the US should be”. This means cleaner roads, less ads along the roads, better tended houses and front-lawns and way, way less fast-food stores.
In the afternoon we arrived in Quebec (the city), where we first visited the tourist information center which was really nice and where an employee helped us find a cheap motel close to public-bus service into centre-ville. We even went there for about two hours and I can’t wait to spend the whole of tomorrow there.
Jojo September 20th, 2008
For our second day in Bar Harbor we had planned to visit Acadia National Park, obviously. We rose at 7am (as we did every day so far), bought some groceries and then drove to the park’s Visitor Information Center. We bought a 7-day-pass ($20) and drove on the Park Loop Road down to Otter Point. A ranger had recommended for us t take the Ocean Trail (hiking), which we did. At first it was easy, near the coastline (and the road), without any differences in elevation. After we looked at Sand Beach we crossed the road to continue the trail. Boy, did it get rugged. Immediately the number of people on the trail dropped to about zero and so did the speed with which we progressed. We finally managed to mount the summit of Mount Gorham (elevation 168m) and took some nice photos before heading down the other side. When we arrived back at Otter Point it had taken us about 3 hours (about 6 miles) and a lot of strength. On the Park Loop Road (which is one-way at that point) we headed on and stopped again at Bubble Rock, where we climbed the South Bubble (took us about an hour and was much easier than our first hike that day). 
Our last stop was on Cadillac Mountain, which is the highest mountain on the US atlantic coast and, thank god, paved all the way to the top (you certainly could tell by the sheer amount of tourist, of the type you didn’t encounter on any of the hiking trails). Since it was to early to take the quickest route back to Bar Harbor we took the 233 East and then Route 3 which goes around the southern end of the peninsula.
Putting the beauty of this national park in words is hard, it’s simply georgeous, unbelievably pretty. It’s hard enough not to take a photo after every bend and not to stop the car at every possible scenic point. The park looks small on the map, and even smaller compared to other parks (like Baxter), but it is really more than big enough for a few days worth of discovering. One thing you should never, ever do (I’m glad we didn’t) is to rent a bike. The distances are still pretty big and the road just goes up and down all the way. Have a look at the photos, or better yet, visit it yourself if you can manage.
