Journey to the East

Ok.
So most Canadians wouldn't consider Ontario & Quebec the East of Canada since the Atlantic provinces of Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia & Prince Edward Island are more eastern.
But for a girl who's lived over four years in Vancouver (in a very western province) anything beyond the Rockies seems kinda east to me.
Anyhow, this year we start the Canadian education of the Kampung Girl. Which is why a trip was taken. Toronto, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston & the very touristy Niagara Falls.




And I must say, that if you plan to visit these cities, the autumn is undoubtedly the very best time to go.
Never seen so many variations of golds, reds, yellows & browns.
Never seen trees so dressed in their best.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...









The cities were kinda fun too.














Toronto had hard-to-keep-a-straight-face
art in the most unexpected places.

And their ROM (no, not the Registry of marriages, rather their Royal Ontario Museum) looks like a jagged spaceship of steel & glass landed onto a centuries old cathedral. And no, the people in front of it are not running away from an imminent alien invasion. I believe it was a charity run thru the city.


Ottawa was pretty impressive with it's oldy worldy parlimentary buildings perched on a high river bank.
What's amazing is the countless rivers, riverlets, canals and lakes that are found within that area. Apparently in the winter, Ottawa's canals freeze over and it's citizens go skating on it. How marvellous!
And another bit of fascinating trivia, did you know that Canada has more lakes than all the lakes in the world put together?
As we travelled through this land of lakes & locks, rivers & canals, I can't say that I'm surprised.


We went to a place called Peterborough and saw an amazing lift lock. It's kinda like a lift for boats to get from one level of a river to a higher or lower level. It uses huge pumps to raise & lower the water-filled lift.







Quebec City was quaint and the most like Europe. With its sensibilities too. Like, the painted bicycles fastooned onto building walls and huge brightly painted flower pots remind me more of quirky colourful Amsterdam.
























But the native Inushuk in front of the Provincial parliment house and the railway type architecture of the Hotel Frontanec feels very Canadian to me.


























We ended the trip to the touristy Niagara falls. What to do?
We were so close to it and it seemed a shame not to visit this place that's I've know from American TV shows since I was little. B got us a room facing the falls and boy was it worth it! The view was gob- smackingly gorgeous.










Here's to
four good years
of the married life!