Canada is not for sale! 1867 to Forever!

The flight from Chicago to Toronto on Thursday only took a little over an hour, and, same as in Chicago, immigration was a whirlwind trip! What took much more time, was the drive into town by public transportation: first, by subway, then by bus and, finally, by streetcar, called "Rocket". 

It took us about 1.5 hours to get to our AirBnB (photo below), a little out of town, to the East, in "Leslieville", a colorful, vivid neighborhood, of which one part is called Little India, another Chinatown.

 

Explored some of Little India (above, right) still in the evening before we ended up in a great little microbrewery (with Japanese influence!) nearby and had a beer (superb Dark Lager and Rauchbier) and a bite to eat in the evening at Godspeed Brewery.

Toronto was founded as the Town of York and the Capital of Upper Canada in 1793. The local Native Indian tribe, the Mississaugas, had sold the land to the British then. In 1834, Toronto was incorporated as the "City of Toronto". It became the capital of the Province of Ontario and the most populous city in Canada with over 3 mio. population.

Friday - comfortably warm and partly sunny - we started the day with a walk to The Beach (beautifully quiet and clean) and continued from there through Leslieville - with a stop at a local brewery for a tour. On the photo below the historic Leuty Lifeguard Station from 1920 is shown.

 

 

The Beach with Queen East as its main axle, is also well worth a stroll (next two photos):
 

 

,,, and continuing almost equally colorful through Leslieville:

 Avling Brewery, below, which has a eco-friendly green roof on top:

 

By streetcar we got to downtown Toronto afterwards, with the Dundas Square (now officially "Sankofa Square") - above and on the right - as its heart and soul. 

Eaton Centre (below), closeby, is one of the pioneering shopping malls of the late 1970s with its vast multistorey interior atrium.

 

"Little Canada" (above) is a rather new and unique attraction in downtown, showcasing the country’s cities and landscapes through very accurate miniature models. On the photos two views of Toronto.

Old and New City Hall couldn't be more different: the old one a Romanesque-style buildinng, operating from 1899 to 1966, the new one opened in 1965 in modern style. It is located adjacent to Nathan Phillips Square and around the square you have some of the best sausage foodcarts: Different sausages in a bun with condiments for CAN$ 6! BTW: everything in Canada is so far much less expensive than in the U.S., even than in Germany! 

 

 

Passing through Queen West, where old and new architecture clashes, we walked to AGO, The Art Gallery of Ontario, established in 1900. Alone the architecture is fantastic, and so are the Canadian Art Galleries!

On from culture to Chinatown - no rest for the wicked! - with exotic produce markets and shops, restaurants, street vendors and food stalls, and, a beautiful view towards downtown with its modern skyscrapers. Established in 1878, Chinatown is one of Toronto’s oldest neighbourhoods.

 

 

 

Chinatown is adjacent to Kensington Market, a bit of a crazy "hippie neighborhood". It's a  mixed commercial-residential neighbourhood with colourful shops (among others, many selling vintage stuff as "Public Butter for the masses" on the photo), vibrant murals, and eclectic shops and restaurants.  

 

 

After about 8.5 hours and 20 km we called it a day afterwards and arrived back "home" at around 8 pm, enjoying a beer on the patio.