Historic and Modern, authentic and fancy

Up  early on Sunday morning, hot, hot, hot, and humid, over 30 deg. C!  Took the streetcar into town (about 45 min) and walked over to Fort York, at the harbourfront, to inspect progress at the new Bentway Park, photo below, underneith the highway first:

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,,, and, of course, had to visit Fort York again, the place where British soldiers, First Nations warriors and Upper Canadian militiamen stood together against the United States and its mission to capture Toronto in the War of 1812.

Under the Bentway: a movable forest, quite unique:

On to the harbourfront, first, passing Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (on an island!), then the Canada Malting Silos - one of two remaining silos, built in 1928 and abandoned in the 1980s.

Fronting on Toronto's inner harbour, the Toronto Music Garden is one of the city's most enchanted locations. The park design is inspired by Bach's First Suite for Unaccompanied Cello, with each dance movement within the suite corresponding to a different section of the garden.

Robin

 

Steamwhistle Brewing was one of the pioneers in Toronto's brewing scene. It's located at the historic John Street Roundhouse, adjacent to the Railroad Museum:

Confronting all the modern architecture: The historic Royal York Hotel (above).

Very clean and convenient: the subway. Union Station (above) got a facelift a couple of years ago and is an important hub for trains and metro (subway) as well as a gathering point thanks to a great foodcourt and shops.

On to Bloor Street, the "fancy" shopping mile with three great museums, first: ROM (Royal Ontario Museum with its spectacular Frank Gehry prism), second, the Gardiner (ceramics) and, third, the Bata Shoe Museum, where they had two special exhibitions about the history of cowboy boots and artistic sneakers.

Yorkville, adjacent to Bloor Street, offered a special treat on this weekend: Jazz Festival. On different stages concerts took place and, in the shade, we listened to some up-and-coming bands:

Around Bloor Street a lot of modern architecture is to be admired. Wondering who can afford to rent or buy all these fancy condos and apartments,,,

Downtown's Yonge Street above, a mix of old and new, run-down and state-of-the art.

Called it a day in the late afternoon and took the streetcar back to our Eastern neighborhood. Boy, it has been real hot today, hottest day this year so far! Stopped at Avling again and had a drink and a bite to eat before we walked over to the Beach to notice a strong contrast to what we had before. Beach was packed!

On the walk to our AirBnB: notice the little "Gartenzwerg" - dwarf?