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.

 

Work hard, Play hard

 IPW is an international tourism conference/travel trade show with about 5,000 participants this year, from 65 countries. Each country sends over a group of tour operators/travel agents and a (smaller) group of journalists. Our German media group consisted of about 20-25 members, a little less than usually. 

Sunday was still a bit more relaxed with German VUSA Breakfast, Press Brunch and baseball, but, from Monday to Wednesday days were packed, from early morning, 7:30 am, to late in the evening. During the day we had business appointments, press conferences, workshops, networking time, and, in the evenings, parties of different destinations took place. In addition, there was the opening and the closing party for all participants. 

It's been exhausting, but interesting, it is not so much about planning research trips, but about meeting with people and gathering ideas. Following a couple of photos showing the event. See captions for details.

Opening event at the Field Museum, home to famous "Sue", the largest Tyrannosaurus rex discovered.

,,, and they have a great Native American collection as well:

View from the outside patio towards Chicago's skyline.

Monday - Media Market Place - with business appointments all day:

Broadway Luncheon. NYC and Broadway always sponsor one of the lunches for all participants and brings some cast members from different new musical productions over. On the pic: a presentation of "Buena Vista Social Club".

Press Conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday, some of them pretty boring, others exciting. Tennessee brought several musicians, North Dakota flew Teddy Roosevelt in. Reason: There is a new Presidential Center for this president under construction in the Badlands of North Dakota. Looking forward to see it once it's accomplished (next year).

 

Below, the big Exhibition Hall with boothes of destinations, hotels, tour operators and others:

Entrance to the Exhibition Hall:

One of the absolute party highlights was a concert of Darius Rucker in the House of Blues. Travel South had sponsored this concert and it was tough to get tickets. We made it!!! Great Southern food, too.

Traveling,,, after business appointments we had to travel quite a bit to get from one event to the next one in the evening. Usually, we took the train to get around. Here, we are waiting at the Convention Center station.

Above, right: view from a rooftop party, to which NYC invited. Always fancy parties!

Walking over to the next one, having a gorgeous night view of the Chicago River:

Texas Party - another highlight. Good music, excellent food, and for a change, it was possible to have a conversation. Otherwise it's usually very loud and crowded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beef brisket (pic), ribs and steaks were being served:

,,, and give-aways in abundance. We will take the lasso home, not the hat!

Further below photos of the closing event at Navy Pier. Such a agreat location, but, unfortunately, we had rain and heavy thunderstorms and they needed to move the whole event inside. Liked the DJayne and the fireworks at the end.

On the way to Toronto now. New adventures waiting. Exhausted, but it's been a productive couple of days in Chicago.