disandat in Algonquin

a young Loon gets ready
for the long flight to Florida.
I'd like to come too !

The A.P deck
with 3 meter board and sail boats.

waiting for the adventure

More Algonquin Reflections

A lone Maple is reflected
in the water of a quiet stream.

 

GHOST PADDLERS ON MISTY LAKE

EARLY MORNING FOG

 

The EATON CENTER

Downtown Toronto's largest and most elegant
shopping facility.
230 stores and restaurants are grouped
on three levels under a sweeping, curved glass roof.

 

 

 

In Stratford on Avon, Ontario.

In Stratford we saw two wonderful plays: "Romeo and Juliette" and on the very next day, "Fiddler on the Roof".
We spent two nights in a classy B&B, the "Mornington Rose" and on the third day, Sunday, we drove back to Toronto. This trip takes you through the heart of Ontario's Mennonite country.
The Mennonites, or Anabaptists, persecuted in Europe because of their religious believes, (they rejected Roman Catholicism, and were totally pacifistic) finally, after having been driven from one European country (Principality, Dukedom etc) finally found religious freedom in America. Many settled in Canada, specifically in Central Southern Ontario.
Many of them still pursue a simple life style, and are successful farmers, in spite of rejecting modern contrivances, using horse and buggy instead of motor cars. I understand, however, that they now permit themselves to use motorized farming tools, such as tractors but still do not use automobiles for personal, non-farming use.
On our way we met with many of them returning from Sunday service. I could not resist stopping my car and taking photographs of these people from another time

... in Mennonite Country...

Parking Lot in front of the Assembly Hall

After Sunday Service, on the way home....

 

 

 

..a small "bus" takes home the family and neighbours.

HIGH LITES

During this 5 week trip there were, of course, many high lites...
There was Lang Lang playing Mozart, there was Perlman playing Tchaikovsky,
there was "Romeo and Juliet" as well as "Fiddler on the Roof", both fabulous performances in Stratford, Ont.
there was Arowhon Pines in Algonquin Park, there was Vancouver, there was dinner in the Restaurant at the 330 meter level of the CN tower, with brightly lit Toronto beneath us...

None of the above compares in "High Lite" quality with dinner in Unionville with 11 members of the "Willowdale United" soccer club, with whom we visited Austria for a 3 weeks exhibition tour in 1975..... fully 38 years ago. Since the average age then was about 22 years that makes them all about 60 years old. Down below is the picture taken a few days ago. Now I ask you: "Do these guys look 60 ?"
Well, maybe the Coach, (he's the fellow sitting on the floor in the second team picture)...
maybe he looks 60 +...  the rest of them haven't aged a day, since they defeated the second best, Austria had to offer.

At first I thought I should list the names... you know: left to right...  but then I reconsidered:
Those who care, know all the names... and those who don't care, well, they don't care about the names... so you nameless lot: you were a terrific team and you still are terrific men with whom to play this game, nay, whom to know, was an honour and a pleasure for

yours truly: Bertstravels.

Willowdale United Soccer Club.

There are, count them, eleven members present.
Just enough to field a full team.
If we could field this team tomorrow,
Man U and Real Madrid watch out.

What's a team without a coach ?

both sides of the table.

 

... strollin' in Vancouver

The World's only steam driven clock.
If you want to know how it works,
write....

Gas town by night

Entrance to China Town.

We could've stayed at the SUN AH HOTEL:
They have, so their poster here says:
Clean Rooms.
We preferred the Sutton Place Hotel.

a typical "vegetable and spices" store.

Here is
"the Herbal and Birds Nest Company LTD"

On the West Coast

Sometime, in the middle of our CanVac we flew to Vancouver. It is truly astonishing, when you think that you are in the air for 5 hours and you are still in the same country. ( and you haven't even started from the East coast.) For the average European, this is an unbelievable fact, since, if you started from Barcelona and flew for 5 hours, you would have crossed several countries and ended up somewhere in Siberia.
As you can imagine, I took many pictures in Vancouver:
Gastown, Chinatown, Downtown, Stanley Park, Grouse Mountain and so on and so on....
I will post a few pictures, but then, what have you got? Pretty much the same as you get from street level in any big modern City. So, please do not expect much in the line of "City-scapes"...

Having said that, let me quickly add that we loved Vancouver. It's a beautiful town, in parts  old fashioned and in parts ultra modern, but almost always tasteful.
We walked many miles through the core of the city. Then, up by cable car to Grouse Mountain, (where we met one of the three days a bit rainy and overcast.)
We walked in Stanley Park and admired the huge Douglas Firs, we walked in China town and enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of a different culture, We strolled through Gas town and inspected innumerable boutiques, bars, restaurants and the world's only "steam driven clock."
We met many people and enjoyed meeting them all.
Vancouver was a wonderful three day experience.

VANCOUVER

Vancouver at night
taken from our hotel room

 

Buildings accross the road are mirrored
in the glass skin of a modern office building.

Downtown Vancouver

Good Old T.O.

After the tranquility of Algonquin Park, where you might hear a Blue Jay screech, or where the eerie call of a loon, seeking its mate, might waken you in the morning, or where the rustle of the wind in the drying red or golden leaves of autumn might just touch your awareness, there comes Toronto.
At present, Toronto is one gigantic construction site with new sky-scrapers rising out of the ground almost like mushrooms in the shadow of a protecting fir tree.
Toronto is more "hustle and bustle" than I remember it from the relatively short span of barely five years. The noise of the jack hammers, breaking up concrete, the howling motors of a dozen dump trucks is a never ending, seemingly never abating attack on not only your ears but on your entire being.
And yet I love this City.
I love this City maybe because of the vibrancy of its existence, maybe because of the bold stance it takes looking with challenge into the future.
Who will occupy all the new office space? Who will buy or rent all the new Condos?
We've said this with a frown years ago. We are still asking the same questions.
Don't worry, I say. Toronto will pull it off. Sure there will be ups and downs, there will be vacancy factors to choke the proverbial horse, there will be hard pressed builders....
but when all is said and done, I believe that "Toronto will pull it off." This, in any event is the considered opinion (call it a gut feeling) of

Bertstravels.

TORONTO - at present a giant Construction Site

Wherever you look in Toronto
you will see a crane reaching skyward.There are 5 of them in this picture alone.

But the CN Tower still
stands supreme in all its 580 meters

Above: The Old City Hall
Below: The New City Hall

 

SIZE MATTERS

I know that I have said this many times before, but it bears repeating:

PLEASE VIEW THESE PICTURES IN THE LARGE FORMAT,

simply by clicking on the image. 

It makes a real difference.

Thanks.

Algonquin Park, my favourite hang-out

During a little hike
(6.5 km over sticks and stones, roots and rocks)
we get to this lake, the name of which
I no longer remember.

Maple trees, amidst ever-greens
stepping back from a deep blue lake.

 

 

Some of the people who look after my "camp site"