Day 4 - islands and a distillery

Today we woke up to beautiful sunshine, and warmer temperatures.

We had planned to do some more inside stuff, but given the weather we swapped things around and decided to get a ferry to Toronto Island.

The island is actually a peninsula, turned into an island by a sand storm. You can get a 15 minute ferry from the harbour front to three sections of the island. There’s the central part, which in the summer, is a picnic destination with beaches and cafes. There’s Hanlan’s point, which is more secluded and has a nudist beach. Then there’s Ward’s Island which is the main residential part.

In the winter, the ferries only go to Ward’s.

We had a little wait for the ferry, so we wandered along the harbour front for a while. The water was so still.

We got into the no frills ferry (no seats, no inside) and in 15 minutes we stepped off into a magical world of ramshackle houses mixed with the kind of houses you dream of buying and running away to. Off grid. It’s cold today, the water in the dock is almost frozen solid.

We spent a few hours wandering round, looking at the houses and wondering how it would feel to live there.

When boarding the ferry back, we were joined by many locals with their bikes (the island is private car free) going to downtown Toronto to get their shopping.

The view of the Toronto skyline as you come back from the island is a real sight to behold.

We then mooched around a bit, did a bit of shopping and had a coffee and then got on a tram to the Distillery District. This area has been regenerated from his distillery past to a rather exclusive area of shops, galleries and condos. We had hoped to be able to walk around it, but they had their annual Christmas Village, so the only way in was to pay for a ticket. We did.

As Christmas markets go, it was actually very nice, but after an hour or so we had enough and left. We decided to walk back as this would be our last evening.

On the way, we noticed Lawrence Market, which is a proper food market. Meat and fish galore. We spent 45 minutes there and then set off back to the hotel.

Toronto has so many places to eat and so many different varieties of cuisine. The smells are amazing as you walk along the streets.

Tonight we opted for Ramen. It was so delicious. Another tiring, but happy day. Another night where we sleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow!