Canada - Toronto - Parks, Lake and the Big Tower

Day 1 - Tuesday 27 August

Well, technically, the Riona and Ruth big adventure started on Day 0 as we headed to London and stayed overnight with Caitlin. It was a good start to the trip and nice to see her, albeit briefly.  I think I lost ungraciously at cards (OK, I know I did...).

As Caitlin pedalled off to work on the Tuesday, Riona and I headed to the lovely Jewish bakery near Caitlin's and enjoyed breakfast.

Our flight was early afternoon so we ambled off to Heathrow, checked in and eventually we were airborne.

The flight was uneventful (all the best are) and we landed in JFK airport, New York, to suffer over an hour's worth of queues entering the US.  Once entered we promptly exited the country for our flight to Canada.

It was now 1900 local time which was 0000 BST and I was fading.  A make-up lady caught Riona's attention as she was taking polaroid photos.   Riona is too young to remember these.  I recall the excitement of standing in my Grandma's garden watching an image come out of the camera like magic.  Anyway, the lady took a shot of us in our weary smiles.  Riona does sleeplessness better than me.

It was a disorganised bundle onto the plane to Toronto.  I admit to forgoing any British "after you please" stuff and shoved my way on along with everyone else. There was a large family gathering that were somehow taking over twice the hand luggage limit each on board so there was a lot of to'ing and fro'ing as everything was shoe-horned in.

Anyway, we left the US and were soon landing in sleepy Toronto, midnight local time.

Public transport was asleep so we hopped in a taxi and easily found our way to our BnB.  And sleeeeeeeeep.

Day 2  - Wednesday 28 August

We had a plan, mainly organised by Riona, and once we'd roused ourselves we were off.  Our bike hire failed at the first hurdle as it required internet connection to pick up the code.  Ah well, a long walk then it was.

Definitely in the right country.

We spotted free sunscreen attached to a play park.   So Riona made us (re) sun block up.  

The harbourside.

Yay!

Along the harbour is the Toronto Music Garden.    It is designed around Bach's 'Suite No. 1 in G Major for unaccompanied cello' and hosts different plantings/pathways based on the various movements.  It was a pleasant wander and also gave us our first view of the CN Tower.

We stopped for our first iced coffee and then continued into downtown Toronto.

Riona and the duck share a dip.

We headed to St Lawrence Market for a late lunch. 

Then we headed east towards the Distillery District.  We couldn't resist this photo opportunity on the way...

Flat iron building.

The Distillery District hails from 1832.  Obviously once a hive of activity it fell into disuse.  It was refurbished and re-opened in  2003 as a hip, arty, cultural quarter of Toronto.

And here I am being hip, arty and cultural.

Lots of Victorian architecture remains.

You just have to try the beer/cider when in the zone...

Next up was the CN Tower.  This is the thing to do in Toronto and I was keen to do it early on our trip so we could orientate ourselves to the city.  

It opened in 1976 and at 553 m high it became the tallest free standing structure in the world, holding this title for an incredible 34 years.  

We only rose to 350 m but the views were outstanding as you'd expect.  

Looking towards the harbour and Lake Ontario.

In 1994 the glass floor was built/opened so we just had to go stand.

 
We stayed up for quite a while taking in the views and watching the sun go down.

Awesome.

Whilst the sun set we spied on the Blue Jays baseball game in the Rogers Centre, 350 m beneath us.  

And that was our first day in Toronto.  Exhausted already.

Spanish Holiday - Granada and the Sierra Nevada

Sat 04 May to Mon 06 May 19

On Saturday afternoon we drove to Granada.  We took the direct route, a single carriageway road across the region, passing some interesting sites as we went.

We couldn't resist this one so pulled over in Alcaudete.

A most interesting church - but shut as we appeared to be out of season.

In fact we seemed to be out of season for the whole of Alcaudete with no shops open, certainly not anywhere we could stop for lunch.  No worries, we drove on to Granada, entering the huge city and weaving our way up to our accommodation on the western side up in the hills.  Nice view from the balcony!

We wandered down into Granada to see what we could find.

It's a far larger city than Cordoba: more offices, traffic-laden roads, the usual shopping offerings, fancy restaurants etc.  The older buildings are still there to discover but more dispersed amongst the commercial centre.

There is a large souk in the centre.

And we found a cathedral.

Sunday saw the focus of our visit to Granada, a tour of Alhambra.  

JC has been wanting to visit this complex for years.  The site consists of a multitude of buildings, a garrison, palaces, gardens, mosques, pools and waterways.  There is beautiful Arabic tiling and amazing architecture - although somewhat neglected over the centuries and some of the restoration has been done in an enthusiastic but sloppy manner.

It's hard to visit as the tickets sell out super quickly and you therefore have to pay for a tour.  There is timed entry to one of the palaces.  It is a fascinating place but our guide rushed us around and wasn't oozing much information.  One of his memorable quotes was "water comes from the Nevada.  It flows downhill".  Anyway, at least we got in there but, if I go again, I'd ensure I had a decent guide or, better still, total free rein to visit this at my own pace. 

After this we had a Ruth treat and went to an Andalusian Arab bath.  It was a relaxing and pleasant break from the hustle of the tourist sites and we blobbed around for an hour or so.

We drifted around the back streets of Granada, climbing up a series of steps to suddenly find ourselves with this awesome view of the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada.

On Monday, on our way back to Malaga, we drove into the foothills of the Nevada and hiked the Río Monachil.  If you like rushing water, rope bridges, clinging to the side of a gorge, waterfalls and scrambling, this is your type of walk.  It was an eclectic mix of all of the above walking up the gorge.

The woman with the odd hat is off...

Bouncy!

Yup, it was a hands and knees operation on occasions.

To be honest the return leg was a bit dull, just down a road, but it was more than compensated for by the fun we had getting up there.

Then it was a drive across Andalusia to Malaga.  We stopped off at a random bar and for €3 were served a tapa and a drink.  When we ordered more drinks more tapas came out which we weren't expecting.  This wouldn't have been too inconvenient except most of the tapas in Spain consist of meat and even JC couldn't munch them all.  

Then it was a late flight back to Exeter and up and out for work the next day.  Ah well.

If you want to see some better photos, and a bit more history of the places, JC's blog is here.

Spanish Holiday - Cordoba

Myself and a friend, JC, spent four hot days in Spain exploring Cordoba and Granada cities and surrounding countryside.

Thurs 02 to Sat 04 May 19

We flew from Exeter into Malaga, collected our hire car, and drove north to Cordoba.  It was hot hot hot.   We checked into our accommodation and headed off to explore the city.  We were staying on the south of the city so had to walk over the beautiful ancient Roman bridge each day.

The buildings/architecture here are awesome!  

Look at this door on the Mesquita (more on this later).

We took the advice of our AirBnB host and JC ordered a local speciality, flamenquín.  This is essentially pork rolled in egg/breadcrumbs and deep fried.  He decided that once was enough and I turned the remains into a 'happy meal'.

I fared a little better with berenjenas con miel (aubergines in honey) although they were deep fried so, again, they were not re-ordered.  A big hit was salmorejo which is cold tomato soup.  We had a lot of that over the next few days.

On the Friday we visited the famous and amazing Mezquita.  This mosque-cathedral was established in the 6th Century as a basilica and subsequently upgraded and enlarged from the 8th Century by various caliphates.   Minarets were built and rebuilt each higher than the first.  The mosque doubled and quadrupled in size.  As you walk from the earliest to later parts of the mosque you note that the first 1/4 was built using bricks from red and white stone, whereas the huge extension which quadrupled its size was built with white bricks, and the 'red stone' bricks are simply painted red.

The mihrab.

Look up!

In the 12th Century the Christians arrived and claimed the mosque as a cathedral.

And suddenly you are transported from mosque to gothic church.  Over the centuries chapels were built inside the mosque plus a gothic nave, choir stalls, a bell tower, altar etc.  It's incredible to look at - the intertwining of gothic Christian and Islamic architectures.  Stunning.

Looking up in the chapel.

The choir stalls.

After the mesquita indulgence we found a quiet Moroccan tea shop.

And then continued to explore Cordoba.

Cordoba is famous for its patios and each year these small courtyard gardens are open to the public.  We missed the Patios contest by a few days but there were still plenty of patios to peep at.

They are beautifully tended.

We continued to explore for the rest of they day.  It was hot!

Ancient ruins (mainly rebuilt).

And also some Roman baths.  There is oodles to see in Cordoba and a few days was not enough.  

On Saturday we visited the amazing Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, built in the 15th Century as headquarters for the Catholic Monarchs.  It housed not only their troops but their family and boasts extensive, well-tended gardens, fountains and streams.

I liked the urns.

We walked past an old water wheel on the way back to our car.  In previous days this was a working water mill until floods took it out of action.

I was sad to leave Cordoba.  It is an explorer's delight and, due to its combact size, relatively traffic-free and easy to navigate on foot; in fact that's the only way to see it.  It was stiflingly hot in April.   It must be unbearable in the summer - I expect everyone heads to the hills if they can.