Our first full day in Pickering, Toronto where Gail gave us a typical Canadian breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup. We later took a drive up country to some interesting little places such as the Archibald winery and Tyrone Mill the later providing a lovely scene of a deck overlooking a lake. We the drove to Raglan and visited theWhite Feather Country Farm for lunch. We then took a slow drive home to Gale's and for dinner Reiza and Gail popped down the chippy and came back with fish and chips. Bill and Reiza the took a walk along the beach of Lake Ontario, he couldn't believe water as far as the eye could see yet it was still a lake and the other side of the horizon was another country, the USA. Letter in the evening Bill and Gail got their heads together and clarified their family tree. So far they have discovered their highest common denominator ancestor is their great great grandfather who was born in Ireland and all thir subsequent joint ancestors come from Battersea, London. At the moment the trail has gone cold so Bill has a project when he gets home. However Bill did manage to locate Gail's maternal Grandmother on a website and has arranged a birth certificate.
Saturday 15th July 2017
When we arrived in Toronto last Thursday there were a group of women wearing old fashioned dresses and bonnets. At first we thought they were Amish but if so how come they were at a railway station. Gail informed us they were in fact Mennonite. Mennonite is a religious group who value the sense of family and community and many do not embrace modern style of life.
This piqued our interest so Reiza and Gail took us to St Jacobs which is Mennonite country. Here we visited the Mennonite culture centre and museum which was extremely interesting bearing in mind 48 hours earlier we'd never heard of them. We then moved on to the farmers' market were many local farmers were selling their produce including the Mennonites who were doing a good trade in honey and maple syrup. We arrived back home and Reiza fired up his BBQ and cooked the most fantastic steaks and over dinner Zarah was talking to Bill about his police career as she is determined to join the R.C.M.P.
Sunday 16th July 2017
After breakfast we drove out to Ajax (pronounced as the detergent not the Dutch football team) This is on the shore of Lake Ontario and is named after the ship HMS Ajax that took part in the battle of the River Plate. Furthermore many of the streets are named after the crew of that ship. Adjacent to the shoreline is a memorial/commemoration park to the battle and Ajax's two sister ships HMS Exeter and HMNZS Achilles with interesting information and a tasteful memorial. We then drove to Pickering town hall to see the cenotaph located there. It was then our intention to visit Pickering's open air museum but alas the rain came so we headed back home where we had lunch. After lunch a friend of Gail's, who is a scout leader called and we compared notes about our respective county's associations. One thing we did discover is that the problems we experience Canadians do too. He then gave us some Canadian scouting memorabilia and ironically the scarf of his group was exactly the same colours as Val's group in Wembley. The rain still fell so for the time being we stayed home. Later that evening the rain stopped so we took a drive to the east beach of Pickering and took a walk along the shore of Lake Ontario which was just like a seaside resort.
Monday 17th July 2017
We were up early and caught the GO train to downtown Toronto. On our arrival we went up to the observation level of the CN Tower and fortunately the weather was brilliant so we had fantastic views across Lake Ontario in one direction and the city itself in the other. Bill then went to the glass floor for some more pictures, Val and Gail left him to it. After we'd seen all we wanted to we descended to the ground floor and exited through the obligatory gift shop. Once we left the tower we walked over the the railway museum, we didn't go in but there was a locomotive and a carriage outside together with some scaled down buildings. We then took a cab to a different part of town and had places of interest pointed out to us. We found a Frans and had lunch before entering the Metropolitan Toronto Police museum. It was very well laid out and told a story of the force's history and crime investigation. We came out and wandered around the city then visited a Tim Horton coffee shop for a drink and donuts. Apparently we wouldn't be allowed to leave Canada if we hadn't sampled a Tim Hortons. Suitably refreshed we went to the Toronto underground and caught a train to Union Station where we changed to a GO train back to Pickering where we were picked up by Reiza and taken home.
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