Our Visit to Canada.2013.
We enjoyed our 12 day’s visit to Canada in Apri-May 2013. I am sharing a brief description of our trip for those who have not visited Canada.
We landed in Vancouver, in a small turbo prop plane from Seattle, after a 30 minute flight. The view of Vancouver area from the air,was beautiful, with many lakes, rivers, bays, beaches, islands off the coast, snow covered mountains in the North and East,with greenery all around. We stayed with our nephew and his Canadian wife, in downtown area, which has many Indian shops. There is a large population of Indians, mostly Punjabis, in and around Vancouver. Many are workers brought by Indian contractors or large farm owners.
Being spring season, all the roadside trees were in full bloom. We visited a number of beautiful parks, few beaches and the beautiful University Campus,overlooking the Pacific Ocean. All of them have nice avenues and gardens. There are many well laid out, lit, foot paths and cycle tracks, in parks, beaches and large campuses. Large number of young and old persons uses them, from early morning till late night. We also visited a large, well laid out History Museum of the Native People (Red Indian tribes) with large life style collection from their past. Many Totem poles, which indicates the family status and few recreated homes are on display inside and out doors. We visited a beautiful dam,which is interconnected by tunnels to 2 other dams across the mountains, which supply drinking water to the city of Vancouver. There is also a large salmon breeding centre,open to public at the dam.
After spending the week end at Vancouver we took a 3 hour flight to Toronto, which is a more crowded city. The following day our elder son arrived and took us by road to Ottawa. We had lunch at place called Port Hope about 2 hours drive on the way. Our 80 year old relative, who lives alone, cooked and served us an elaborate Kerala lunch. We reached Motreal, after another 5 hour drive, through some of the most beautiful country side and highway system. We stayed in a hotel right in the centre of the town, close to many tourist attractions. Next day we walked to the large Cathedral Church and the park near our Hotel, with many life sized sculptures. We had a long walk through the streets to the large and beautiful Notre dam Church. Many well built young persons take tourists on nice Hand Rickshaws. They are approved multilingual guides for local visits. Well decorated Horse Coaches also take groups of tourists around the streets in Montreal. Many streets have large number of small and large eating places with wide choice. We visited the large Olympic stadium complex at one end of the city, but had only time to drive around. We also could only drive around a few beautiful parks hoping to see the Tulip festival. Due to change in weather, the Tulips were not yet in bloom. We left for Ottawa after a brief visit to a huge Cross on top of the hill overlooking the city of Montreal.
Ottawabeing the capital, the main attraction is the large Parliament Building and the Supreme Court. Both are located on a hill by the side of the river Ottawa, flowing below. It is a beautiful sight of the river flowing below and the view of the city on the other side. The city is spread out on both banks of the river, which has a long foot path and Cycle Tack on the both the banks of the river. Many bridges connect the city on both sides of the river. Our Hotel was close to the city centre and we walked to all the important places and to the restaurants for lunch and dinner. Both the Parliament House and the Supreme Court is accessible to tourists, with no restrictions, except personal security check. Only bottles of liquids are not allowed to be carried inside. You can enter Supreme Court or the Parliament even while in session, at the rear or Gallery and all other rooms.. You are allowed to take pictures sitting in the Supreme Court Judge’s seat with a gown and cap (which is provided). Ottawa has a network of canals and a system of locks to control level of water, to keep them in use, at levels higher from the river. It was the week of Tulip Festival, but none of the many roadside gardens or large parks had them in full bloom, due to late winter this year. Nevertheless we enjoyed walking and driving through them. We could visit my 84 year old sick cousin and his family in Ottawa. We had lunch with them before we left in the afternoon, back to Toronto..
It was about 4 hours beautiful country side high way drive back to Toronto. The next day we visited down town area. We had a good view of the city from the top of the famous CN Tower. The glass bottomed deck at 63 meters and the panoramic view of the horizon from 66 meters for many kilometers around were breath taking. Next day we took a 2 hour drive to the Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, which is more beautiful and developed. We had a picnic lunch in the park next to the falls with the family of our cousin. We also viewed the falls from openings made in a tunnel made into the rock over which the water is falling. The view of all the falls are more spectacular from the Canadian side than USA.
Sunday we attended service at the new Mar Thoma Church on the outskirts of Toronto and met many from Tiruvalla. We had dinner with families of Jessie`s 2 cousins in Toronto. Next day on our way back to Detroit in USA, we stopped at a Place called London at a cousin and her husband and had breakfast with them. Another 2 hour drive took us to another of Jessie`s cousin`s family, at town called Windsor, where we had our lunch. We reached the US border a short distance away and after entry formalities, we reached Detroit airport in time to return the rental car and catch our flight back to Las Vegas. My cousin living in Detroit came over and met us with his son,at the airport, as we had no time to visit him at his home.
We enjoyed our short visit to Canada, where we could meet many relatives, friends, see country side, important tourist attractions in and around 4 cities, in 12 days’ time. The weather was unusually pleasant throughout our trip.
K.George John. 2013.
Editted 10/2018.
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