To Toronto and Up

Oct 17

2 min read

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Our trip to Toronto involved various forms of transport, all of which Racheal thoroughly enjoyed. First a ride in our wheelchair accessible hire car to Vaughan, a suburb of Toronto. From there we caught the subway into Union Station, in the centre of the city. All very accessible and with plenty of staff on hand to help. Very impressed that every carriage had two wheelchair spaces, one at each end.

After checking where we need to go when we leave Ontario by train in a few days time, we set off to find a sightseeing tour bus. This was accessed by a rather rickety looking ramp for Racheal. It was a hop-on-hop-off, so we decided to get off at the Distillery Heritage District to find somewhere for lunch. There were lots of independent cafes and shops. Not all were wheelchair accessible due to the age of the buildings but it was a warm day and pleasant to wander around.

When we caught the next bus the ramp was jammed so we had to lift Racheal, in her wheelchair, onto the bus. She thought it was hilarious, I wasn’t so impressed!

The rest of the tour was mediocre at best and our guide spoke far too fast. We stayed on the bus until we had completed a circuit and got off outside the CN Tower which is 553m tall and for a long time was the tallest free standing structure in the world.

After negotiating security and ticket sales, we were directed to a glass lift which shot us up 346m to the main observation deck in 60 seconds. Racheal wasn’t that bothered about having her tea at such an altitude, but the lift ride down again she found even more exciting than the ride up! For the rest of us, the views were incredible and we could even look directly down on a Blue Jays baseball game, though it was far too small to see what was going on! By the time we came out it was dark and the tower was lit with red and blue chasing lights.

We were much later back than intended, by the time we had walked to the subway, travelled 50 minutes to the car park and then another 50 minutes drive to our accommodation, but it was a good day out.

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