A trip to Toronto by Paul H

Day One

When we landed at Toronto it was pouring with rain, just as it had been when we left Edinburgh. The local time in Toronto was 3pm, 5 hours behind Scotland. We checked in at the hotel, had our tea in the restaurant and didn't do much as we were all tired.

Day Two

City tour of Toronto - CN Tower, Lake Ontario, Air Canada Centre and Rogers Centre (formerly the Sky Dome).

Day Three

We took a boat trip on Lake Ontario, one of the 5 Great Lakes on the St Lawrence Seaway. Lake Ontario is the only Great Lake that does not freeze in winter. We saw the Toronto Islands which have houses on them and one even has an airstrip.

Day Four

We travelled by bus to Niagara Falls, which are south of Toronto and lie between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

The journey took an hour and a half and we stopped twice along the way. We had our lunch overlooking the falls which comprise two enormous cataracts - The Horseshoe Falls and The American Falls.

The Maid of the Mist boat tour took us almost underneath the waterfalls but we had been issued with waterproofs and so stayed fairly dry. It was spectacular when you got right up beside the Horseshoe Falls as you could see and feel the force of the water cascading over the edge.

We then went up to the American Falls which were also very impressive.

The tour round the river took about 30 minutes. All too soon it was time to board the bus and return to Toronto.

Day Five

Some of us went shopping and some of us took another bus tour. The most impressive thing we saw was Castlevania which was built by some really rich guy to live in. It was only about 90 years old but had turrets and ramparts and really looked like a castle.

Apparently the owner eventually lost his fortune, lost his castle and moved in with his limousine driver.

Day Six

Today we went up the famous CN Tower - Toronto's well known landmark.The CN Tower reaches 1,850 feet making it the tallest structure in the entire world. It is 135 stories high and you can see Niagara Falls on a clear day. We took the lift up to the glass floor, which is the floor below the revolving restaurant. We walked across the glass floor and could see all the way down to the ground 1200 feet below.

We then took the lift up to the skypod which is the highest point that visitors can reach. In the skypod you are 1,444 feet above the ground - you could see buildings for miles and miles and people looked like ants.

Day Seven

Our last day - we were to be out of our hotel room by 12 noon. We had 7 hours until check-in time at the airport. Since we were all packed to go there was not much to do - we just spent most of our time shopping. Finally it was time to go to the airport at 7.30pm. Our plane took off at 11.30pm Canadian time and landed back at Edinburgh at 10.15 in the morning British time. We flew through the night which meant none of us got any sleep on the plane - we missed a night's sleep! When we finally got to our beds on Friday night we had been up 36 hours straight.

Overall we had a really good time in Canada. We would definitely go back, although a week is long enough as it is not a relaxing holiday.

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