French Canada Trip Day Four: Toronto to Ottawa to Montreal

Tread back to Day Three of my Canadian journey here.

A foggy morning in downtown Toronto. I enjoy a fantastic breakfast of cinnamon oatmeal and a bacon and egg breakfast sandwich in the hotel restaurant. Then it's off to retrieve the Lexus from an underground parking deck, a feature that creates a nice little green space between the hotel and a row of town homes behind it.

A last glimpse at downtown Toronto. Tomorrow, I'll be in a city different in almost every way.

Most of the morning rush hour had burned off by the time I hit the highway, and soon I was back on the open plains of rural Ontario. My first destination for the day was Ottawa, Canada's provincial capital and home to a little over one million people.

Quickly, I hit a milestone. My odometer patiently flipped over from 229999 to 230000 miles. This, with more than half of the trip left to go. Still I was impressed with the old girl. I bought this car almost five years ago, already with 150000 miles and between three and four previous owners. By all counts it should have been in its golden years... years ago. But here it was, already in a foreign country, and inching ever closer to a province where nearly 95% of the people speak French.

The misty weather hung around throughout the morning, and I was glad I'd splurged on the $15 a piece wipers instead of my usual $7 ones. This didn't seem to dampen the beauty of this region's fall colors, which peak between mid-September and mid-October.

225 miles east of Toronto, I finally turned onto highway 416 north towards Ottawa. It's hard to imagine this nearly desolate highway leading to the capital city of Canada. Ottawa was declared capital of Canada in 1857 by Queen Victoria. This was long before the western provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and not to mention the Northern Territories were part of Canada. Thus Ottawa was chosen for it's location, nestled conveniently between Toronto and Montreal, the two biggest cities in Canada, and in the center of the Canadian territory.

It was also chosen because of distance from the United States border. Remember, this wasn't too long after the Louisiana Purchase, and California had only entered the Union 7 years earlier. So you can't fault Canadian officials for playing it safe.

Driving up highway 416 definitely played in isolationism's favor. In the 55 miles from the highway's origin near the St. Lawrence River to Ottawa, there are no incorporated towns, only the township of Kemptville, 35 miles from Ottawa and the rural community of Spencerville, which retains many structures that were built around its founding in the early 1800s.

A few miles outside of Ottawa, I left the main highway to take a scenic route, though I think the definition of scenic got stretched a bit. Really, it was a shortcut through the outer suburbs and into the city itself. Here I felt like a real outsider. In America, if you had a license plate from Arizona and were living in, say, Illinois or Tennessee, people would just assume you were in the military, or had recently moved, or maybe you were there for school. Here, a United States license plate basically meant one thing: tourist. And tourists venturing outside of the designated "tourist areas" were immediately suspect, or at least given a second look.

The two most common stateside plates I saw on this trip? New York and Vermont. The only other southern state plate I remember seeing was Alabama, in Toronto.

For a city of over 800,000, downtown Ottawa is incredibly compact. All of the main attractions here sit in the same three-block radius, starting from the riverside jogging and biking trail and extending southward on a grid.

The shining centerpiece of Ottawa is Parliament Hill, a collection of three buildings that still house day-to-day activities of Canadian government. In the center, the senate and house of commons (similar to our house of representatives), hold meetings in their respective chambers. Directly behind is the Library of Parliament, which houses some 600,000 items in its repository.

Flanking the center Parliament buildings are the East and West Blocks, which both contain offices of Canadian senators and ministers, along with meeting rooms and other administrative spaces.

All three of these Gothic Revival style buildings opened in 1866. The highly ornate style was chosen through a contest of sorts; many ideas were submitted to the department of public works, and eventually the decision was narrowed down to two styles: Gothic Revival and Neoclassical.

The United States Department of Agriculture building in Washington, D.C. is a shining example of Neoclassical architecture, the standard for most government buildings in the United States.

This represents an interesting decision point. The choice of which style to go with presented two polar opposites. Neoclassical: grand scale, simple shapes, and the liberal use of columns; Gothic Revival: Ornate, decorative shapes and patterns, and lancet windows. At the time, Neoclassical style was still seen as radical, where Gothic Revival, or Victorian style, was seen as more traditional and conservative.

While Gothic Revival style was chosen for government buildings in Canada, it still found its way to America via Christian institutions for higher learning. Both Sewanee University of the South (above) and Georgetown University began as private, Christian colleges, and both were built around the same time, in the late 19th century.

Now, also keep in mind that Canada was very much still a British colony at this time. Over in Britain, the reconstructed Palace of Westminster had nearly reached completion, and the answer was clear. The public works commissioners and Sir Edmund Walker Head, governor of what was then called British North America, chose the Gothic Revival style because it was thought to best represent parliamentary democracy.

Thus began the stark architectural contrast between Canada's capital city and ours, Washington, D.C.

It took me about two hours to walk around the buildings of Parliamentary Hill, down to the riverside trails overlooking Gatineau, Quebec, and back up to the canals of Ottawa.

By the time I'd finished walking around, it was late in the afternoon, and the sun was already starting to get low on the horizon. I grabbed my car from the parking deck and set off towards Montreal. I quickly got caught up in early rush hour, and after the frustration of trying to find a highway on ramp that wasn't closed for construction, I blasted on, unaware that I'd missed a crucial exit.

Soon, I realized my mistake when the road turned from a controlled-access interstate to a four lane highway with traffic lights. Instead of heading southwest, I'd continued straight and was now on the outskirts of the Capital Region. But a quick check of the map told me I'd face a minimal time delay if I stayed on this road, versus a giant one if I tried to go down to the highway I'd missed. And it was lucky I did miss that highway.

In the last hour of daylight, I was treated to the beautiful rural shoreside country of the Ottawa river valley.

Halfway between Ottawa and Montreal, I stopped in Hawkesbury and got my first taste of French Canada at a McDonalds. I listened to the chatter behind the counter, between the blonde high-school cashier and the half dozen cooks. It was the first time I'd heard everyone in an establishment speaking French, and it got me worried.

I can measure my French vocabulary on one hand, so it relieved me a bit to hear the person in front of me order in English. The population of Hawkesbury, once a booming saw mill town, is still about 70% bilingual, making it the third most bilingual city in Ontario. This was the first place I saw signs and primarily heard French being spoken.

The border crossing between Ontario and Quebec was undramatic, except for the fact that all road signs immediately switched to French-only, whereas in Ontario signs were in English and French. But we'll get into the separatist thing in the next post.

I arrived in Old City Montreal around 9:00P.M., and discovered the Lex had finally pooled enough oil in its plastic undercoating that it started dripping from the loose end at the back. I tried to put that anxiety into the back of my head, but I bedded down that night, worried. I've now got a profoundly leaky seal somewhere in a country whose native language I don't know. C'est la vie.

Head here to read about my first day in Montreal, starting in Old City.

French Canada Trip: Day Three (Toronto: University, Downtown, Kensington Market, Royal Ontario Museum, and Casa Loma)

To go back to Day Two, Part Two, click here.

Day three began in Toronto, a city often called "New York North" due to its similarities to our most cosmopolitan city. Indeed, Toronto is the fourth largest city on the North American continent, and offers world class dining, entertainment, and accommodations.

The British were the first Europeans to settle this area, which had previously been inhabited by the Wyandot and Iriqous natives. The French had set up trading posts here as early as 1750, but it was the British army officer John Graves Simcoe who established the town of York, which is now the city of Toronto. 40 years later, the village of York had grown such that it's residents advocated for incorporation, and thus the city of Toronto was officially established in 1834.

My hostel was in the Kensington Market neighborhood, a multicultural spot with Victorian row houses and vast outdoor markets. Eclectic doesn't begin to describe the area. All along Spadina Avenue are various Asian markets and vendors selling fresh produce, t-shirts, and phone cases. Most buildings are decorated with massive, colorful murals, and new developments exist alongside historic structures.

Next to Planet Traveler sits St-Stephen-In-The-Fields Church, a Gothic Revival parish church built in 1858. Across the street from it, Toronto Fire Station 315, whose two-story clock tower--built in 1878--is still a prominent sight among the neighborhood skyline.

I started and ended my day touring this neighborhood. In the morning, I walked in the direction of The University of Toronto, whose 180-acre urban campus lies about a mile north of Toronto's downtown financial district.

The most significant structures on campus date from 1858 to 1929. Coming from the southwest, I soon made it to the campus green, whose main building of University College sits at the far end. This building demonstrates a variety of architectural styles, and was declared a Canadian National Heritage Site in 1968. Soldier's Tower, part of that structure, was added later as a memorial to fallen alumni.

It was already a cloudy morning, and once I'd finished meandering the old campus, I started to feel raindrops. Soon after, the rain grew a bit steadier. I decided to keep going, glad I'd thought enough to grab my umbrella from the car before setting off.

As I was taking pictures of the Legislative Assembly Building, I noticed groups of people starting to jog past. When I turned around, I saw that there was a much larger crowd than I could have imagined. I remembered someone in the hostel wearing a marathon number that morning, but really didn't think much of it. A couple minutes later, though, massive waves of runners began passing through the square. I'd stumbled right into the marathon course, and I'd continue to follow it as the morning went on.

From the assembly building, I walked south, towards the downtown high rises and in the opposite direction of the runners. Toronto's downtown felt very much like that of any other large American city. Big banks and hospitals towered over, along with one of Donald Trump's hotels.

A couple of turns later and I found myself in the middle of the City Hall complex, where both the original Toronto City Hall building and the New City Hall, a modern twin-towers design built in 1965. This was also the end point of the marathon, and runners had already started to flood the pavilion.

I'd later find out there were 26,000 people participating in the morning's marathon, or almost the entire population of my college town. Here, that number constitutes about 1% of the population. After stopping at Tim Horton's for breakfast, I headed back to my car, which was about a mile away.

Not the actual Tim's I stopped at, but one of the over 4,000 locations worldwide. The chain started in nearby Hamilton, Ontario in 1964, and it's trademark "original roast" is the most popular coffee in Canada.

This museum certainly isn't short on curb appeal. This abstract, angular structure called The Crystal was added in 2007, and now is the main entrance to the museum. It's attached to the original building and eastern wing, which opened in 1933.

Despite what I'd found in my Youtube research, Toronto is a surprisingly walkable city. If you've got time on your hands, you can see most of downtown and quite a few interesting neighborhoods in a morning. When I got back to the car, I decided I'd drive to the Royal Ontario Museum, which is on the north end of the university complex.


ROM is a fairly unique establishment, both in its exterior appearance and in its function. What they've done is mixed a natural history museum with world culture, including art and artifacts from around the world. It's Canada's largest museum, and attracts more than one million visitors a year.

 Actors dressed in Greek military gear give a demonstration in Samuel Hall

The Byzantine-inspired rotunda at Royal Ontario Museum. The ceiling is adorned with glass mosaic tiles, and in the center reads "That all men may know his work," taken from the book of Job in the Old Testament. 16 surrounding symbols in the mosaic represent Mediterranean, American, Asian, and European cultures.

Four totem poles adorn the main staircase. Carved from red cedar, these Nisga'a and Haida people's poles range from 33 to 81 feet in height. These poles came from the coast of British Columbia, and were constructed between 1840 and 1910.

Downstairs, there's a gallery of Chinese architecture, the largest collection of such outside of China. Around 200 artifacts from 300BC to 1900 AD are on display, including a reconstruction of a Chinese Imperial palace and several tombs.

In the accompanying wing, the museum houses a collection of Chinese and Korean sculpture. 14 large freestanding sculptures, most depicting Buddha and other deities represent over 2000 years of Chinese sculpture. Every classic medium is represented: wood, marble, brass, and ceramic.

Moving upstairs, the next gallery I encountered was the Samuel European Gallery. The central theme of the gallery is "European Style Through the Ages," and it contains over 4,600 objects mostly presented in home life displays.

More specifically, the gallery follows the progression of living standards for different families in Europe from the middle ages to the 20th century. During this time, innovations in agriculture, social standards, economies, and industry changed how Europeans lived, worked, and spent their leisure time.

At one point in the gallery, an audio tape told me how work and leisure standards changed with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. It was around this time that the 40 hour work week became standard; before this both children and adults would work grueling shifts of more than 12 hours a day. With this newfound free time, the notion of the vacation was introduced, and beaches became leisure destination. It was also around this time that movies, music, and other forms of entertainment began growing in popularity.

By the time I'd explored my galleries of interest, it was early afternoon, and I decided I'd try to squeeze in one more sightseeing attraction in an already full day. Thankfully, the rain had stopped, and I navigated my way by car to Casa Loma.

Located in an otherwise quiet neighborhood. Casa Loma is a gothic revival style home commissioned by Henry Pellatt in 1911. Pellatt is most notable for bringing hydroelectricity to Toronto through early investments. Casa Loma, which took three years to build after being delayed by World War I, was the largest home in Canada at the time it was built.

300 workers built the 98-room mansion on what was then a rural tract of land outside of Toronto. Soon after its completion, Pellatt started feeling the strain of maintaining the massive residence. He made several real estate investments, ultimately unsuccessful, and had to sell $1.5 million worth of his art collection to make the payments.

But that wasn't enough to save his dream home. Pellatt was hit hard by the Great Depression, and soon property taxes on his mansion rose to astronomical levels. In 1923, only nine years after it was constructed, Pellatt left Casa Loma, moving to his farm house in King City, north of Toronto.

Afterwards, Casa Loma operated for a short time as a luxury hotel, becoming a popular prohibition-era party spot for Americans. This life was hard on the building, though. Run down, it was eventually seized by the city of Toronto in 1933. During World War II, the house was used as a hub for sonar research, and in 1997 finally underwent a 15-year, $33-million restoration.

The crowds at Casa Loma were immense, and after snapping a few pictures, I decided it wasn't worth the $22 admission to keep fighting them. Instead, I walked around the building, which is perched on a hill overlooking greater Toronto. I circled the neighborhood, walking down the Baldwin Steps in Spadina Park, then back up the hill and into the surrounding neighborhood.

Part of the original estate, but now separate from the mansion are the stables, which served as the secret headquarters of the Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee during World War II.

Soon, I stumbled upon Winston Churchill Park, a serene hideaway in the middle of uptown Toronto. Paths wind through the woods and the stillness provides such a contrast to the chaos of Casa Loma's tour bus crowds. I circled the park a second time, taking in the foggy surroundings and smelling the fresh, earthen aromas.

After a full day in Toronto, I checked into a downtown hotel, got a pizza, and prepared for the next day. Day four would involve driving from Toronto to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, and onwards to Montreal, where I'd spend the night.

Roll on over to Day Four, where I head to Ottawa and Montreal.

Keep scrolling for more photos from Toronto.