I’ve
been hearing for years about the excellent atmosphere and intense fan
support for Toronto FC at BMO Field, so when Porter Airlines offered an
inexpensive non-stop fare into an airport right in downtown Toronto, and
Nancy said she’s be willing to come along for a weekend I jumped at the
chance. In the end, the game was an anti-climax, but the weekend was
excellent.
Porter flies only propeller planes, and I am not wild
about commuter flights in general, but I was psychologically committed
to the trip by the time I recognized that we would have to fly on a prop
plane. I don;t think I;ve ridden a propeller plane since I flew to Page
Arizona forty years ago to go rafting down the Colorado, but in the
end, the flights were fine, even if it was it was pretty darn bumpy
flying home on Sunday. The flight was out of Dulles, an inconvenient
airport, but it went right into Billy Porter City Airport, which is even
closer to downtown Toronto than National Airport is to downtown DC – it
takes a ferry ride across a channel barely wider than a soccer pitch is
long, and the ferry lands within a couple of blocks of a busy street
car line. An extra bonus was that we flew up on the same flight at
Steve Goff, the
Washington Post’s soccer writer. He and I have corresponded by email
over the years, and it was a pleasure to be able to chat in person.
As we arrived, we had this nice view of Toronto from the airplane window.
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| View of Toronto from plane arriving at Billy Bishop City Airport |
Looking at the AAA map, I could have sworn it was a reasonable
walk to our hotel, so Nancy and I set off with our bags in hand. A run
of the Google map would have corrected this misapprehension – it was
more than a three mile walk. Still, it was lovely as we strolled along
the waterfront, and we got nice views of the CN Tower, Rogers Centre and
the Toronto skyline.
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| CN Tower and Rogers Center |
By the time we had walked north on Bay Street, then Church Street,
and finally Jarvis, it was 8 PM and we were too tired to go across town
for the dinner I had reserved. The hotel host siad that some of her
guests would buy food at Loblaws and bring it back to eat in the
breakfast room, but we opted instead for we opted for my second
restaurant choice, the
Matagali, an Indian Thai
place only a few blocks from our hotel. The food there was good, if
relatively unremarkable. The most interesting thing we had was listed
on the menu as prawns pakora, actually several shrimp, lightly battered,
marinated then fried, with a delicious flavor.
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| Prawns Pakora |
On the way over, we had passed a large food store called Loblaw’s,
located in an older building that turned out to be the former Maple Leaf
Gardens
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| The former Maple Leaf Gardens, now home to Ryerson University and Loblaw |
We were tired, but not too tired to satisfy our curiosity, so we stepped
inside to find a huge food emporium that I can best refer to as Whole
Food on steroids. in addition to ample aisles of regular groceries,
there was a huge section of produce, ready-made foods of many varieties,
a large cheese section, bakery, fresh candy aisle, and more.
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| Inside Loblaw on Carleton Street in Toronto |
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| Inside Loblaw on Carleton Street in Toronto |
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