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When i went on holiday with my family as a kid, my mum always had to visit at least one market.. if not more – to buy gifts or things for the house – or simply find something interesting. I have to admit, these days were not the most fun! However, here i am, writing an article on a Market – recommending you visit on your holiday!

So! Why am i doing this? – Two reasons, it’s a food market, and you wont regret it!

Regular readers probably know by now – i love food, and Canadian food is simply amasing – so when you go to a market like this, you know you’re getting the very best of the best food available. I’d recommend you pop to the market round lunch time – you’re guaranteed to find something you want to try, or buy.

There is everything available in the market from the many vendors located there – And if you’re self catering you’ll quite likely come out with a number of bags of breads, meats, fish, cheeses and confectionery! If you are there round lunch time, why not pick up something especially Canadian – a peameal bacon sandwich, or maybe you could try some of the shrimp gumbo (a stew) that’s available? Another fantastic point about this place is its sat right in the centre of the city, not far from the main train station, The Rogers Centre and the CN Tower! So you could tag this place onto a visit to another attraction!

St. Lawrence Market is one of two major markets in Toronto (the other being Kensington Market). It is located South-west corner of Front and Lower Jarvis Streets. It was established in the early part of the city’s history and was once home to Toronto’s first permanent city hall and jail house from 1845 to 1899. (more…)

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Well, last Tuesday i got back from another trip to Canada, more specifically just north of Toronto, Ontario.
We flew from Manchester to Toronto, having booked the flights about 3 months prior to travelling. Booking through Canadian Affair I’ve always found easy, and when selecting seats, again it’s as simple as clicking the seats you want to reserve and then confirming. Obviously you don’t have to reserve your seats, we simply do it to make sure we get a window seat and we don’t have to worry about where we will be on the plane while we’re waiting to check in our luggage.

A Thomas Cook A330 at Toronto Airport October 2010

When you have paid you will be given a booking reference which you can then use to keep tabs on your flights online. You’ll instantly be able to access a paper version of your invoice, and closer to the date of your flight you’ll find another option. Since Canadian Affair don’t issue you with tickets, they issue you with a “TRAVEL ITINERARY” which is a nice simple sheet of paper which tells you all the information you’ll need for your flights. You’ll need this particular sheet however to check in – so remember passports and this piece of paper and you’re on your way! You can either print the sheet off on your home PC or you can wait for them to send it you in the post.

Some people have asked, do Canadian Affair do online check in? Well unfortunately that’s no, they don’t – however if they ever do offer it i’ll be the first person to let you know since I’d love to give it a go, having never checked in online previously! My personal tips for check in (though i know you’ll all have your own rituals when you’re heading off on holiday) is to get to the airport about 1 hour to 30mins BEFORE your check in desks open – this means you have time to find the check in desks you’re going to be checking in with, and be hopefully the first in the queue – that means you can get through security and go have plenty of time browsing the shops – or what i like to do – relax and have a coffee!

I wont go into the security at Manchester Airport T1 as it has nothing to do with Canadian Affair specifically, no matter who you fly with at Manchester you’ll have to go through security – so if you want to read about my thoughts on Manchester Airport check out my article on it!

Our flight set off 40 minutes late going out to Toronto, this was caused due to the previous flight arriving a late its self. In my experience, you’ll get off on time 9 times out of 10, i’ve only known the flights be late taking off twice in all the time I’ve flown with them.

Now, the flights we took this October were Thomas Cook, and flying on their Boeing 757s there and back. I’ve heard from some people travelling Thomas Cook that the legroom on their planes were terrible, but i can 100% assure you this is NOT the case with the flights Canadian Affair charter. I’m 6ft 5inches tall, and i have absolutely no problem with legroom on these planes. They’re leather seats and pretty comfy! Oh, and if your kids want a good view of the engine if you’re flying on these 757s you’ll want to book the seats from row 7 to around 5 (we were on row 7 and you could see the engine pretty well from there..) (more…)

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Today, I’m featuring something that if you love historical war planes (like me!) and you’re in the Toronto / Niagara area, then this is a place you’ll want to head down the QEW to get to!

The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is a major Canadian aviation museum. It is located at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport on the outskirts of Hamilton, Ontario. The museum is a non-profit organization whose mandate is to acquire, document, preserve and maintain a complete collection of aircraft that were flown by Canadians and the Canadian military services from the beginning of the Second World War to the present.

The Museum’s collection includes aircraft that really fly and several that remain on static display and are interactive workshops. A large collection of military aircraft that have played a major role in the Canadian military are displayed, including one of two airworthy Avro Lancasters and a Supermarine Spitfire. The museum is also in the process of restoring lesser known but historically significant aircraft, including a Westland Lysander and a Bristol Bolingbroke (a version of the Bristol Blenheim).

The Avro Lancaster flown out of the museum, one of only two airworthy Lancasters in the world, is known as the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster in honour of Pilot Officer Andrew Charles Mynarski, and is painted in the markings of his aircraft. The other is the City of Lincoln, which I’m sure is very familiar to most people in the UK as it is the only Lancaster you will have likely ever seen in the air at national celebrations, along with local ones. An Ontario Historical Plaque was erected at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum by the province to commemorate Eileen Vollick’s role in Ontario’s heritage. Eileen Vollick was Canada’s first licensed female pilot (more…)

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The Ontario Regiment (RCAC) Museum, an accredited Canadian Forces Museum, is one component of the Oshawa Military and Industrial Museum located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. This ‘living museum’ traces its roots back to 1980, having grown out of The Ontario Regiment Museum’s Historic Vehicle Section, more commonly known as The Ontario Regiment Ferret Club.

The club and museum are more than just a showcase of vintage military vehicles and equipment. The museological functions of acquisition, storage, conservation, research, exhibition also contribute to our understanding of Canada’s military history during the past three centuries.

Their volunteers, aided by serving members of the Regiment, crew and operate vehicles at nearly every Regimental function, D-Day and VE-Day commemorations throughout Ontario, the annual Coe Hill Labour Day parade, CNE Warriors’ Day parade, and Oshawa’s Fiesta and Remembrance Day parades.

In honour of the Regiment’s contribution to several United Nations peacekeeping missions across the globe, they have painted and displayed many of their vehicles with colours and markings reflecting Canada’s half-century contribution to international peace-keeping and peace-making operations. (more…)

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Well on Friday we introduced you to Port Perry, so today i decided to pick up on one of the special attractions you could go to while you’re there.
Scugog Island Cruises Ltd. is locally owned and operated. The company’s mission statement is ” To provide a pleasurable walk back into time with a taste of history and an experience where life had a much simpler pace”. Their goal is to make sure that you leave smiling and come back again!

The “Woodman” vessel is named after one of the successful steamships that graced Lake Scugog in the 1800′s. The Woodman was designed by Naval Architect Bob Johnson in 2002 . Bob has designed 100′s of ships and yachts around the world. One of his well known designs is Maid of Mists in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. The vessel is coast guard approved and complies with Transport Canada’s strict regulations. The vessel is docked at the base of Queen St. in Port Perry on the pier from May to October. The vessel has the capacity to hold 100 passengers comfortably and is licensed to serve alcohol.

Steamboats were instrumental in the creation of Lake Scugog. They were utilised for transporting supplies, logs and people through the Trent Severn System and known for many glamorous party excursions.
Defining the cruise experience on Lake Scugog is what Scugog Island Cruises has recreated to bring back an era that has gone by. The last steamship that cruised on Lake Scugog was in 1923 and any visible trace of ship activity was gone. The new Woodsman however is the first commercial ship to be built and launched in Lake Scugog in over 85 years! (more…)

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Port Perry is a community located in Scugog Township, Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. Located southeast of Uxbridge, Ontario, and southwest of Peterborough, Ontario, Port Perry is only about an hour northeast of the city of Toronto, the capital of the Province of Ontario and so lies within the Greater Toronto Area. And for any of you who like to head down to Casinos, it has one of those as well! The Great Blue Heron Charitable Casino rests amongst the picturesque backdrop of Scugog Island. The casino is a striking contrast to the scenery that surrounds it. There’s something for everyone like at the majority of the superb Casinos in Canada, and as you would expect they also serve fantastic food!

Port Perry has attracted many film crews over the years, both for feature film and television; it doubled as the Maine town of Mooseport in the 2004 film Welcome to Mooseport and was used briefly as a small town in New Hampshire during the sixth season of The West Wing. Port Perry was briefly shown in the movie Killshot (film), filmed as a small town in Missouri, USA. The town was the primary production location for the 1996 film, Fly Away Home, based on local inventor Bill Lishman’s experiments in the 1980s and 1990s imprinting geese in order to alter and preserve migration routes. The film fictionalized Lishman’s personal life, but used him as a consultant for its aerial and technical production. So, if you find yourself in the town, thinking it looks familiar, but you cant think how, it may just be you’ve seen it before but never realised it was here! (more…)

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I’ve been to Canada so many times, experienced so many traditionally Canadian things, yet i had never been to a baseball game. And like in the USA, Baseball is just as big in Canada. This year however i decided to change all this!
Nestled right beside Toronto’s iconic CN Tower lays a giant almost Armadillo lookalike building, although lower to the ground – some could say it was equal to the CN tower’s impressiveness in how vast it actually is ~ this building is the Rogers Centre, and home to Toronto’s own Baseball team, The Blue Jays.

The date was Sunday 2nd May 2010, and The Blue Jays were playing Oakland Athletics at home in the Rogers Centre, this was the only time during our visit they were going to be playing at home, so we made sure we were there!
The weather forecast had been that of misery to be honest, sunny to start with but soon turning into thunderstorms, so although it looked sunny as we set off on the journey to Toronto, with the hot sunny weather outside, we expected to be sat inside a pretty well protected environment, the Rogers Centre, keeping us dry from the rain. Baseball is a summer sport. It’s supposed to be played when the weather is good, hence baseball caps! The Rogers Centre is purpose built however, being designed to be played in whether its raining or sunshining, providing the spectators as well as players with a rain proof roof during rain, but being open to allow in the sunshine when it’s sunny! The venue was the first major team sports arena in North America to sport a functional, fully retractable roof. The roof is composed of four panels and covers an area of 345,000 square feet (32,100 m2). The two middle panels slide laterally to stack over the north semi-circular panel, and then the south semi-circular panel rotates around the stadium and nests inside the stack. It takes 20 minutes for the roof to open or close.
We parked up in the city centre, at the closest possible Car Park, sure it was $20 to park for the day, but it was as close as you could get – and with the CN Tower next door, you could always visit that after the game!
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While in Toronto, if you’re interested in castles and stately homes, why not check out Casa Loma. Casa Loma is now a museum and landmark in uptown Toronto. It was originally a residence for financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt. Sir Henry was by all accounts a very colourful, flamboyant character. In his youth, he set a new world record for running the mile (4:42). He created a fortune in business and investments. One of the most successful of those investments was in early electric utilities. Casa Loma was constructed over a three-year period from 1911-1914. The architect of the mansion was E. J. Lennox, who was responsible for the designs of several other city landmarks and was also who designed the powerhouse at Niagara Falls.

In 1903 Sir Henry Pellatt purchased 25 lots from developers Kertland and Rolf. Sir Henry commissioned Canadian architect E.J. Lennox to design Casa Loma with construction beginning in 1911, starting with the massive stables, potting shed and Hunting Lodge (a.k.a. coach-house) a few hundred feet north of the main building. (more…)

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If you’re interested in looking at some of the world’s most prized collections, the pretty interestingly-shaped building of the Royal Ontario Museum will be a place you don’t want to miss out on any trip to Toronto.

The Museum is an incredibly varied world class museum which has a number of exhibitions which are on show for a limited time, as well as its many permanent collections – so even if you come back the next year, there’s always something new to see and explore.
Personally, I’m a great lover of history, and when i go to other countries i love to find out it’s history and past culture along with its current one. The Royal Ontario Museum gives you just this opportunity, with its Exhibitions such as the “Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples”, a gallery which has on display amongst many things, arguably one of the most famous of all First Nation Chiefs, Chief Sitting Bull’s Headdress, and four Iconic Totem Poles carved by the Nisgaa and Haida peoples of Canada’s Pacific Northwest Coast – these particular artifacts are some of the absolute must see treasures the museum has on show.

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The Canadian National Exhibition has been around for well over 75 years, taking place on the outskirts of downtown Toronto, this exhibition shuts down an area of 8 city blocks around the Direct Energy Center in the historic ‘Exhibition Place. The exhibition started in 1879, after the success of the last years traveling fair, it has always been host to the most state of the art technology. The shops and attractions have always represented the interests of the Canadian public, which has drawn in well over 6 million people from around the world in the last 10 years of the CNE.

(The kids fair ground at the CNE, Photo© 2009)

In this article I’ll take you through the pride of Canada’s aviation history, and long time partner of the CNE, the Canadian International Airshow.

(more…)

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