July 15, 2014. rest day at Toronto, ON

I really did not want to do much of anything today, it being a rest day. I learned the hard way (many tours ago) that rest days are for resting... but this morning Dianne and I set out walking to find breakfast since it was not included at our hotel. We ate underground, literally. The PATH is the world's largest underground shopping complex, connecting Toronto's downtown and business districts, 17 miles of tunnels, stores, banks, restaurants, and food courts. We found a reasonably priced good breakfast there that included very good coffee.

 

After breakfast we walked over to the CN Tower. It was quite cloudy so we did not ride up the tower. We walked around the Rogers Centre, where the Blue Jays play baseball, and went to a bike shop to buy bells for our bikes, a requirement in Ontario.  Toronto is very bike-friendly, with rental bike stands and bike racks on every block..

We walked through the historical district on the way back to the hotel.  The building below is the Old City Hall, used by Toronto city government from 1899 until 1966. It is now a registered historic site.

 

Toronto has in interesting mix of the new and the old. It's impossible to see it all in a day. Below is the sidewalk to our hotel. There were many such construction areas on our route into the city yesterday and I expect we'll see the same on the way out tomorrow.

When we got into the hotel lobby we found some of our group resting on the couches. They are not very comfortable according to Pat, Peggy, Jo and Mary, reposing below.

Finally Dianne and I went back to our room and played Scrabble until dinner. We did not have to walk far to find friendly faces and good food. Deb and Barb, both from MN had already finished their dinner at the Irish Pub across the street from the hotel, but stayed with us while we ate ours.  I asked the waitress to take our photo and she said "oh wait, there are other people in the way" We turned around and told her to include them too! Here we all are: Barb, me, Deb and Dianne seated at the table and Julie, Caryn and Jo looking over our shoulders. What a great group of people on this trip!