Another wonderful vacation comes to an end. Nunavut was a marvelous learning and enjoyable experience and we are so happy to be able to say we have visited and spent time in all 10 provinces and 3 territories of Canada. We're not done with this nation by any means...there is still an unlimited amount of territory to be explored.
The last three days were not without a few bumps, more blemishes and incompetence in our transit systems than anything. Our stay in Ottawa was short but sweet. The highlight was certainly the Aviation and Space Museum. Getting there was not easy and it certainly was expensive but well worth it. We had to take a cab because public transit does not go there...at least not from the hotel where we were staying.
The following morning we headed by Via Rail to Toronto. Riding facing backwards for five hours, what else can I say?
We arrived around 5PM and were totally bagged by the heat and the weight of our backpacks. We were quite happy with the zero degrees and perfect days we had in Iqaluit so this 25 plus stuff was killing us.
The subway trip from Union Station to St Clair West was our worst nightmare. A full assault by the peak rush hour hordes made my head spin. I could not and would not do this every day. There is something wrong with these people...and we get to do it again going back in the morning.
We spent the night at Gavin's, got to play with the kids and had a great visit all around. After a quick breakfast in the morning we saw the kids off to school with Adrienne then trekked back to the subway station to head to Union Station. This time we left our large, heavy backpacks at Gavin's. We'll get them in a few weeks time.
Here's where some of the incompetence built into the system arises. Our mission back at Union Station was to find the Go Train that went to Barrie South, the closest we could get to our house but still about 25 kilometres away. The signs are not overly clear or helpful and we discovered last night the website is absolutely useless. According to it we had to get to Barrie by way of Brampton and Mississauga. Anyway, that's another story. The piece de resistance was that the platform for the train was not posted until ten minutes prior to its departure. Trust me, there are plenty of people who would not be able to make that train in 10 minutes.
Once on board I had to laugh at the seating. The entire car (all three levels) was in groups of 4 seats, 2 and 2 facing one another. That may be great for families but 80% of people travelling do not want that. Thankfully it was not busy so was not a problem.
Getting from Barrie to our home is not easy in any way. There is an Uber-related service called Go Go Grandparent. The name alone begs failure. It's very inexpensive but, as it turns out, that doesn't matter. We called for a pick up, poked our way through automated hell and were told we were second in line for an operator. Half an hour later, after being asked to press three different numbers, we were still on unanswered hold. Go Go no go go. I can sell you eggs for 3 cents a dozen...but I don't have any eggs. We called a regular taxi and arrived home around 1PM. Travel is wonderful but as I have said many times, getting there (and back) is NOT always half the fun.
Keeping this experience in mind you can imagine my feeling as we sat on the Go Train and flew by this...could you just slow down and let us hop off. This is about one kilometre from our house.
Thank you again for joining us on our travels.
We'll let you know when we're ready to hit the road again.
😎
