Arriving in Canada!

Canada part one…

 

Geth had left on the Saturday – he had a conference in Toronto that we had used to schedule a family trip –  but I headed off for my holiday the Sunday before last, carrying two very heavy bags that turned out to be a bad idea when I had to lug them up and down a railway bridge near where I live in order to get to the Metro station.  After a cumbersome Metro ride, train ride and taxi ride, I arrived at Mum and Dad’s in Edinburgh and managed to get a few hours’ sleep before a 4am wakeup call.

The flight from Edinburgh to Toronto was nice and straightforward – I read my Kindle the whole time – and after collecting our bags and meeting up with Malcolm at the airport, we got a taxi to the Holiday Inn, where Mum and Dad were staying, and I dropped my bag in their room before going to the St. Louis Diner, where Geth was meeting us after his morning conference session.

A couple of ciders later – logged here – I went with Geth to our hotel, the Grand Hotel, where I was really glad to get out of my comfy plane leggings and put on something lighter (Toronto was a bit muggier than Edinburgh had been that morning).  The Grand is lovely, and they’d upgraded Geth to a suite, which had an awesome view:

View from the Grand Hotel, Toronto
Downtown Toronto, as seen from the Grand Hotel. You can see the very tippity top of the CN Tower, just behind the tallest buildings!

The suite was great – it had a separate bedroom and loads of space for sitting around.  After I’d got unpacked, we headed back to the Holiday Inn for a meal to celebrate Mum and Dad’s wedding anniversary:

Family in Toronto
You’ve already seen this picture in the Now! #100 review, but it’s worth posting again!

The cider they serve at the Holiday Inn is Strongbow, but the bottle looks different in Canada, so I took a picture of it anyway.

Canadian Strongbow bottle
Canadian Strongbow bottle.

After some amazing pizza (the pizza at the Holiday Inn is of the perfect texture, and the sauce is insanely yummy), a couple more Strongbows, some cheesecake (see my cheesecake roundup) and a bit of a wait while a heavy thunderstorm was in progress, Geth and I headed back to our hotel, where it turned out the view by night was pretty awesome too:

Downtown Toronto by night
I love skyscrapers.

Then I got some much-needed sleep.  Part two tomorrow!

2018 Ciders #17: Strongbow Original

I’ve been drinking Strongbow for the last couple of weeks, since I ran out of the Thistly Cross my parents brought down from Edinburgh, but it’s something I drink so often I’d assumed I’d already logged it.  Apparently not, however, so let me rectify that now.

Strongbow Original
Strongbow Original.

Strongbow is my standard home drinking go-to (and often a pub go-to as well – if it’s the type of pub where there’s only one cider available, it’ll almost always be Strongbow), as it’s always cheap and available in supermarkets.  It’s what I consider the ‘baseline’ for cider – it’s a very generic taste, ubiquitous for as long as I can remember (even back in the ’90s when cider was still seen as a bit of a hobo drink, before it became semi-classy in the ’00s with the introduction of Magners and Bulmers and the irritating move to serving it over ice).  Perfectly tasty and refreshing, but nothing out of the ordinary.