Toronto: an urban walk
On our third day in Toronto, I was excited about meeting fellow blogger Jill from My Spanglish Familia. The rendezvous was a café in Little Italy – about 45 minutes walk according to Google Maps – so off we set.
Our starting point was Monteith Street in the Church-Wellesley Village. That’s our B&B above, the Downtown Home Inn, the first house in the row past the purple flag. We had the apartment at basement level which I can recommend as spacious and comfortable – it also meant we had our own kitchen which was handy on occasion. I wouldn’t book any of the other rooms because they all have shared bathrooms and ensuite facilities are one of my red lines. If that means I’m not a true traveller, too bad!
The Village itself is very gay-friendly with rainbow lines at road junctions and some fabulous murals.
Our route took us along Wellesley until we hit Queen’s Park, home of both the Ontario Legislature and the University of Toronto – some beautiful buildings here.
Cutting down onto College Street, we passed a rather splendid looking public library. I’m always interested in those!
Still, no time to go in – on we pressed to meet Jill. And it was just like talking to someone I already knew – which, of course, I did since we’ve been commenting on each other’s blogs for a year now. After a good blether over coffee, we walked to Kensington Market where we enjoyed lunch at a Mexican restaurant (very good, not at all like Mexican food at home, but – Jill being something of an expert – I know to be much more authentic).
She also introduced us to churros – fried dough stuffed, in my case, with chocolate, Mmmm – that’s what I’m clutching in the photos below. I couldn’t actually eat it straight away because I was so full from lunch!
After the churro stop, Jill headed home to collect her children. We took a further stroll round the area enjoying its quirky sights. I can’t remember now which of these are Kensington Market, which Little Italy and which Little Portugal but they’re all quite close together.
Footsore by now, we retraced our steps home. This was one evening when our kitchen came into its own – we didn’t feel like another full meal out, so we purchased pizza slices and beer from local takeaways and consumed them with our feet up.
Many thanks to Jill for making the time to meet us for a few hours – it was a lovely, sociable day.
Linked to Jo’s Monday Walk – check it out for more walks around the world.
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
How many steps do you think you took while in The T Dot? 😉 I envy your energy actually. I’m tired just thinking about all the ground you covered. You’re a very efficient traveller. So happy to have met you xx
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The day we met you I did over 21000 steps! It was a lovely day and thanks again for making it possible. I just like seeing as much as possible, and fortunately John is the same.
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Wow!! That’s A LOT of steps! I should really get a pedometer.
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I weirdly vary from days like that to days with only about 3000. I suppose the average is good!
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It’s more than good 🙂
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This part of city looks very interesting too. Those murales!
And hey, that library entrance just asks you to walk in!
It’s always a nice experience to meet fellow bloggers. Not an experience I’ve done yet… but I’ve met a couple of ‘internet’ friends alreay.
Are you going to the Blogger Bash in London? I was planning to, but then what’s happening at work prevented me. I hope next year. Let’s hope…
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I’ve met 3 bloggers now, and a few people I’ve connected with on Twitter. The power of the Internet!
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Oh, no, not gong to bloggers bash. No plans to, I’ll keep my meet ups informal.
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Fab walk in a city I’ve always wanted to go too. One day I’ll make it and when I di it will be en suite!!
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It’s the only way……
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Always a pleasure to meet fellow bloggers. Looks like you all had a great time with Jill. Love all the street art here, especially those mannequins on the balcony in Kensington Market
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Yes, it’s great meeting people you have only met online and finding you get on in real life too. The street art was very quirky!
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Churros!! This is how I convinced my daughter moving to Spain was a good idea. Those murals are spectacular and how gorgeous is that little library?? I will make it to Canada one day…
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I hope so! It’s a great country.
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I LOVE churros. Any walk that includes those is alright by me, and it probably doesn’t hurt that you got to see so many beautiful buildings!
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Churros were new to me! Lovely buildings, sore feet.
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What a great walk you had in Toronto and loving the pictures you took. My Uncle actually taught at U of T back in the late 1950’s. There are so many interesting neighbourhoods here.
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Interesting – I don’t imagine it looked much different then! Lovely buildings.
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Wonderful tour! Just wanted to let you know, Anabel, I’ve nominated you on my blog for the Spirit Animal Award. 🙂
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Many thanks Marcia – I’ve just been over to have a look!
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You surely leave no stone unturned, or better, no area unwalked when you visit a place, Anabel! I really liked that first mural with the windows. Clever and original indeed!
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Not sure what happened here… This comment was supposed to go with your previous Toronto blog… 🙂
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Don’t know, it has a funny symbol against it on my app as if it doesn’t know who you are! But yes, we do like to cover all the ground.
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Thank you for taking me through a big part of Toronto, Anabel! The churro looks yummy. I would be like you.. to full after lunch, but not wanting to pass it up! 🙂
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Saved it for later – it didn’t go to waste!
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Great photos – I love the historical architecture, and the murals are beautiful. So cool that you got to meet up with a fellow blogger. I love to do that as well. When you next make it back to New York City, maybe we will have the chance to meet up as well!
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That would be great – we are well overdue a visit to NY.
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Thanks for sharing your day. Toronto looks so interesting. I’m a total sucker for beautiful library buildings.
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Me too! I loved so many of the buildings: great city.
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There is a lot of interesting architecture in Toronto. I am enjoying these walks with you.
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Yes, there is. Glad you are enjoying the tour.
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Very much so. I’m only sorry I missed a lot of this!
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I just booked our Airbnb in Toronto and am really looking forward to our trip – I look forward to seeing many of the same sights you did. I also hope to meet a fellow blogger when we are there!
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Fantastic! You will love it.
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It looks like an interesting area Anabel. Anywhere called Little Portugal can’t be all bad! Many thanks for the share xx
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It didn’t look much like your pictures though!
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No shared bathrooms for me – I don’t really share one at home, I definitely don’t want to do so when I am on vacation!
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Exactly! No-one else seemed to mind but I wouldn’t have been happy.
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My days of shared bathrooms on vacation were short-lived (and even then, I was never happy about it).
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I am loving seeing my city through your eyes.
I agree, not sharing bathrooms!!
Churros – discovered them this winter in Mexico!
I did not know about the library, must check that out.
I’ve had lots of great meetings with bloggers around the world and it is always great.
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Thanks Jackie! Technology is bridging the distances between us.
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Hi Anabel – me too re the shared bathrooms – not fun … but Toronto sounds interesting – I know it’s a large city ,… but what fun to meet up with Jill and to share time together … we do seem to gel – us bloggers – once we get together …
Love the street art … cheers Hilary
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Thanks Hilary. Yes, it was great meeting Jill – and the city is great too.
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Wow, I am impressed…you did cover a lot of territory in one single day. All very interesting Toronto neighbourhood. You managed to cover a lot of ground during your stay in Toronto. As for the library, I can agree with The Victorian Librarian, the interior is splendid…(Suzanne)
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I wish even more we had gone in now……
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I’m with you on en-suite bathrooms 🙂 Looks like a lovely day out, especially the part where you got churros. Yummo!
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Thanks, it was a brilliant day!
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Yay, the Lillian H. Smith library! It’s home to Special Collections of sci-fi/fantasy/speculative fiction (the Merril Collection) and of children’s fiction pre-1910 (the Osborne Collection). both of which are really rather good!
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Oh, I wish now we’d gone in! I know about the Osborne Collection from my Jordanhill days. Ah well, there was no time and there is a limit to how much library stuff I can sneak into holidays – I wouldn’t be impressed to be dragged into an engineering lab!
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True; there can be problems travelling with those of other professional persuasions! I thought the Osborne would be of interest to you – you’ll just have to go back!
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I certainly will!
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Considering the time of year you came here, you have managed to make our city look very interesting.
Also interesting to me, being familiar, I can now gauge just how far you have walked!!
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Quite a long way! It’s tougher walking on pavements I always find. I think Toronto would be interesting in any season (maybe not in deep snow…..)
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