Arrived from Sarasota yesterday after a fairly smooth flight and trip through Atlanta. Thank goodness the summer travelers are gone – airport is filled with people that know what they are doing in an airport. Although there was an unusual character next to me on the plane who apparently did not want anyone to recognize him.

The W Hotel is nice and located in the Bloor-Yorkville area of downtown Toronto.

Lots of old and new buildings intermixed. The hotel is right across from the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario building which was original built in the 1950’s as the Ontario Hydro-Electric Commission – looks like a government building!

Further down Bloor Street is the modern skyline landscape with residential, offices, and stores. Of course there are homeless, only a few walking among the chic young strolling this Sunday morning. History plaques and building sculpted facades along the way.

We reach the Royal Ontario Museum, however, not enough time because there is just too much to see. The outside facade and the inside lobby are enough for us today.

The Anglican Church seems to have found its early home along Bloor Street as well. We see two churches from the late 1800’s.

One street over from Bloor is the quaint Yorkville area. The area was revived in the later in the 20th century to help in protecting the Victorian style historical buildings.

From Wikipedia – “In the 1960s, Yorkville flourished as Toronto’s bohemian cultural centre. It was the breeding ground for some of Canada’s most noted musical talents, including Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Gordon Lightfoot, as well as then-underground literary figures such as Margaret Atwood, Gwendolyn MacEwen, and Dennis Lee.^[6] Yorkville was also known as the Canadian centre of the hippie movement.”

We did a quick walk around the area enjoying the early Sunday morning crowd-less streets. Parks, trees, flowers, fountains, and old buildings, just a lovely walk for a fall morning.

I notice a building with a history plaque in front so over I go to take a picture. It was the Mt. Sinai Hospital opened in 1923. While my sister waits for me on the other side of the street, two ladies run across the street and one tells my sister, this is the hospital where her father was born. Glad there are Canadians being tourists as well!

And of course, this afternoon we will be out and about to explore more of the touristy locations of Toronto – because, well, we are tourists!