Toronto Islands

 Toronto is the biggest city in Canada, and now has the tallest residential building in the country which is surrounded by other towering condos, apartments and office towers. The CN Tower dominates the view from all over the city. So as you wander the city, you can’t help but look up at some of these massive structures. 

But, a fifteen minute ferry ride and you can escape the ‘Concrete Jungle’ for Toronto Islands where the few buildings there are only no more than a few stories high. 

On the ferry

The islands are ‘relatively’ car-free. There is one car ferry bringing deliveries and essential services, but the only ‘community’ is basically connected by walking/biking trails. This community is really a collection of little cottages that have been turned into houses and sometimes they have been referred to as “squatters” because they lease the land their houses sit on from the Government for minimal rent. 

There are actually three ferries servicing the island, one going to Ward Island, one to Centre Island and one to Hanlan’s point (the car ferry). In the summer these ferries are packed with people going over to enjoy a day away from the city. 

The CN Tower is never is far away

There is a school and a fire station. There is an artist’s retreat, one church, and an old lighthouse as well as a water treatment plant. The only real busy section of the island is the central section where there is an amusement park, bike rentals, restaurants, and a yacht club. 

The island is very flat, and completely walkable, but the best way to get around is by bike. Tangerine Bike Rentals has locations all over the island and there are places that rent regular bikes, or tandem or quad bikes for family outings. The nice thing about exploring the island is the lack of cars and you can walk or bike without worrying about cars which is the exact opposite of Toronto downtown which is a traffic nightmare. 

Nice walking trails

At one end of the island is Billy Bishop Airport and it is always interesting to watch the tourists on the ferries suddenly realize that the airplane just over their head is landing on the island airport bringing more people to the biggest city in Canada. 

The side of the island facing away from the city features many beaches which are popular during the heat of the summer and the ferries are usually full of people pulling wagons and carts of essentials for a day at the beach. You can visit Ward Island Beach at one end, Centre Island Beach and Gibraltar Point beach on the central part of the island or if you are adventurous you can go the Hanlan’s Point beach which is one of only two “officially sanctioned” Clothing Optional beaches in Canada.

A beach far away from that distant city

When you Iive in a city like Toronto it is nice to have a place like Toronto Island where you can get away from the traffic, the congestion, and the high-rises and enjoy green open spaces, no traffic and time to just chill on the beach. However on one of my trips to the island I had a chat with a couple who, having lived in Toronto for over 20  years were making their first visit to this wonderful park like retreat minutes from the city. Don’t make their mistake, if you visit Toronto, take time to go explore Toronto Island.

A Michelin Bike Ride

Beautiful Scenery

After walking the coastal road on our first day in Cascais, and seeing the lovely bike lanes all along the way, we decided to rent bikes and pedal up the coast today. The fellow who looks after the apartment also rents bikes for a very reasonable price, so we picked up two good bikes and took off for the day.

Riding bikes along the coastal road is great, the bike lanes are clearly marked and although you sometimes have share with walkers (They do have their own sidewalk . . .), it makes for an easy worry free ride. Not so much in town . . . . narrow streets, one way streets, pedestrians, etc, make riding in the town a bit more challenging, but we only had to get from the rental place to the coast and we made it without incident.

Great Views on the ride

Riding the coast really was lovely. The bike lanes are convenient and the terrain was level. Once you get out of town, there are actually not a lot of places to stop. The scenery is spectacular and we covered over 16 km in total. I did stop once to look at an oddly shaped wall in the middle of a field on top of a cliff. The wall was protecting people from falling down a hole into a cave which was washed with waves from the ocean. Very deep, so the wall was a good idea.

It was lunchtime about 7 km out, so we decided to have lunch and turn around. There were a few

Michelin Signs

Regis' Crab

restaurants in a cluster at this spot. One was closed (Portuguese Mondays), another only served to hotel guests, but another had a nice “Open” sign on the door along with MANY Michelin stickers. There were no Michelin Stars, just
“Recommendations”, but this should have given me pause. We walked in in our shorts and T-shirts, and while being looked up and down were asked if we had “Reservations”. This was in a large restaurant with perhaps six people seated in one section. We replied to the negative and asked if we could have lunch. We were led way across the restaurant to a table well away from the “Real” guests. The menu was a shock with one item, “Lagostins” (That's crawfish in English) at 220 euro a Kg. When the waiter came over and we pointed out a couple of items on the menu, he suggested that clients usually chose their meal from a basket of fresh catch that would be brought to your table for you to choose. No thanks, I did not want to accidentally choose one of those 220 euro per kg of crayfish. We insisted that the items we chose from the menu were adequate.

Biking Home!

Now once they realized that we actually did want lunch and we were not going to be intimated by attitude, we got along famously. I ordered a squid appetizer, cooked in butter with garlic, and a tenderloin sandwich, and Regis ordered a crab appetizer. The Squid was cooked perfectly, and I am an expert on squid, and Regis' crab was delicious (And she commented that it was the first time she actually got enough bread to spread the carb on). All in all it was a great lunch! It was obviously an up-scale place and we ended up with two servers waiting on us, and they were very attentive but by the time we were finished we were joking and laughing together. His phone buzzed in his apron and he was very embarrassed, but I just brushed it off. He asked me if I wanted another beer and I told him I was biking and did not want to drink and drive. Then when he took my VISA for the bill, he noticed my name. “Oh!” he exclaimed, “Arthur . .this is my son's name too!”.

Leaving the restaurant feeling satisfied, and perhaps a bit more upper-class, we remounted our trusty bikes and heads held high biked home.