Public Transport

Just the Subway

TTC Map - a bit confusing

Without a “Daily Driver” car here in Toronto, we have had to rely on the public transit system to get around, and we have found that Toronto’s TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) is a very efficient way to get where we want to go. The TTC consists of a Subway system with a line that runs North/south and North/west (Line 1), another two that run east/west, (line 2 & 4), Streetcars that serve most of the major streets, and busses that serve most other areas. In addition, The Subway line 1 goes to the Union Train station which connects to the GO trains that serve outlying areas and the UP Express that gets you quickly to the Pearson Airport. 

You can purchase a handy Presto card that gives you access to all of these services. You simple tap your card when you enter the subway stations, or when you get on the streetcars or buses. They are all connected and there is an automatic two hour transfer, so you can take subway, streetcar or bus and so long as you are within the two hour limit you are not charged. Using the GO train or UP Express, you tap your card before getting on the train and then when you get off and your fare reflects how far you go. 

The Subway

The Subway is the most efficient way around the city itself as it runs underground and so avoids all the traffic, and Toronto is reputed to have two rush hours running from 6 AM to Noon and another running from Noon to 6 PM. That is a slight exaggeration, but in general there is always traffic in the downtown core. The street cars and the busses of course run on the streets so are in traffic, but someone else is doing the driving and so long as you avoid the real busy times seats are available and comfortable. The GO trains are a comfortable ride and runs alongside one of the citie’s major highways, the Gardiner Expressway, so you get to silently zip quickly past the frustrated drivers on the highway stuck in traffic. 

TTC Streetcar

The first few times visiting Toronto, we got used to using the subway but were slightly confused with the streetcar and bus routes so avoided them. This time, here for a year, we have become comfortable with using the entire system. Using a combination of subway, streetcar, bus or GO train we have been able to get anywhere we want to go within the city. 

We discovered a suggested four block neighbourhood with some interesting things to see, so we decided to use the system to go visit the area. A short walk brought us to the Collage subway stop on line one and we too the train south on the Yonge line to Union Station and then north on the University line to St. Andrews where we got off and walked down to the Ossington Neighbourhood where we spent $90 in a Cocktail store without buying any actual alcohol, bought Regis a necklace that was worn by the “Mother of the Bride” in a movie made in California, and had lunch at a Coffee & Wine cafe. We then walked back to Collage St. Where we caught a Streetcar to take us back to Church St and a short walk back home. Now all these place names and street names probably mean little to most of you, but it’s just me bragging about how well I have gotten to know Toronto downtown. 

The GO Trains

Although the TTC does work very well, the ride home did show one serious problem. Lots of people just do not pay. We sat across from one of the streetcar’s middle doors where people entering the car are supposed to tap their Presto cards to pay for their ride. There are lots of signs warning of “Fare Enforcement” and advising users that “All passengers must tap upon entering”, but we were surprised at how many people just got on without paying. Riding for six stops, we saw at least 20 people who ignored the payment procedure and that was just one door. Teams of teenagers, gangs of grandmas and entire families took advantage of the fact that no one actually enforces the “Fare Enforcement” rules. You can’t easily get onto the subway without tapping your card, but it seems that many Torontonians have figured out how to ride for free on the streetcars and buses. This is a shame, because Toronto’s public transit system works well and people using it really should be happy to support it by paying the quite reasonable fares. 

Taking the Bus

We flew from home to France, rode in a taxi to the Gare de Lyon in Paris, took a train down to Narbonne and another to Toulouse on a day trip, had a fun auto tour of the countryside with French friends, we took an electric boat down the canal, and have walked over 150 km during our time here in France. Yesterday we used another form of transportation and took a bus down to the seaside to a little town called Gruissan to spend the day. 

Arriving in Gruissan

It took a while to understand the Buses here in Narbonne, and the actual people who run them were not so much help. The Tourist office told us that bus 8 would take us down to Gruissan and back, and we were able to buy tickets for the bus, but finding it was not so easy. We were told that the bus stopped right out in front of the train station, so while Regis checked on times and schedules, I walked down the street to find the stop. There are two types of buses in Narbonne, the local ones that serve the town itself, labeled with letters, and the ones that go to other towns use numbers. I walked up and down both sides of the road and found three bus stops with letters and numbers, but no number 8 was listed. Regis came back with the information that the stop was “Right in front of the Train Station.”, but it was not. We asked some locals who pointed us in both directions where I had already looked. Then I noticed one of the larger inter-city buses turn and go down a side street, and a short walk down there was a stop with the schedule for bus 8 posted. 

Nice to be down by the seaside

A short wait and a big bus with a number 8 on it pulled up and the driver assured us, that yes, he was headed to Gruissan. But just to make it a bit more confusing we seemed to have to get off one bus 8 and then get on another bus with the same number to actually get into the town. Fortunately when the bus from Narbonne pulled into the stop, there was another bus 8 waiting for us.

We weren’t the only confused tourists and when the bus got to the end of his run and no one got off, the driver questioned everyone and found out we were all visiting for the day and he explained where we should have gotten off and looped around and let us off a short way from the old town with instruction on how to get there. 

Great view of the town

Gruissan is a lovely quiet little town on the coast with a ruined castle/fort towering over it. However, it was quiet because it was mostly deserted. Obviously catering to the summer tourist traffic, most of the town was closed and shuttered. We explored empty streets and looked in windows of closed shops. We needed lunch, so the many interesting closed restaurants caused us some concern. We were able to climb up to the ruined castle tower in the centre of town and visit the church at its base. 

Where is everyone?

We did find a couple of restaurants open, but the prices seemed elevated due to their rarity and Regis had found a place she wanted to try that was about a fifteen minute walk away. Google Maps reported it was open so we decided to take the chance. On the walk to the restaurant the helpful bus driver passed and gave us a friendly wave. As it worked out we had a lovely meal with a friendly server and the location gave us a nice view of the Marina and hundreds of sailboats.

Rather than taking the local bus 8, we explored more of the town by walking back to the stop where we got off from Narbonne and discovered the same people we arrived with waiting at the stop. Back in Narbonne, my pedometer reported another 10 km added to our walking total, and we retired early, tired from another adventure in France. 

Slippery steps to the tower

A view down over the town

Walking back to the bus

Interesting Gruissan style boat

Inside the church

Bottles on a ledge - no one home!

Time for lunch

Wineing on Waiheke

A fast ferry ride.

Our apartment here in Auckland is right on Princes Wharf on the waterfront. It is named Shed 19 after the freight shed that used to occupy the site. Out on the balcony we overlook the main ferry terminal for the city and there is a constant swarm of catamaran ferries coming and going until late at night. They seem to head out in all directions, and you cannot help but wonder where they all go.

A view from the top of the island

On the recommendation of my cousin who lives here, we took a ferry to one of the popular destinations, Waiheke Island. This island, 40 minutes away by ferry is about 90 square Kilometers and has approx. 8000 inhabitants. It is nick-named “The island of wine” for the 17 vineyards scattered around the island. That seemed a good reason to choose this island over the many scattered throughout the area.

We booked a return ferry ride on a “Fuller Fastcat”, a guided bus tour when we arrived and then an all-day pass on the local bus system. The ferry ride over was a comfortable, fast trip out the harbour past many of the sites we had visited with my cousin days before. There was a bus waiting for us and our German tour guide had lived on the island for 10 years and gave excellent friendly advice and information so that by the time we got to the farthest end of the tour we had a good idea of what we wanted to do. We hopped off the bus at a stop conveniently close to a good sample of the island’s wineries, and chose one that brewed

Doesn't taste like $200.00

beer as well as making wine.

The “Wild on Waiheke” winery is an ambitious enterprise, having not only wine and beer but also a restaurant. They also have laser skeet shooting and archery. I’m not so sure about the combination of lots of wine and beer with bows and sharp arrows, but the rowdy crowd there when we arrived seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Seriously, helicopters to a wine tasting?

After lunch, we wandered up to the next winery, but the least expensive wine was $90.00 so we decided this was a bit out of our normal range so we walked on. In the next one “Te Motu” we met a friendly Croatian sommelier, who led us in tasting a good variety of wines from $30 to $195. It was an experience to taste the $195.00, 16 year old vintage, but I found I preferred the $39.00 bottle. The final winery in the area was next door behind a high hedge, but the two large helicopters parked out front gave us a pretty good idea that this one was also out of our league, and the $8.00 tasting fee confirmed our initial opinion. That was $8.00 for each taste; not an $8.00 glass.

Then taking the excellent local bus, we got off at a wrong stop, got slightly lost, found a wonderful “track” along the coast, walked to the next town, caught the right bus, and arrived back at the ferry to head home.

On "Track" to get unlost.

Pago Pago

Our slow crossing of the Pacific Ocean continues with a stop in Pago Pago (Pronounced “Pango Pango”) in American Samoa.

The Harbour at Pago Pago

After sailing down the US west coast, we took five days to reach Hawaii, where we spent four days. We then took four days to get here in American Samoa, where we pulled in for the day early this morning. I think this is day 19 of our voyage and so we are not even half way through the cruise. Every couple of days we are reminded to set our clocks back another hour, so the “Cruise Lag” is a bit easier to adjust to compared to the Jet-lag we would have had.

Pago Pago is a small town on American Samoa. There is a lovely natural deep harbour here, surrounded by tropical, jungle covered mountains. The harbour here is a commercial one with a container terminal serving double duty as a “Cruise Port”, and an extensive fishing and freighter fleet docked across the harbour from us.

Pago Pago is not a regular cruise stop and although there are two ships in port today, it is usually only visited on these “re-positioning” cruises, and although the locals have made the most of having almost 4000 shopping-deprived tourists deposited in their little town by setting up stalls and markets along the main roads, you can see that there is no serious full-time facilities for relieving tourists of their travel dollars.

Pago Pago Buses

Pago Pago Buses

The exception is the unique Pago Pago buses. There seems to be lots of these to take tourists all over the island. With the humid air conditions and proximity to the salty Pacific Ocean, the vehicles do not fare well, and I saw trucks with rust holes in the roofs. I think that once they reach that condition, they tear everything off but the engine hood and front fenders and build completely new, high bodied buses out of the rusted trucks. Retaining only the front body they hand build bus bodies with wooden benches and wide open “Natural AC” bodies. These buses are then painted in bright colours and used to transport people all over. The drivers individualize their vehicles with carpet and bright colours inside and out. There are simple small buses that are used by the local people to get around and larger ones decorated with tropical flowers to take tourists on tours around the island.

Regis On Pago Pago

But the nicest thing about Pago Pago? Definitely the friendly people. Everywhere we went we were greeted by cheerful locals with a friendly “Hello!”.

Riding With The Locals

On The Bus

Honolulu, Hawaii is a lovely city, and we were docked there for two days, so we had lots of time to see a bit of the city. The ship docks right downtown, so we were close to everything. Our original plan was to book a “Hop-on-Hop-off” bus through the ship. It seemed like a reasonable deal and was active for both days, but when we tried to book this shore excursion it was sold out. We decided it would not be any big deal, we’ve found our way around cities all over the world, simply finding a map and exploring on our own.

Not so easy here in Honolulu . . . Most cities that host cruise lines, make the most of thousands of tourists suddenly arriving to spend their money, but when we left the ship this time, other than a line of taxies, there was nothing, no tourist info site, no free maps, not

A 'Local"

even anyone to give us advice. After exploring the area, and receiving negative responses to locating tourist information, we were not sure what to do. The two activities we wanted to do were at opposite ends of the city, Pearl Harbour at one end and Diamond Head in the other direction.

Another passenger we shared a table with at dinner suggested that the public bus system was quite easy to use and could actually get you anywhere on the island you wanted to go. I found a Department of Transportation office that had a rack of bus route maps and we found a couple that seemed to head in the correct directions.

Trying to Blend In

This worked great, and for $2.50 (it would have only been $1.00 if I could have proved “senior-ness”) we got a return ticket. The bus stop was easy to find, and the stops were clearly announced as we went. We managed to go visit Pearl Harbor and get back to the ship with no problem the first day and then used the same procedure the next day to visit Diamond Head.

There was lots of Hawaiian patterns (Yup, the locals really do wear those Hawaiian prints), flip flops and grocery bags, so our beige cargo tourist pants and Tilly hats did not really fit in perfectly but the locals seemed to accept us on their buses, and we got around the city perfectly well.

The wheels on the Bus

The last stop of our Tour of the South, was in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. We had friends from back home spending a month here, enjoying the sun and playing golf. We had planned on taking in another NASCAR race at the famous old track in Darlington South Carolina, nicknamed “The Lady In Black”. I had arranged to take our friend to the Sprint Cup race and he had another friend who also wanted to be introduced to the NASCAR experience.

Darlington Pit Lane

Regis and I drove to the track on Friday and it was not a bad commute, but is almost 2 hours away depending on traffic, so we decided to take a shuttle bus on Saturday leaving us free to enjoy a few beer as we watched the race. The bus was great getting us to the track. It picked us up at the designated location on time, and we had a relaxing drive to Darlington.

Not so much on the way home . . . . . the trip started out good, and it was nice to allow the bus driver to fight the traffic jam as thousands of people tried to leave the track at once, but about half way back to Myrtle Beach, the bus slowed and the driver pulled off the road announcing that her bus had “Quit”. After a couple of failed attempts to get the engine started, she left to confer with the driver of the other bus driving with us. Together, they tried a couple of things but to no avail.

Not exactly as Illustrated

Then the other driver pulled his bus (Full of people) out onto the road and pulled up beside our bus to attempt to jump the batteries. As a constant stream of traffic funneled into one lane around the two busses, they made a couple of attempts to fire the bus this way, but no luck. Finally the other driver closed his door and pulled away promising to come back for us if we did not get going. We were left on the side of the road in a dark bus, with 4 way flashers steadily growing weaker and dimmer as the poor batteries drained away.

By this time we had figured out that they knew this bus had a bad alternator and could not possibly make it to Darlington and back so they arranged to park together at the track to recharge the batteries, but this did not work properly. Our driver announced that she had a gas generator and battery charger, but with the busy road was not keen to be standing on the road setting this up as vehicles whizzed by her at 100 kph. I’m sure this is not standard equipment for “Operational” busses . . .

Finally someone suggested she call the police, and in the ensuing phone conversations we discovered that there was a serious question about who’s responsibility we were, because she was not exactly sure which side of the county line we were on. She knew we were next to the slaughter house, but not much else. This was starting to sound like a plot to a low budget horror movie – deserted road, broke-down bus, slaughter house . . . . .  They seemed to be arguing back and forth about who might come and help us.

The Fuzz

Finally we ended up with not one police car, but four sitting behind us with lights flashing. This did finally slow traffic down, and I’m sure that with four sheriff cars surrounding the bus and the highway full of police officers and passengers milling about it looked like a major drug bust or some serious crime.

After setting up the generator & charger the batteries took a charge and the company owner arrived and after some fiddling managed to get the bus running again. We were back on the road again.

Now the company was very apologetic about the trouble, and they brought the second bus to speed up the process and at our first stop everyone going to Lowes got off and went with the other driver. Now he did not however know where he was going and our driver had to keep him on the phone to give him directions. Sometime during the trip our driver checked to make sure we were all on the right bus, and asked “Are there any people going to Lowes?” no response.

“Ok good, so you are all getting off at Dick’s Sporting goods?” This was followed by lots of positive responses.  “Great!” she answered over the bus intercom, “You are all Dicks!”

This of course got an immediate response and she suddenly realized what she had said. Oops . . . .

And the wheels on the bus go round & round!