Walking with the Queen

Today I went for a walk along one of Toronto’s main streets, Queen. This street runs east/west for 18 kilometres through Toronto’s downtown. Seems to me that a lot of Canadian cities have streets named “Queen”, but Toronto’s version of Queen St. Is worth a visit. Running right through the downtown area, it is one of the busiest streets in the city. It has multiple streetcar routes running along it and intersects with the main subway line in two places. As I am still working in my new hip, I cannot claim to have walked the entire 18 km, but I walked in both the west end and the east end and connected them with a streetcar ride. 

Queen St has a little of everything, restaurants, bars, shops businesses and residences. There are areas that are modern with the usual tall condo and office buildings, but one of the things I like best about Queen St, is the amount of old houses and buildings that remain. They are not all in good repair, but it is nice to see the variety of old style architecture along the street. The 18 km, run through a number of neighbourhoods, The Beaches, Leslieville, Riverdale, Queen West, West Queen West, and Parkdale. Although Toronto hosts a number of ethnic neighbourhoods Queen St. Seems to skirt a number of them including Chinatown West and Little Tibet. 

You can find most anything you need on Queen St. I found three bead shops in the West end, and I had to choose between four pubs in one block in the East end for a beer and a burger, while waiting for my Joy of Writing meeting to start. The following photos will give you some idea of the variety of building on Toronto’s Queen Street. 

I can't resist the Street Art

Street Art and a Door!

WOW!

Bridge over the Don River

Slippery Tracks

My Alexa “home assistant” was flashing with a yellow circle this morning which means I either have a delivery from Amazon or there is a weather warning. “Alexa, what are my notification?” Produced a weather advisory of a frost warning for back home in Dartmouth: here in Toronto the forecast was for record high temperatures of over 24ºC. Sounded like a good day for an outing to explore another page of my “111 Things not to be missed in Toronto” book. 

This time I elected to go visit the Humber River Arch Bridge in the west end of the city on the Lake Ontario waterfront in the suburb of Etobicoke. Similar to the lovely bridges I visited on the Toronto Portlands, this bridge is an arched design but is a pedestrian and cyclist bridge which spans the mouth of the Humber River where it flows into Lake Ontario. 

Another Labyrinth to walk 

The bridge is about 15 km from the condo, so we knew we would have to take public transit. I looked at options and decided on a route involving a walk, then a subway trip, a streetcar ride and then a walk along the waterfront to the bridge. Unfortunately this was the day that TTC (Toronto Transit Corporation) who I have been bragging about, finally let me down. After walking from the condo up to Subway Line 2 on Bloor St. The crowds of people standing outside the subway station suggested something was not working as smoothly as usual. Apparently one of the subway trains had deposited gallons of hydraulic oil all over the tracks under the trains. Steel wheels, steel tracks, liberal coat of slippery oil . . . . the trains were sliding right through the stations, unable to stop. A whole section of the line was closed for the day while the mess was cleaned up. There were shuttle buses available but the crowds of people waiting to use them discouraged us from this option. 

Does it mean "Go turtle speed" on bridge?

A discussion with a TTC employee told us that a walk of four or five blocks allowed us to rejoin the subway and head west on the section not affected by the oil spill. Fortunately, being retired, we were only going out exploring the city, not going to work and keeping the economy going as were the people waiting for the shuttle buses and we did not mind the walking detour. And the rest of the transit trip worked perfectly. 

We managed to find the bridge and walk over it, take lots of photos, explore a new section of the Toronto waterfront parks, walk another labyrinth, see the Toronto Skyline from a completely different viewpoint, find a pub with a lovely view out over Lake Ontario for drinks and lunch, and I can note another page of the 111 that we have visited.  

This is the bridge . . .

Stop to lookout over Toronto

A different view of Toronto

It really is a nice bridge . . .

And . . . time for a beer and lunch

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. 

Searching For Ancestors

I like it when people let me know they are reading and enjoying my posts on the blog, and I received a reply from my dad’s cousin Carol in New Zealand yesterday telling me she was enjoying my posts. She also asked me if I was close to any of the my grandmother’s family’s houses when they lived in Toronto and the graveyard where my grandmother’s parents were buried. 

Well, I immediately felt a Blog Post coming on . . . . 

I did an internet search and located the two houses she mentioned and then I found the graveyard where Emma and Alonzo Verrian were supposed to be buried. The graveyard, Prospect Cemetery was a fair distance away, but was right on a good streetcar line, so it was easy to get to. We had noticed on our walks that the streetcars were not at all crowded, so it seemed a safe way to get around the city. 

Prospect Cemetery, Toronto 

The next step was to see if I could actually locate their gravesite in the cemetery. More internet research yielded a website for the cemetery that was able to tell me Emma and Alonzo were buried in section 22, plot 2314. Now for someone who is not at all religious, I seem to be the one to explore cemeteries and locate graves. I found Regis’ grandparents graves in Cheticamp on a trip to Cape Breton, and it was me that located her dad’s plot in Sackville as well as her Aunt’s headstone in the same cemetery, so I have some experience in exploring graveyards.

So I set out this morning to take the Subway up Young to St, Claire and then the streetcar to Lansdown where the Prospect Cemetery was located. 

I discovered that this is a massive cemetery. It extends over two blocks and is in two sections divided by a road. There were pretty good maps, so I realized I would have to walk all the way across Rogers Rd to the second area of the cemetery to find section 22. When I got there I started just wandering among the headstones looking for the name “Verrian” on any of them. I then realized that scattered among the headstones were many simple markers set into the ground. Now I do not know a lot of history of this side of the family but I did not think they were extremely wealthy, so I suspected I was looking for a simple marker. The cemetery is actually a beautiful one and looks to be well maintained, but with winter just over and spring just starting, there were leaves scattered all over, and I quickly realized many of the leaves were clustered over the hollows in the ground where the grave markers were. This meant I had to brush away leaves from many of the markers to read them. I diligently searched section 22 for over an hour with no luck. Finally I decided to ask the police officers in the patrol car sitting on the roadway just outside section 22 for advice. Of course the other positive result of asking them was to reassure them that the old guy in the cowboy hat and shillelagh was not a grave robber. They had no knowledge of how the cemetery was laid out, but suggested I go check with the office. Of course the office was all the way back at the entrance, but it did seem to best way to proceed. 

In the office I found Margaret, a very pleasant and helpful lady who gave me a map and highlighted the general area I should look. She then printed out a detailed plot map of this general area. I thanked her and she wished me luck. 

Margaret's Helpful Maps

Back at section 22, I found the patrol car was still there, so I was reassured that I was not the subject of their surveillance. I again found the general area and it was not where I had searched previously. I also noticed a fellow across the road who was picking up branches, and I approached him to ask if he knew anything. He was a grounds keeper and, he said he was not an expert, but had a general idea of how things were organized and he offered to help. Together we scoured the area looking for a marker with no success. He did show me how the plot numbers worked but suggested that they were not always in order, and he said that sometimes the markers sink into the ground and if relatives do not maintain it, they can completely disappear. After 30 minutes searching I thanked him and said I would do a bit more on my own. 

I started then not only looking for the name but also trying to locate the plot 2314 where the grave was supposed to be located. I was able to further narrow down the area by finding numbers above and below 2314. I then located a 2316, but although the plot should have been close I could not find it. I did realize that in many cases the grass had been slowly encroaching onto the markers, and I started using my cane to locate the stone markers under the leaves and grass. Then, sure enough, close to 2316, I found a spot with a solid sound, and kicking the grass aside I discovered 2314. No actual grave marker but the number was there, so I had located the actual site of Emma and Alonzo Verrian’s grave. 

Finally . . . 2314

Then back at the condo I found another e-mail from Carol that explained that she knew there was no marker and was in fact thinking of putting one in place. It obviously had been a while since anyone had actually visited the gravesite, so I hope my little cemetery adventure today helps the Verrian side of the family know that the grave site has been found and remembered.