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Canada 2025 St Lawrence, Montreal, Ottawa, Algonquin, Toronto, Niagara Falls |
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The Trip
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Monday 7 July
Train from Trollhättan to Göteborg to Malmö to Köpenhamn flygplats. Lug the bags across to a hotel for 15 minutes.
Köpenhamn flygplats hotel has a creaky sofa bed.
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Tuesday 8 July
Eight hour flight from Köpenhamn to Toronto. Watch Wicked together, and other movies separately. Landing is fine. We take a bus to the airport hotel where there is a fantastic view of yellow buses. Jet lagged, we stay in the room for a bit, then eat pizza and pasta downstairs. Flop into bed early.
Toronto flygplats hotel's bathroom door doesn't shut.
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Wednesday 9 July
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We leave Toronto, heading east along the St Lawrence. Stop by lake Ontario to dip our fingers in and feel hot. Eat lunch at The Buttermilk Cafe and all get way too much food, especially Ellie. Stop off at a small area by the St Lawrence to observe geese and the USA. Continue east towards Brockville. |
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Our hotel is the Tall Ships Landing. We hang around and admire the view before going to a brewery for tea.
Brocksville's hotel has a sofa bed shaped like an undercooked cake.
Thursday 10 July
Eat breakfast at a small cafe, then continue driving east. We go to a bakery and buy almost the same as breakfast, for lunch. After almost forgetting it, we drive to a beach to have a picnic. The beach is full of geese poo and cute seagulls. We follow a train track, see a memorial for some 1813 war and eat beaver tails. We continue on the road to the lost village. Lucky we find it, come to think of it.
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Continue again on our trek eastwards, so that we can leave the car at Montreal airport and take the bus to town.
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We drop off bags at the hotel and eat our evening meal at an Italian place.
Montreal's hotel has two bedrooms!! And two showers!! And another weird bathroom door with stupid toilet paper. The hot water only works if bathroom fan is on but ac is amazing. Samantha and Ellie can sleep only if hall lights are off, good luck anyone else going to the bathroom.
Friday 11 July
Metro and busses to La Ronde theme park. We spend the day at Lisebergs little sister. Mummy actually goes on a rollercoaster called the monster, despite a freak rain storm keeping everyone stuck in motionless queues for an hour. Some get more wet than others. We then eat lunch and get attacked by a seagull, but not at the same time. Ellie finds her swings, Samantha finds a food blender torture machine, happy day.
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Then (after going the wrong way with the metro) we find the big wheel and Ellie eats ice cream. Finally, we browse through some small tourist, crafty stalls and get home, late and hot.
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Saturday 12 July
We take the metro to the Bio-dome and spend a few hours there. Mummy loves the artic zone, which is nice and cool. Ellie loves the Capybara, who is nice and kul. Eat at a ... questionable veggie place for lunch. Quick stop at the Planetarium, Olympic Stadium and Jackie Robinson statue before going on to tour round 10 different but identical tourist shops and see the Notre Damn. Fun day!
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Sunday 13 July
Head off in the car, west this time towards the capital. Stop at a restaurant on the way for lunch and get massive portions of food (especially Ellie's spaghetti). We tank up the car and have a fun few minutes when it wouldn't start. Panic! but then normal service resumes. Phew! Continue west.
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We arrive in a massive downpour to find that the hotel wasn't actually booked for this night :( Luckily, the room is available one night early. We wander around local shops for a bit, see five pretty buildings in one view and visit Perfect Books. End the day at an Italian which has gelato for pudding!
Ottawa's hotel has separate beds for Samantha and Ellie. Finallyyyyyyy. It has wobbly beds and door knobs instead of handles, and a cosy wardrobe to read in.
Monday 14 July
Wander down to a diner for breakfast, and have MASSIVE pancakes for Samantha and Ellie. Spend the day at a mall where Ellie falls in love with a cinnamon roll shop (not migoo migoo, the other one) and Samantha falls in love with a crystal shop. The claw machine games shop goes a little crazy, and coughs up two soft toys for each girl on just six tries between them. On to a giant book shop called Chapters (heaven) and Walmart. End the day at Nando's with chicken and chocolate cake.
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Tuesday 15 July
Visit to a cafe for breakfast and milkshakes. Then we walk across the bridge to the Quebec half of Ottawa and visit the Canadian History Museum, which is full of totem poles. We (well, Samantha and Ellie) decide we have outgrown the childrens museum but the totem poles were very cool. It's poutine and pizza for lunch at the museum.
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Good views of the city centre on the walk back to the Ontario half of Ottawa, then on to a mall for the late afternoon. Ice cream (Samantha has bright blue!) is eaten, and we visit a horrifically artificial sweet shop, where we find some old friends. Vem förväntade riktigta svenska godis här? We eat at a hotel restaurant on the way home before attempting movie and godis but streaming services won't stream, so we fall back on an old favourite: Would I lie to you. 18 000 steps!!!
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Wednesday 16 July
We leave Ottawa pretty early to drive through Algonquin National Park. Lunch at The Hungry Hog, with images of pigs everywhere.
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We need a permit to visit the park so we pick that up and drive through the gates. Visitor Centre is nice. We attempt a walk but it's way too steep so we wander over to a lake instead.
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Drive through the park to little excitement and arrive at the hotel for the night. Samantha and Ellie spend some time in the pool and then we all eat at the hotel. End the day with browniesss.
Huntsville's hotel has paper wristbands and sticky floors... but a lovely view.
Thursday 17 July
More pancakes for breakfast (at least for the girls) and after that we leave the hotel relatively late in the morning.
| We stop by the coast of Lake Huron and eat in a restaurant during the middle of the lunch time rush. Yummy food! Then we get blown about as we walk along a spit of land into Lake Huron for a bit before getting back in the car to head south again. |
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We get seriously jammed in Toronto's seriously busy rush hour traffic :( After finding our way through the maze of lifts and corridors, we arrive at our final hotel!!! Late tea and late getting in bed. |
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Toronto's hotel is in the shadow of the CN tower and has five sliding doors. The stove is bigger than surface space in kitchen, but it has a stunning view. From the window, that is, not the stove. The balcony has both fake grass and a spider! Very fun.
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Friday 18 July
We have a late start and eat breakfast in the apartment. Start the day at the CN tower, going all the way to the very top. There we stand on the glass floors and eat lunch. We even get CN tower toothpicks.
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Then it's down to the harbour, where we stand like caged sheep waiting for the abatoir, so that we can board the ferry. We chug across to the island, wander around for a bit, eat some ice cream, then chug back. We arrive for our dinner reservation early but get seated anyway. Very nice food, and a very big chocolate cake for some of us. Good day :)
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Saturday 19 July
Another kinda late start before going on to try and get a metro to the Pioneer Village. However nothing can be that easy. There's work on the line between the two stations we need, so it's a replacement bus, which takes ages. Eventually we get to the village. It's cool, we see looms and metal working, and we make flower pins. We also walk on stilts and eat pizza for lunch. The nearby mall is a bit fancy for (some of) us, so we return to our replacement bus service back to the hotel. We arrive just as the baseball game is kicking out, so all the restaurants are packed. We find a nice place though and eat there before returning to the hotel. Bit more excitement then planned but that makes it much more fun.
We have a giant electric storm at 4am... great fun!
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Sunday 20 July
Another lazy morning in the apartment before taking the tram out to Chinatown. This morning the metro line is flooded from the previous night's electric storm. We wander about for a bit before taking the tram back into town for lunch.
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We eat at a small diner before moving on to the public library. It's famous waterfall is not falling, sadly, but we did go on to see Little Canada. This is a hidden gem, with all the interesting parts of Canada, but tiny! We then eat interesting titbits before trying the metro one last time. This afternoon the metro is not running because of a fire. What on earth is wrong with Toronto's metro? Have you ever missed a metro twice in one day before, because of both fire and flood? No, me neither! We eat at a yummy Italian for tea before heading back to the hotel.
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Monday 21 July
Early start to this day, hopping in the car to head to the Niagara falls.
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We arrive just before lunch, and go up the Skylon to see the falls.
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We then walk along the Canadian side and take lots of pictures. Some of us think it's awesome, others think it's underwhelming!
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We eat lunch with a stunning view. Then we cross the border to the USA, where we get the full, fingerprint experience. There we visit Goat Island and see the falls from the American side, getting lovely and wet from the spray.
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Then it's on to Buffalo to visit a Target!!! Oh, and a Barnes and Noble, of course. Tea at the Cheesecake Factory and we stop off at the shores of Lake Erie on the way home. Late night but worth it!
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Tuesday 22 July
Slow start today. We eat a finishing up all food in the fridge breakfast before finding a tram to take us to a beach at Lake Ontario. The tram stops in the middle of the road -- not scary at all! Poke bowls all round for lunch, and then we potter around the beach.
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Back to the hotel, stopping off for some tourist photo ops on the way. Baseball game tonight.
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We eat at the hotel again and walk to the stadium. The seats with a view of the CN Tower. Awesome national anthems, wonderful light show, a couple of home runs. Blue Jays lost 4-5 but the game was amazing. Good day.
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Final chance to capture the view from the hotel.
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Wednesday 23 July
Grattis Pappa, 60 år.
Wake up kinda early in the morning and pack everything together, which takes some time. It's brownies and fruit for breakfast, but eventually we check out and get everything to the car. We head to the zoo and eat lunch pretty quickly. Then it's snakes, red pandas, kangaroos, and Mummy's favourite: gorilla's! Lots of fun!
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We drive to the airport and -- eventually -- find the right terminal. The Business Class Lounge is great for business travellers, less so for families :( Fancy food, did not impressive Samantha or Ellie. After a short delay we board and head home!
Business Class seats are super comfy, but still not much sleep.
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Thursday 24 July
Tåg till Köpenhamn, Malmö, Alvesta, Göteborg, Trollhättan och allt däremellan. We land late morning, local time, and go to a hotel lobby for an hour's fika before the train is due. All goes well to Malmö, then our train to Göteborg is cancelled. It's another hour and a half before we board a replacement to Alvesta. Another wait there before getting our Göteborg train, and then another hour there before getting the Trollhättan train. Don't you just love yet another fika at yet another train station?
Somehow we make it home at kl 22.00 instead of 17.00, but we make it!!
Home provides the best night's sleep of the whole trip.
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