The choice of Ottawa as capital city of Canada has always been something of a mystery to me. For a start, it certainly isn't the biggest city in the country by a long way - in terms of metropolitan population, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver all have districts larger than anything Ottawa has to offer. The 2006 census puts the population of the city at around 800,000 - only around a third of the population of nearby Toronto at 2.5 million, which probably explains ...

Niagara Falls, which was one place I certainly couldn't miss while in this part of the world, is a little over an hours drive from Toronto by tour bus. It is also, somewhat conveniently, situated right on the Canadian border with one waterfall on each side - so the United States and Canada are constantly grumbling about who has the better view. Unfortunately, it really is something of a no contest - the United States has the smaller of the falls, which they attem...

Having settled nicely into my lovely plush king sized bed last night, I was awoken rudely a couple of hours later by a cacophony of bells from the corridor. Getting up and dressing as quickly as possible, I poked my head around the door and was greeted with the sight of most of the other hotel residents sticking their heads out of their respective doors: "Is it a fire?" "Dunno, can you smell burning?" "Can't tell. I've got a cold. Can you smell burning?" "I c...

Leonie and I went for dinner today in the restaurant car, where we were joined by Chantelle and Caroline as we approached Ontario. Luckily, I had been able to get hold of a few bucks from a cash machine in Winnipeg which was feeling less temperamental than the ones in Edmonton, so I was finally able to afford something to eat. Cash machines are always something of an enigma in foreign countries - your bank will happily tell you that your card will work in hundred...