Today saw us off on a longish drive to Parry Sound, a small town on Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. This was a trip that our Toronto friend on the train, Pat, had waxed lyrical about. We guess a little trusting to set off on a two-day trip on the basis of the recommendations of a stranger but we'd liked her holiday photos so thought we could trust her judgement!

Driving out of Toronto is relatively easy, if on busy highways to begin with, and the journey went smoothly if slowly. We arrived in Parry Sound just in time to buy tickets and board Island Queen V for the 30,000 Islands Cruise. This was a lovely relaxing trip, a good antidote to our previous city days: we have discovered, re-confirmed might be more accurate, that we're not city people and much prefer to be out enjoying the countryside. And Georgian Bay is particularly beautiful countryside. The boat cruises at a very gentle speed, just enough to create a pleasant cooling breeze, and we thoroughly enjoyed our peaceful afternoon. The boat meandered through the islands (well not all 30,000 of them - we know how literal some of our blog readers can be: yes Sally we mean you!) with just enough snippets of information being offered to make the trip interesting but not tedious.

The views were of tiny wooded outcrops in cool blue lake waters: somewhat reminiscent of Sweden. Many of the tiny islands had houses on them and we had fun choosing the one we'd like to own. Can't say live in, as like Swedish Summer homes these are definitely only for the Summer as the lake freezes in the Winter. We were a bit surprised at the lack of solar panels but most inhabited islands had large propane tanks so clear that's the local fuel source for heating and lighting.

We checked into Bayside Inn, another of Pat's good recommendations, then went in search of dinner which we found at Bistro on the Bay. After a good dinner we set off on the local Fitness Trail to watch and photograph the sunset over the bay. So a perfect day: well until Jill got stung by a big black stingy thing on the palm of her hand. It was touch and go whether the swelling would need us to test our medical insurance, but ice, anti-histamine cream and tablets helped to reduce the swelling and we've yet to run that test: hope we don't need to!

We did wonder how well we would sleep as the Inn was nestled underneath the Canadian National railway bridge that runs above the town and takes the train track across the Seguin river. We had feared that the freight trains whistling as they approached the town and their long rumbling over the bridge would keep us awake but the combination of switching the air-con and the ceiling fan on, and closing the windows lead to a peaceful night and good sleep. We're still not convinced of the strength of the bridge supports though: we know from photos that these are pretty much as they were when the bridge was first constructed in 1907. This historic trestle bridge is 1,695 feet long and 105 feet high and the first scheduled train passed over it in 1908. Our train to Toronto passed safely over it over a hundred years later but having seen it from the ground we're not sure we'd choose to travel it again!