Nuit Blanche, Toronto - A Free Night of Arts Entertainment, Toronto




Every year, for the past few years, Toronto has been hosting an annual arts event called the Nuit Blanche. It is only a one night event where some of the main downtown streets are blocked to allow pedestrain traffic all night long starting shortly after 7:00p.m and last until sunrise the next morning.

People performaing on the street on Nuit Blanche



    





Nuit Blanche is an event completely devoted to arts. This year it had over 160 exhibits and events throughout the main Toronto downtown core. I was at an eleven a.m. meeting downtown so I just went into Starbuck after the meeting and worked there until my husband came and we went together to enjoy the night of events.

A Social Experiment - Talking to Strangers



 



Since there were over 160 events, in order to get the most out of the evening, we got the program book from Dundas Square and pored over the program to select the ones that interested us the most. There were quite a few art events concentrated around the City Hall area, so we bought a Subway pass  for $10.50 which allowed two people unlimited travel for the day and into the wee hours of the next morning.




Floor Art, Outside City Hall



We started at the Dundas /Yonge Square where hundreds of Torontoians already gathered.  One activity we enjoyed was the social experiment of talking to strangers. At one corner of the square, there were  instrucitons posted helping people to initiate conversations with strangers. It was a lot of fun and from the huge number of people practising the art of conversing with strangers, this was a popular activity especially with young people.



Watching the `Civilization` Exhibit on the floor of Toronto City Hall  during Nuit Blanche

There were music, sound, visual, light, shadow and many other forms of arts presented all over the downtown. Thousands of people were enjoying this all night and early monring event. The best part of it - Free Admission and all people, from Toronot or tourists could enjoy this night for free!



Nuit Blanche, Dundas Yonge Square, Toronto



By R,T,  Toronto, Canada
Sept.30, 2012



Beautiful Window Boxes from our travels!

Assisi, Italy

I love gardening and I truly appreciate  the efforts which house owners /apartment dwellers put into beautifying their window boxes.

I just love looking at them, and admire the beauty and charm these window boxes added to the appearance of the buildings.

 Here are some of the window boxes we found in our travels for the past few months.

Most of the window boxes pictures were taken in Italy. Enjoy!



Assisi, Italy

Murano, Italy

 

Salzburg, Austria

A humble old house can be dressed up with flower boxes overflowing with colourful blooms and  foliage!

Assisi, Italy









Salzburg, Austria





Venice, Italy

Assisi, Italy

Italy

Italy

Italy

Toronto, Canada

Charlottetown, PEI, Canada

Charlottetown, PEI, Canada

R.T.  Toronto, Canada
Sept. 2012
p.s. Updated June, 2014

Dancing to the Phantom of the Opera in the Square

Dancing to the Phantom of the Opera in the Don Mills Square, Toronto

We are home finally! After almost a month visiting different cities in Europe in August, my husband and I were ready to come home. We thank God that we have had such a wonderful trip and we are home safely!

Of all the experiences we have had in Europe, the one that I remembered most was those beautiful town and city squares where people could simply hang out, meet and chat with their friends or just sit and watch the passersby. Because of the cold weather in Canada, Canadians typically spend at least six to eight months or more cooping up indoors depending on where they live. Consequently, we have many huge indoor shopping malls but not too many outdoor gathering places like the European town squares. How  we wish we had something like that in Canada.





People dancing under the stars in the town square



Yes! We finally have a beautiful neighborhood outdoor space where residents can sit, enjoy a nice meal, sip a cup of coffee while watching kids play, ride their bikes, play balls and chase each other.

 Not only can we do that all that, recently, we discovered this newly developed outdoor plaza even offer free dancing lessons two nights a weeks to anyone who wanted to dance and have fun.

So for a few weeks in September, my husband and I rushed down to the Shops at Don Mills Town Square, located on the corner of Lawrence Ave and Don Mills Road,  as soon as he swallowed his dinner minutes after coming back from work.  Together with a few other people, we learned the steps of cha cha, tango, sala and line dancing from our dance instructors, Janie and Dexter, who worked hard at putting some great music and dances for us.





Some of the dance participants in the Don Mills Square


Who would think of dancing tango to the music of Phantom of the Opera?  We did and we loved it!!! I always thought that tango was a very complicated dance so I never even bothered trying to learn it. Janie and Dexter managed to create a simplified version of the tango dance to this very favourite piece music of mine.









Janie & Dexter - Dance Instructors in the Square

 

It was fabulous to be able to listen to beautiful music, move our bodies fluidly and enjoy the crisp breezy fall air in a clean open space. This town square is away from main street traffic, surrounded by elegant shops, family friendly but not too crowded.

The best part of it was we had two professional dance instructors who came to the square and taught us how to dance rain or shine regardless of the weather since May this year. 

      

Making new friends & socializing after the dance



 
Unfortunately, we learned about it too late and I just joined when I came back from Europe at the beginning of September.

Besides the free dance lessons the square also offered free yoga classes from May to the end of September and other seasonal activities in the winter.

It is time that the inhabitants of Toronto have a town square not just in downtown Toronto, but in the suburbs as well. Don Mills was the first planned suburb in Canada, so it is fitting that we also have the first suburb town square!

R.T.,Don Mills, Toronto

Sept. 2012

Staying in a Vienna Pension for our last night in Europe!

Last Night in Europe

From Salzburg, we took the 5:50 pm OBB train and got to Vienna at around 9:30p.m., our last night in Europe.  Dan In n Out, centrally located in the city of Vienna, off the Ring Blvd, was the pension that my husband booked through the internet. The Pension is an European thing; it is a basic no frill hotel room located in an office building. When we got to the building, it was all dark and it did not look like a motel or hotel as we expected in North America. We thought might be we had been taken for ride by the internet booking.

We rang the door bell and after  about ten minutes when we were about to leave, someone finally came to answer the intercom and told us to just go up via the elevator. We took the tiny elevator to the floor where the pension was located and were met by a gentleman who handed us the key to our room. He explained to us what the pension was and said that there would be nobody at the reception desk but breakfast would be served in the morning.  Since our flight was leaving at 6:30a.m. We asked the gentleman from the pension to call a cab for us for 4:30a.m.

The room at the pension was O.K. but it was at a very central location in Vienna. However, we were not able to take advantage of this excellent location as we would be leaving in a few hours. I wished we had booked this place when we first landed in Vienna so that we could have walked around the city much easier.

We had a very enjoyable trip in Europe for the past few weeks and now it was time to leave this beautiful continent. Feeling a little sad, I busied myself packing our luggage and dared not to fall asleep lest that we should miss our flight.

The taxi was at our pension right on time taking us to the airport. The cab fare was at a fixed rate of 50 Euro, not bad.

We were at the airport so early that nothing was open, neither shops nor restaurants.  We got a little snack and boarded our plane to London for our North American flight home.  There was a stopover at the Heathrow Airport for a couple of hours, barely enough time for us to pore over some of  the mountainous volume of Olympics souvenirs.  There were lots of shops at the airport and we bought a couple boxes  of chocloate for friends back home.

Good Bye, Europe, thank you for a lovely time!  We have fallen in love hopelessly with Italy and a few other places therefore we hope to be back again soon!

R.T.

Aug. 2012

Salzburg - The Home of The Sound of Music

We enjoyed the walk up to  the HohenSalzburg Fortress

 Next morning we woke up and had a sumptuous breakfast in the cafeteria. The restaurant was the busiest of all the hotels we had stayed on this trip. The breakfast included traditional hot breakfast food such as bacon and eggs, pancakes, cheese, rolls, jams and cold cereals etc.

HohenSalzburg Fortress - Built on the Highest Point of Salzburg

There are about 140,000 inhabitants in Salzburg and it is the 4th largest city in Austria. The birth city of Mozart, Salzburg was the city where the movie The Sound of Music was based on and filmed in the 1960's.  The Sound of Music Tour has been going on ever since and it is a popular one.

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With only one day in Salzburg, we wanted to hit the main points of interest. Having signed up for a tour, we toured the city with 4 other tourists packed in a mini van. Our tour guide was a model for multi-tasking.  This young British lady guide also doubled as the bus driver.   Austria is truly an efficient country.  Elsewhere, the tour bus driver and the guide``s work would be performed by two individuals.   The tour bus took us through the old town and we got some decent knowledge of the various notable buildings in the City.




We came across this house built into the side of a mountanl

 We learned that Salzburg in German literally means 'salt town'.  The Celts, Romans and later Germanic peoples had all taken a stab in extracting salt from the quarries in the town. At one time, salt was so highly valued that it was used as a medium of business transaction, like money today. At one time, folks here were paid in salt and that was how the word salary came into being.  She also told us about the unique tradition of the Bishop Princes that ruled Salzburg through the centuries.  They were strict but caring rulers.  No wonder we could still note the orderliness, discipline and cleanliness of Salzburgers today.  Salzburg had been an independent Principality until not very long ago when it was finally absorbed into the Austrian Empire of the Hapsburg.
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Other really neat thing we did after the tour was walking up to the Hohen Salzburg - the castle located at the highest point of the city.

The Majestic Alps as Seen from the Top of the Hohen Salzburg

When I was in Canada, I have had experience some chronic pain on my right leg. However, having walked daily for the past three weeks on our European trip, the pain in my leg has gone. I attributed that to the daily walking exercise and we walked as much as we could.

When we sought directions how to walk up to the castle located at the highest point of the city, we were asked if we were taking the bus or walking. We were given a big grin and thumbs up by the locals when we told them that we were walking! The walk up to the castle was not too bad, neither was it a piece of cake.

View of Salzburg from the top of the Hohen Salzbury Fortress

But the scenery on the way was breathtaking as we came across numerous smaller castles, beautiful buildings and a modern museum! The walk was worth the time and effort and was the highlight of our visit in Salzburg. Highly recommend it if you have the time while visiting this city.

Hohen Salzburg Fortress - a city within wall

We had an audio tour of the Hohen Salzburg Fortress and learned about the history of the different expansions by the various prince archbishops. It was a small city within the castle walls with its own school, church, blacksmith shops, dungeon and even a torture chamber where the tools for torturing its dissidents and prisoners were kept.

After the tour, we could have taken the bus down to the square, but we wanted to walk and get as much exercises as possible.  Descending the hill, we could hear classical music playing and we soon found ourselves in the town square enjoying the free musical performances with many others.

We could hear the music from the square as we were descending from the Fortress

 Salzburg has a lot to offer to its residents and tourists alike. It is a city full of music. The day when we visited the old town, we came across a number of musicians performing on the streets and in the square.

Old Town Square - Salzburg

The annual Salzbrug Music |Festival attracts hundreds and thousands of music lovers.
 The next time we visit Salzburg, we will make sure that we will be able to be a part of the musical celebration.


R.T. Salzburg, Austria
Aug. 2012

Getting to Salzburg, Austria - Via the OBB Train

Riding the OBB Train to Salzburg, Austria

It was hard to leave Venice and moved on to our next destination, Salzburg, Austria. We just loved Venice and vowed to come back for a longer visit in the near future.

The biggest regret I had was not able to buy and bring back the beautiful Murano handmade chandelier back to Canada with us.

We had a lot of luggage and I was afraid that the chandelier might be broken on our way back and that we would get upset at each other.

We have had such a fantastic holiday in Europe, I wanted a beautiful ending coming home and would not want a lost or broken expensive chandelier to ruin our trip at the end.

Bike Rack on the OBB Train

We left the Venice hotel and boarded the bus to take us across to the Austrian border and from there we transferred to the OBB train.  We had a couple of hours to kill before boarding the cross border bus, and with luggage in tow, we went and sat by the harbour and had a drink

As we sipped our drinks and had our last pizza in Italy, a large group of passengers, just got off from their cruise ship, were waiting around for what to do next.

 That was exactly what we did not want to happen on our trip. What could you do and see in a few hours off the cruise ship in a new city? I kinda felt bad for the tourists from the cruise ship because they would not be able to experience many of Venice's beautiful scenery and unique atmosphere in just a a few hours.

View of the Alps from our OBB Train

The train fare from Venice to Salzburg was around 70 Euro each, the most expensive fare of our numerous land transportation in Europe so far, but  this leg of our land travel in Europe was also the longest in distance.

Passing by the Alps

It was about a 6 hour journey from Venice to Salzburg.

The Alps were majestic and the houses were neat and just like the scenery we saw in the story books.














Capturing the views on our cameras was not easy as the train was going too fast for us to take any decent pictures.

View from Our OBB Train

It was a real challenge for us during the entire train ride.

We were glad that we had a few hours to catch up on our blogs. We were a little behind on our writing and glad to have this opporunity to do them.

When we were busy writing, time went by very quickly. Before we realized it our train pulled into the Salzburg train station around 9pm. The train station was wide open and space age looking. We knew we had arrived in Austria.

Since it was a little too late to go out for dinner, we visited the supermarket at the train station and bought our dinner there.

The Jufa hotel, a decent hotel with modern design and furnishing, was where we stayed for the night.  The two single beds in our room could be put together easily in a flash. There was a third bed hanging flat against the wall above the two twin beds that looked like a headboard but could easily be pulled out to sleep a third person. The bedroom was small in North American standard but comfortable and sufficient.

We looked forward to a night of good rest in Austria.

R. & S. T.
August 24, 2012

Murano - Venice

Venice – second day

In order to save us sometime, we paid 5 Euro extra  to have breakfast at the hotel. It was disappointing. So far all the breakfasts we had on this trip were very good.  ( Some breakfast were included like Inn Giovy while others we paid extra as in Vienna .)

View from Our Venice Hotel Balcony

The entire street where we were staying were lined with restaurants and shops. We went into a shop located right under our hotel and took a look at the many glassware art pieces. There was a beautiful  chandelier produced by local Murano  glass artisans and I loved it.

We have been looking for a unique fixture for our dining room and it is not easy to find something neither too old fashion nor too space age looking. This is one that would fit perfectly in our dining room. We thought of it for sometime but decided against it because we would not be able to bring such a fragile item home given the luggage we already have to carry.



St. Mark Square, Venice

We bought the 12 hour travel pass and hopped on the waterbus that took us to Piazza San Marco.  


The huge Piazza is flanked by a museum in the middle, a national library and a shopping plaza on both sides. 

At the back is the magnificent San Marco’s Basilica with wall paintings and sculptures at the front and multiple domes. 

Classical Music  Provided by the Florian  Restaurant Musicians

  While we were fascinated by the architecture in the Piazza we heard nice piano music accompanied by a man playing an accordion and another playing a double bass.

We walked by another outdoor restaurant and there was classical music played by a team of musicians including a pianist, violinist and couple others. 

The Florian Restaurant, Venice

 We liked the music so much that we decided to pay the music charge, 6 Euro/ person plus expensive charges on beverages, 8- 12 Euro for tea or coffee, and  sat down for something to eat.

Enjoying the Music & Scenery at St Marcos Square

Though the temperature was in the 90’s, the waiters serving at the restaurants in this piazza all wore neat white shirts, blazers and black dress pants. 

The Florian Restaurant, where we had a bit was a classy place established since the eighteenth century.  We felt that we went into a time machine and were transported back to the 1920’s. Though  expensive,  we enjoyed sitting down on  the wide patio out at the Piazza for two hours listening to soft music playing waltz and 20’s music.  

At one point the violin lead player broke into a Chinese and other folk songs which were played nicely.  It was pure enjoyment taking refuge from the burning sun, watching people go by and massive numbers of pigeons pecking on the ground. (


I just realized that this was the famous square where numerous scenes were filmed whenever they talked about Italy or travel  in Europe.)   

We also saw performances by a couple of expert dancers demonstrating tango  dances in the walkway.

To take full advantage of our 12 hour unlimited travel pass, we hopped on a few more rides on the water bus and went to a few more places.

Murano, Venice

One of the places that we enjoyed a lot was Murano which was at the last stop of one of the water bus routes.

 ( We found out later that a one way ticket to Murano would be 7 Euro on the water bus because of its distance.)



Murano is famous for its glass artisans and the glass work that it produces.

Unfortunately, we got there a little after 5pm and all the workshops were closed.

A number of shops were still opened so we were able to see some samples of work produced by local glass artists.

The pieces of work displayed were colourful, creative, and beautiful, Some glass pieces were traditional in design while many were modern and interesting.  

Comet Glass Star, Murano

I bought a Murano  made watch and some small souvenirs and we enjoyed looking at the traditional crafts and houses at Murano.

The secret recipe and techniques of Murano glass making has been carefully guarded for centuries.

Our visit to Murano gave us a tiny glimpse of one of the traditional Venetian arts.

An Artistic Wrecking Yard 

 We wished we had more time staying on this quaint little place but we must take a water bus back to Santa Lucia as the water taxi service ran on limited services after 8p.m.
 By taking the water bus everywhere in Venice, we came across some beautiful scenery and artistic art work, such as the gigantic hands at one of the auto wrecking yard we saw while we were on the water bus. What a marvelous creative idea!

 I wish more people could come up with artistic ideas such as this one for demolishing sites and wrecking yards.

Bridges, Bridges Everywhere in Venice

While we were trying to figure out how to read the schedule, an Italian gentleman, without being asked,  volunteered to help us figure out which water bus we should take to get to our destination.

Another  nice and helpful Venetian ready to help out the lost tourist!

Beautiful Architecture Abound in Venice

 This was the last night we were in Italy and we felt a little sad leaving these wonderful and warm people.


We tried to make the most of it and enjoyed the Italian cuisine in the outdoor restaurant  one more time.  Good bye, Venice!

Murano

Venice is a magical place; Venetians are extremely friendly , helpful and tolerant.  

They should be credited for putting up with the invasion of tourists overtaking their city for a few months a year.

On more than one occasion, Venetians have stepped up to the plate and volunteered to help us whenever we looked a little confused.

We are grateful for their hospitality and they have made our stay in Venice a truly memorable experience!  We have fallen in love with Italy, especially Venice; we will be back for a  visit  again in the near future!

R.T. Venice
Aug. 2012