I drove home from Boston yesterday on a beautiful autumn day, out Route 2 to Greenfield, and arrived just in time for a memorial gathering for Beth Hapgood, a close friend and mentor for the last fifteen years who died last week at the age of 92. Beth is probably […]

I just got back from a railway tour of Eastern Canada, beginning in Toronto, passing through Ottawa and Montreal and ending in Quebec, and I had a great time. These cities are all great destinations with first-rate restaurants, performance centers and historical attractions. Clickety-clacking through the countryside, I find, is the most […]

I spent the whole day wandering around Quebec, and it’s a lovely city for wandering. I reconnoitred the Plains of Abraham, where the fate of Canada was decided three and a half centuries ago, strolled by the fountain in front of the Parliament, purchased for four million dollars at a […]

Last night we reached the final stop on our Via Rail tour of Eastern Canada: La Ville de Quebec. When we arrived in Toronto last Friday, we found a truly international city, even more so than New York, with more than 130 ethnic groups. Our next stop, Ottawa, is the capital […]

We had a splendid time in Montreal yesterday.  We went to the Otto Dix exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Lantern Festival at the Botanical Garden and then dined European style (9:30!) at Garde Manger in the Old Town. I had strips of bison steak with an egg on top […]

    Had a wonderfully comfortable train ride from Toronto, the capital of Ontario, to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, which is also in Ontario. Ottawa is smaller and more spread-out with lots of beautiful old buildings and statues. I spent yesterday afternoon taking photos for a gallery.  We’re staying […]

    Huit Blanche is an all night festival in Toronto, when all eight million residents line the streets. The attractions are so spread out that you really have to know where to go, otherwise it’s just crowds, But pretty soon the crowds start to make their own fun. Right […]

Well it was a rather bumpy trip, but here I am in Toronto, the largest city in Canada and the fifth largest in North America after Mexico City, New York, LA and Chicago. It’s a true international city, with more than 130 languages and dialects spoken here by more than […]

I’m heading to Boston this afternoon and tomorrow morning I take off for Toronto for a train trip to Quebec City. I’ve just received a partial itinerary with lots of great activities including an all-night art festival in Toronto and a tour of Parliament Hill in Ottawa. I’ll be blogging […]

For some reason I am reminded tonight of the long drive home of Harry Golden in 1959. “It was a lonely and somewhat terrifying trip.” he wrote. “My work, I thought, now ends.” Harry Golden was the founder and editor of The Carolina Israelite in Raleigh, North Carolina, which at […]