It is unbelievable how nine days can just fly by. Today mybrother, sister-in-law and our two Austrian friends arescheduled to fly back to Graz, Austria, via Vienna. There hasbeen an increasingly palpable sense of sentimentality in theair, in light of the fact that this wonderful time is coming toan end alarmingly quickly.

It's also amazing how many activities one is able to cram into ashort amount of time. I wanted to give them a really good tasteof everything that I love about the city of Toronto and my newcountry. So occasionally I put a few too many things on ourplates and we ended up racing through a few of the activities.On the whole though, I think our European guests had a fabuloustime and they fell in love with Toronto, just like I did, manyyears ago.

Saturday all six of us went golfing to a little par-3 golfcourse in the East end of Toronto. None of my Austrian guestshad ever golfed before, so a couple of days earlier we startedwith a few buckets of balls at the driving range, followed up byan indoor putting practice session on the carpet. Saturday wewould get to try the real thing. The attempts at the drivingrange didn't look all that great, with balls spraying all overthe place, to the left and to the right. But on Saturdayafternoon, another gorgeous day, our four Austrian guestsperformed quite admirably and only lost 2 balls in the waterhazard.

They really enjoyed golf, a sport they had never even dreamed ofplaying, but the Toronto area with its several hundred golfcourses, many of them reasonably priced, made it easy to givethis sport a try. All preconceived notions about golf only beinga sport for old people went out the window, and they enjoyed thechallenge of trying to sink the round little ball in the hole.

Sunday came our second big excursion: a driving tour through theKawartha Lakes. I had only planned two major driving tours: awine-tasting tour through the Niagara Peninsula, and a secondone to the lake district of the Kawarthas. We started by drivingeast on Toronto's 401, a 12 to 16 lane highway whose size dulyimpressed my European visitors. Then we headed north-eastthrough rolling farm country to Peterborough, a rural universitytown with a population of about 70,000. From there we drovenorth into the Kawarthas, a gorgeous lake region set in therocky landscape of the Canadian Shield.

Our first stop was Buckhorn, where we watched the mechanics oflift locks of the Trent-Severn Canal that links Lake Ontariowith Georgian Bay. We saw how several boats assembled inside thelock following by an opening of the sluices and the water levelequilibrating itself with the level of the lower portion of theriver. The Parks Canada lock supervisor explained the wholeprocess to us and it only took about 10 minutes for the boats toreach the lower level.

From Buckhorn we drove through rocky and marshy countryside tothe quaint village of Bobcaygeon where we took an extendedstroll. We had a nice waterfront lunch, looking across to themarina, seeing the the boats come in an out of the canal.Particularly our Austrian friends Luis and Isabella love boatingand seeing the many houseboats on the Trent-Severn Canal gavethem a few ideas for future vacations in Canada.

The lunch was delicious and we took a little stroll around thischarming town, admiring the waterfront parks and picnicfacilities that allow great access to the water. From Bobcaygeonwe drove on to another little picturesque country town: FenelonFalls, whose name comes from a waterfall in the middle of townthat has been used for electricity generation since the 1870s.

After a sizeable line-up we picked up a few delicious cones ofKawartha Dairy ice cream and strolled over to the bridge overthe falls and then down to the little peninsula that sticks outinto the river. From there you can look into a rocky gorge whereboth sides of the river are surrounded by high rocks.

Again, we watched boats being lifted and lowered, this time inlock 33 of the Trent-Severn Canal System. This is another townwith a beautiful little park right by the locks with lots ofopportunity for barbeques or simply for a relaxing snooze in thesun . Time was flying by and by this time it was already 3:30 pmso we had to start our return to the city. We only took backroads and my brother lost count of the numerous golf coursesthat dotted the landscape. It was a nice relaxing drive throughrolling countryside and we made it back

to Toronto in less than2 hours. All four of my Austrian guests had fallen in love withthe Lake District and the prospect of another vacation in Canadato explore the waters north of Toronto seems ever more likely.

Yesterday was their last full day in Toronto, and we took ourbikes out for a spin one more time. Since we all love water werode down to the Eastern Beaches again, and leisurely exploredthe waterfront. We watched some lawn bowling, and one of theparticipants kept coming over to us to explain the rules of thegame to us since none of us was familiar with this sport. Myguests commented several times on the friendliness of people inthe stores, restaurants, in line-ups and even I myself wassurprised at the approachability of Torontonians, often known asa more reserved breed of people. But we truly kept having verypositive experiences, equally with people employed in theservice sector, as well as with regular citizens, taking astroll, playing a game of lawn bowling or going for a walk withtheir dog.

Of course we admired the inukshuks by the beach, a public playarea for adults with rocks of various shapes and sizes that areused by passers-by to create interesting stone sculptures. Wewatched a few tense points at the Kew Gardens Tennis Club, andchecked out the picturesque Kew Gardens park itself. From therewe headed west past the beach volleyball facilities to thelittle peninsula west of Ashbridges Bay which always offers afabulous view of Toronto's skyline. We took in the tranquilatmosphere and soaked in the sun for a while before we startedour return back along the waterfront. My European visitorscommented several times how incredible it is to have all thispublicly accessible land right along the waterfront and how insome secluded spots you don't even realize that you are in amajor metropolitan area.

To get back up to our house we had to climb back up from thewaterfront and this time we chose the Glen Stewart Ravine, wherea little brook has carved a valley into the slopes leading downto the waterfront. It is a densely forested area and when youare in there it feels like you are in a remote forest somewhere,not right in the middle of Toronto.

Once back at our house, preparation got started for our finalgoodbye barbeque and we had invited a few extra friends to joinus to give our Austrian guests a proper sendoff back home. Weenjoyed some excellent food and they sampled a few morevarieties of Canadian wines and beers, all of which they hadcommented quite favourably on. We didn't sample much restaurantcuisine since my brother is a talented chef, but the freshingredients that he purchased in Toronto's various markets madefor some truly delicious dinners.

In the evening we took one more spin in the car, first torevisit the Distillery District at night. Luis had wanted to buysome beer glasses at the Mill Street Brewery as a souvenir, butunfortunately the brewery and restaurant were closed. The wholeDistillery area was a little quiet, not surprisingly, since itwas Labour Day, the last official day of summer, and the finalday of respite before school would begin again. We continued ourdriving tour with a little spin through downtown and up YongeStreet before we turned east on Bloor Street. We crossed theBloor Street Viaduct and arrived on the Danforth, Toronto'sGreek area. As always, Greektown was quite busy and people weremilling about. We sat down on the patio of one of our favouriterestaurants and enjoyed some Greek snacks before we headed homeafter another long day, all of us a little sad, commenting hownine days can pass so quickly.

Today we'll have to take their four rented bicycles back andaround 2:30 we'll have to start the trek to the airport. It'sbeen a fabulous 9 days, an extended sleepover with four greatpeople and we won't forget this holiday for a long, long time.We are already hoping for another reunion, either in Austria, orback here in Canada, to deepen this fabulous connection.



About the author:

Susanne Pacher is the publisher ofhttp://www.travelandtransitions.com. It deals with travel toforeign countries and is chock full of advice, tips, real lifetravel experiences, interviews with travellers, insights,cross-cultural issues, and many other features. Participate inour travel story contesthttp://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm and win greatprizes, a fabulous cruise to the Amazon. Life is a Journey -Explore New Horizons.