Must See And Do Things While Visiting London Ontario

By on March 3, 2013 in Entertainment, Sports, Tips, Travel

Welcome to London, Ontario – your perfect destination for a fun and relaxing time! In this welcome post,I hope to introduce  you to some the many delights that London has to offer.

(If you’re interested who I am and how this blog started you can read the full story here)

For those who are interested in the detailed history of London, Soutwestern Ontario, Canada, you’ll get a great lesson by heading over to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London,_Ontario

OK. Buckle your seats belts and let’s get to work…

Top London Attractions to Visit:

The best part of any vacation is the excitement that arises with the thought of visiting a new place. If you are on your first visit to London Ontario Canada, then you should be riding high on this excitement. The fantastic thing about London is that it has attractions all year round.

So no matter the time of the year you make a trip here, you’re bound to find something that will draw your interests. It doesn’t matter if you’re a lover of history, sports, nature or just taking a family vacation – ’cause (as my cousin Bob would say..”you’re bound to  find something that floats your boat.”

Lake Whittaker

If you are attracted by nature, then you will not miss an opportunity to do so. You can enjoy an up close experience with nature at the Lake Whittaker Conservation area. Here you can camp out and enjoy an exclusive experience that only nature can give.

Skah-Nah-Doht Iroquoian Museum

London Ontario Canada also offers a piece of history with a variety of museums available. For a special experience, visit Skah-Nah-Doht Iroquoian Village and Museum which has a replica of an Indian village. You get to have a firsthand taste of how life was in 10th-12th Century Indian village.

Bark in the Park Festival

Festivals and other cultural events are some of the activities you will find taking place in the city. A good thing about these festivals is the fact that they are not only fun but help raise funds for one cause or another. One such annual festival is the Bark in the Park Festival that celebrates people and their pets.

Adventures in Wonderland

When you want to offer your children excitement then a day at the Adventures in Wonderland is just it. This is a children recreational facility  that offers activities such as water games, karaoke and other fun activities that resonate well with the kids.Well they do with ours!

The Labatt Brewery

A trip to London Ontario  is not complete without sampling culinary and other delights to the palate. A visit to Farmers Markets and fairs that can be found in the city is one way of doing this. The other way is to pay a visit to wineries such as the Labatt Brewery for a lesson in wine making and sampling the delicious wine.

Lakewood Spa

We’re known for our spas. All vacations call for some form of relaxing and when visiting at London, this is not an exception. A visit to a spa will not only relax you but rejuvenate you enough to want to try your hand at a new activity. Lakewood Spa is sure to make your trip worthwhile.

Ice Skating

Speaking of family activities, winter at London Ontario Canada is a spectacular time of the year. The snow does not keep you indoors but it will have you skiing down slopes in no time. More so, you do not want to miss out on the Ice Skating Championships that are held in the city.

Market Crafts Inc

Most most people, my wife included, shopping tops the list of things to do here. When looking for authentic Canadian handicrafts, Market Crafts Inc. is where you will find them. This oldest handicraft shop stocks handmade gifts that are of good quality and mementos of your trip to London.

Of course we also have top brand name stores for those of you who are really serious about your retail therapy!

The Grand Theatre

London Ontario Canada has a number of theatres and you will therefore not have shortage of plays to enjoy. The Grand Theatre is one of the oldest in the city having been in existence since 1901. To date it has hosted a good number of productions and continues to uphold the tradition of supporting performing arts. Its regular season normally runs from September to May.

A visit to London Ontario Canada is bound to be full of fun and adventure. This sneak peek of what is on offer does not really do justice. So over the coming weeks and months, I’ll be exploring these and other attractions in more detail. Your suggestions of course are welcome. You can get hold of me via the contact form.

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London’s History of Boozing

By on May 16, 2013 in Culture, Entertainment, Food & Drink

Carling Yorkshire AleWe’ve had some articles for the kids, now here’s one that’s strictly for the grown-ups!

There are some great links between booze and London and while I wouldn’t want you to go away with the idea that we are all big drinkers here, we are nevertheless really proud of our heritage.

Think Dublin and you think Guinness. Think London Ontario and you immediately think of Carling and Labatt.

Thomas Carling, a farmer from Yorkshire, and his family settled in   London, Ontario in 1818. He brewed an ale for his own consumption which soon became so popular that he soon took up brewing full-time.

The first Carling brewery had two kettles, a horse to turn the grinding mill and six men to work on the mash tubs. In the London of those days, that was quite a big operation! Thomas Carling sold his beer on the streets of London, Ontario from a wheelbarrow. The business grew fast and Thomas’s sons were able to build a six-storey brewery in the town and were soon distributing the beer far and wide, including supplying the army. Since the death of John Carling in 1911 the business has changed hands several times, but it still has the family name.

Labatt came along a little later, in 1847. The company was founded by John Kinder Labatt and stayed in family hands much longer than Carling, not being sold until 1995. The Carling family avoided the problems caused by prohibition in Ontario by selling before the Act was instituted. Labatt managed to weather the storm by producing two beers which were called ‘temperance ales’ – in other words, alcohol free (in fact less than 2% alcohol) beers.

Prohibition caused many breweries to go into bankruptcy, so it is lucky for London that both of theirs survived.

The Labatt Brewery has a visitor centre where you can see how the beer is made – and have a taste as long as you are old enough. Don’t forget that the legal age for drinking in Ontario is nineteen – if you are lucky enough to look young, you might want to have some photo id with you.

Speaking personally, I haven’t had to show my id for a long time – but perhaps that’s just what having kids does to a man!

 

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So What Part of Town Should You Stay In?

By on May 13, 2013 in Accomodation

London Ontario HotelsAs cities go, London Ontario isn’t very big so wherever you stay you will be able to visit any areas of interest you like. Travel is good, with 38 well planned bus routes which link up really well. We like cycling and with cycleways alongside many of the main roads, getting about is pretty easy. Here in London we have lots of the top chain hotels and these are scattered across the city.

Although some  complain that these can be a bit soulless and lacking in. But not only do you know exactly what you will find when you open the door to your room, you also have the confidence that staff are well trained and that the rooms are properly maintained.

If you prefer bed and breakfasts London has  got some amazingly good ones,  starting, perhaps with the Inn-chanted Forest B&B right on the edge of Gibbons Park and a stone’s throw from the river. We’ve never stayed there (that would be a bit cranky, even for the Cross family) but friends have been over to stay and can’t say enough good things about it. If you would prefer something more central, then the Dufferin House is the one for you, just off Queen’s Avenue in Central London.

Just down the road from Dufferin House is the Woodfield B&B which comes highly recommended by my Uncle Tom, staying over when he was visiting my Mom and Dad last year. He’s a bit of a tricky guest as he likes to look for things to complain about but he couldn’t find a thing. He had to complain about my Dad’s painting of the garage doors instead but the Woodfield had him stumped!

I started this blog post intending to give the visitor suggestions as to where they should stay when they come to London Ontario but I immediately saw the problem there. There aren’t many places here where I wouldn’t like to stay, because the whole city is great – there are so many places to see and things to do all you need is a flat bed, some nice soft pillows.

You’ll be so tired out from all your sightseeing, you won’t notice where you are at all!

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Forget the Big Brand Names – These are the Best London Stores

By on May 8, 2013 in Retail Therapy

Richmond RowLondon has some great malls for when you’re in a hurry or when you have a special and specific purchase in mind. But here we also like our independent stores so when you’re in the mood for a bit of a wander or when you are just looking for that gift that is out of the ordinary run of things, we have just the place.

One of Wendy’s places to spend a quiet half an hour or so is the Mandala Bookshop on Central Avenue in the Richmond Row district. From the outside it looks like someone’s house and that is pretty much the ambience inside as well. They don’t just sell books but also have a range of incense, smudging bundles and a whole load of funky stuff that makes you feel good – I’ve been there a few times myself.

Just because I like sports doesn’t mean I don’t have a spiritual side (that comment is for my sister, Rachel, really, but I thought I would share it with you).

Last Christmas my present to Wendy was a client consultation at Fisher and Co. They help with closet de-cluttering and help plan a capsule wardrobe (which apparently is a really good thing) and basically make fewer clothes go a long way. Well, Wendy was very grateful and has not yet worked out that it was my clever way of getting back some closet space so my shirts don’t have to live their lives at the back of the sock drawer. If she reads this post, I’m sunk!

My dad and I put our heads together to buy something for Mom last birthday and we went to Kiss The Cook, a great kitchen shop which not only has the best range of kitchen stuff ever but also runs courses in various cuisines. To our surprise, she chose the pizza class and I have to say that popping over to Mom’s for supper has become the new family hobby ever since. She was good before but now – wow! If you are visiting London and need gifts to take back, check this shop out.

Richmond Row has a whole lot of shops that will keep you coming back time and again. As I said in the intro, big chain stores are fine in their place, but if like me you want to go somewhere that doesn’t look exactly like absolutely everywhere else you visit, then check out this area and find yourself something just that bit different.

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The Famous Tree Trunk Tour of London

By on April 30, 2013 in Culture, Nature

The Tree Trunk Tour- London OntarioLondoners have never forgotten that their city began as a clearing in the forest and in fact to many London Ontario is known as the Forest City. The Tree Trunk Tour is unique to London as far as we know and is a favourite of many – tourists or otherwise.

It all began with just five carvings, works of art created from the stumps of trees which would otherwise have had to be removed. From there, the other fifteen were added to make a walking tour like no other. Six artists are involved in creating the sculptures from the tree trunks and their styles are very different. Some of the finished sculptures are coloured – such as King of Pigs at 206 Hamilton Road, but others are left natural. They are all sealed against the weather though – we want our Tree Trunk Tour to last a good long while.

To be honest, the Cross family get a big buzz from walking our visitors through the Tree Trunk Tour and some of us (Raymond, I’m talking to you) get really grouchy when their favourite doesn’t get the biggest round of applause.

There’s something for everyone, from the thought provoking shepherd to the laugh out loud pig, but for me the thinking squirrel has it every time. A squirrel spends a lot of time on its own through the winter – it’s only natural it would be a big reader!

Most of the work of creating these sculptures is done with chainsaws, a method used by traditional Inuit artists today, but they mainly work in stone. The fine work is done with chisels and power rotary tools and when you go up close some of the detail is incredible. A sculpture takes about four weeks from start to finish and it has been a great treat to see them grow under the hands of an artist.

Although tree trunk carving is popular now throughout the world, there is nothing else quite like our Tree Trunk Tour. And don’t worry about getting lost – unless there is a big truck in the way, you can almost always see the next tree and if you can’t, there will always be a super-friendly Londoner to show you the way.

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Catching a Show and a Night on the Town

By on April 25, 2013 in Entertainment

The Grand TheatreAs a family, we love going out to a show or film – sometimes we grab a bite to eat afterwards or if we are in the mood to forget we are very sensible parents of two, Wendy and I like to go on to a club instead. London has some great theatres but we particularly like live music and we sometimes  go to the Centennial Hall on Wellington Street. They host a load of bands I hesitate to designate ‘tribute’ bands, because that sounds like people copying others – these guys have a lot of style and you can have a great evening knowing the music will be something you like.

Orchestra London also plays there regularly and this is certainly something not to miss. Whether you like classical music or show-tunes, opera or modern classics, the Orchestra London will be playing something you like soon. We love to take pot luck and have never been disappointed.

The Grand Theatre is a big favourite with us as well, with shows from comedy to dance. You can choose from the Mainstage and the McManus and there are local performers as well as travelling repertory companies so you will find something you like. We sometimes take the kids to one of their performances for young audiences – Wendy and I think that children need to experience live theatre as well as film.

Are you like us, getting increasingly fed up with chattering, snacking audiences in cinemas? We need to remember what it is like to sit quietly and watch for a change. We also love the Aeolian Hall – the events there are great and for folk fans there is always something worth watching.

When I manage to persuade Wendy that what she really needs is to watch a game at the John Labatt Centre at Budweiser Gardens, we like to start the evening (and end it as well, sometimes, if I need to drown my sorrows when my team has lost) at the Robinson Hall just across the street.

She has been known to convince me that a dance is a good idea, but for the safety of people within arms’ length, we try not to do that too often. There are embarrassing photos of me dancing, but, believe me, they won’t be appearing here anytime soon.

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A Nature Lover’s Guide to London

By on April 18, 2013 in Nature

Victoria Park - London, OntarioWhatever weather you like to go out in, we can promise you some if you visit London Ontario. With 2 metre snow falls on record (December 2010 was our last real biggie) and temperatures of 100°F recorded in summer, you can see that here you pays your money and takes your choice – winter for the snow and skiing, summer for temperatures you won’t find in many places. We get well over eight hours a day of sunshine on average in the summer and in winter we have snowfall on at least half the days of December through to February.

Because we have such a varied climate (officially it is known as a humid continental, mainly caused by the proximity of Lake Huron and the general elevation of London) our wildlife is spectacularly varied.

A great place to go out and get close to nature is Springbank Park which although it’s in the city covers an area of over 300 acres and has loads of walks and paths so you can wander all day long, bird watching and what have you.

Victoria Park is a lot smaller and a bit more tidied up than Springbank, but if you like your wildlife to be both tame and unusual, you should try and get out there. The population of squirrels there have an unusually high proportion of melanistic ones, in other words, they are black or at least a very dark grey. They are hard to spot at first but once you have your eye in you will see them all over. They make great photos to take home.

Sometimes at weekends in the long school holidays we take a break up at Lake Whittaker. This is a really wild area but there are campsites to enjoy and you can learn a lot as it is a conservation area, so dedicated to educating people on the wildlife and ecology around the lake.

The kids love it and so do we because although it is really busy in the summer months it is so big that you can still walk for miles and hardly see a soul.

One thing to remember when watching for wildlife around London Ontario – bring a camera! We’re officially in the Mixedwood Plains, so watch out for white-tailed deer and the spiny soft-shell turtle. And if you don’t like spiders and bugs, watch out – Ontario is home to over 20,000 different species

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Fun Venues for Eating out in London

By on April 9, 2013 in Entertainment, Food & Drink

Katana Kafe & RestaurantEating out in London has something for everyone and I hope this short piece will give you some ideas. Friends of ours with daughters keep telling me that Sarah is coming up to the age when all little girls turn vegetarian, at least for a while.

As we wait for that to happen, we make the most of our meat-eating nights out and so we always head for Schmokey Rob & Sons Southern Eatery where the barbecue is out of this world. The prices are real family friendly stuff too but take care – the place isn’t very big so you need to get there early. You’ll find it on Oxford Street West.

The kids love Katan Kafe near the airport – you can watch the cooks do their stuff as well as watch the planes, so with a son and a daughter I can truly say it ticks all the boxes. As far as the food goes, it’s terrific. The menu includes some old favourites from various world cuisines as well as some new takes you might like to try – and when Sarah hits the Veggie Stage, the risottos and breads will keep her happy!

When we have guests from outside Canada we love to take them to Windermere’s Cafe because they serve excellent trad Canadian food, which is harder to find than you’d imagine. Everyone who has ever visited Canada raves (quite rightly, he adds proudly!) about our breakfasts and the Windermere does one of the best breakfasts you’ll ever eat.

If you only have room for one thing when you are at Windermere’s Cafe, then have the home made donuts! You’ll never forget them.

Just once in a while, Wendy and I have a romantic night out, kids with the grandparents and no rush to get home. Then we head to either the Zen Gardens for Chinese or the Raja for a fabulous Indian meal.

Although we have brought the children up to be pretty adventurous eaters, they are not quite ready for a full-on meal at either of these places yet and the best thing is the food here encourages you to linger, picking the last lovely bits off the plates. Fabulous ambience and good prices at both places – find Zen on Dundas Street, the Raja on Clarence Street.

I’m really hungry now – I think I’ll round up Wendy and the kids and we’ll go out to eat tonight!

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Children are Welcome

By on March 30, 2013 in Entertainment, Kids

Children's MuseumSarah and Raymond are great kids and are often happy with a day out with a kite or their skates, but just occasionally we want to do something a bit more special and we’d love to share some of our favourite days out with you.

Somewhere we love to visit is the Fanshawe Pioneer Village but I have covered that in another post (An Historical View of  London) so I’ll talk about some of our other regulars here, see if you fancy any of them for your brood.

Sarah is a thoughtful kind of kid who likes to learn stuff (‘stuff’ being Sarah-speak for anything from newts to nuclear physics) so she is pretty easy to please as long as there is a quiz, a guidebook or loads of questions afterwards. Raymond is a bit more physical, never happier than when he is tossing a ball around, running, jumping and generally burning off energy. So the parks are a great stop off point for him.

All kids like to grow up fast, but our two still love the Storybook Garden in Springbank Park. Leave your years at the gate and enjoy train rides, the Ferris wheel and the climbing frames. From the minute you go through the castle entrance, you will find that it isn’t just the youngsters who can be kids again in Springbank Park!

There are also miles of paths for hiking or biking and – quite unusually – the paths reach other parks, so you can really eat up the miles without having to get involved with traffic.

We love London but we would be the first to admit that we get our share of rain and snow. Kids don’t stop needing amusement just because it’s wet out, so we are really glad to have the London Regional Children’s Museum here. It is one of the first Children’s Museums in Ontario, but it hasn’t let the grass grow under its feet and we find that for our two it can provide a whole day’s entertainment and then conversation at the dinner table for weeks afterwards. The great thing about this place is that it is always changing – the permanent features such as Dinosaurs and Science in Your World are old friends, but there are always ‘guest’ exhibits to make each visit exciting.

Every parent or grandparent knows that children need fuel for all that running about – look out for a post on the ‘fun venues for eating out in London’ for some places where they will love to eat; and where you will too!

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An Historical View of London

By on March 24, 2013 in Culture

To be frank with you, history wasn’t one of my favourite subject in school, but let’s give it a go!

Fanshawe Pioneer VillageWhether you like modern history or archaeology you won’t know where to start when you visit London, Ontario. The first settlement here was going to be called Georgina, after George III and was intended as the state capital. The Governor, Guy Carleton, thought that a capital stuck in the middle of a forest probably didn’t make too much sense and so Toronto (called York at the time) was chosen instead and the village of London was developed as an administrative centre instead.

Visitors familiar with London, England, have a lot of fun comparing the names and areas of the two places – we have a Westminster as well as a Blackfriars Street Bridge which spans the river Thames. Some of our oldest buildings are to be found in West London and the London Armoury building has been preserved as a hotel.

London was built on the site of some villages of the Neutral Nation (also sometimes called Iroquois or Attawandaron peoples) and Ojibwa and there are some excavations going on to examine these pre-first contact communities further. The Museum of Ontario Archaeology has large exhibits which show the progress of the dig and is a must-see for any history student – don’t worry if you’ve been before, the museum is constantly updating as more things are found.

If you like your history live and jumping about then the Fanshawe Pioneer Village is the place for you. Wendy and I often take the kids out to Fanshawe for their historical re-enactments. No matter how old you are or how much of a history buff you might be, there’s nothing quite like seeing it happen before your very eyes. What we really like about this place is that it covers a whole century – 1820-1920 – so you can see how things developed.

We love visiting museums and they are always on our list of things to do wherever we go, but it has to be said that eight year old boys don’t always get much out of things in glass cases – if you have kids in your party, you can guarantee they’ll love Fanshawe (and perhaps they will be a bit more patient when you do the glass cases on your next day out!).

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The Sports Fan’s Guide to London

By on March 7, 2013 in Entertainment, Sports

The Budweiser GardensIt is no secret that I love sport. I don’t even mind what sport it is, actually – I don’t always understand the rules of some of them (like darts and to a lesser extent Rugby) but if it’s on, I’ll watch it! For a sport nut like me, London is a great place to live and as Raymond gets older and comes to more and more games with me, life just keeps on getting better! Wendy and Sarah like the hockey and if you go to a game when you’re here, just follow the loudest screaming and you will find my wife and daughter.

The Budweiser Gardens is the home of the London Knights, who play in the Ontario Hockey League. They have been Memorial Cup and OHL Champions and you are guaranteed a good evening’s entertainment with them on the ice (and I am not including the Cross girls’ screaming when I say that – that’s just an extra).

Baseball fans (everyone, surely!) should head for Labatt Park. Soccer fans need the Cove Road Stadium. Incidentally, the club is the oldest soccer franchise in North America – only forty years old, but that’s a long time as far as our soccer history goes! We’ve got a great basketball team in the London Lightnings, so even if you are not a basketball fan, you really should try to catch a game while you’re here.

We’ve got loads of football teams, playing at different grounds, so you need never be far from a game in the season. We’ve got the London Silverbacks (North American Football League), the London Beefeaters (Ontario Football Conference), Forest City Thunderbirds (Ontario Football Conference) and the London Falcons (Ontario Varsity Football League). As a visitor you can go and cheer on any one of those to make yourself feel right at home.

If you don’t like ball games so much (I guess there are some people who don’t like ball games …) then there is always the track, Western Fair Raceway, which is open all year round with simulcast and a slots casino. We’ve even got an indoor cycle racing track at the Forest City Velodrome.

So, you see what I mean – for a sports fan, London is a great place to be

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