The day has come: flying to Toronto! The conference will start on Monday, but I planned to arrive on Friday. I’d like to have a few days more in Canada, and especially I would like to make the tour to the Niagara Falls with our TeX group on Saturday. I had a very good flight. I could enjoy a business class flight, thanks to working at an airline (join us – we use TeX too! I will talk about that later.). Passengers are first priority, just when there are free seats I can fly that class, intercontinental. While people around me were sleeping, I was working on the slides for my talk on Monday.
I took a taxi from the airport to the Bond Place hotel, that’s the venue of the conference. Nice hotel as I can see now, it seems to be a very good spot in town. Maybe more to tell later, when we may have explored the surroundings.
We had breakfast next to the conference rooms. That was the first opportunity for me to speak with the TeX friends, such as the conference organizer Pavneet and CVR. At 10 we started with our first excursion: a tour to the Niagara Falls. We were 17 people in a medium size bus. Our first stop was at Chateau des Charmes. We got a tour through that estate vineyard, including its cellar, an had a tasty tasting. A nice lunch was also included, a buffet with various sandwiches and desserts.
We continued with the tour along the Niagara Parkway, with some scenic stops at the river. Around 2pm or so, we arrived at the Niagara Falls. We made a boat ride into the heart of Niagara Falls, with Hornblower Cruises. That way we came close to the falls, where it’s windy and noisy and wet. Each one got a poncho for protection. Though I guess some smartphones tend to die during such tours, seeing people making photos. Just 20 minutes but very impressive. Rainbows were following the boat, and you are finally surrounded by the high falls.
After that tour, we spent the rest of the day walking around the falls, eating, and in my case also visiting the local hardrock cafe. One can see rainbows a the falls all the time. And so many people, it was totally crowded, even in that wide area. I never saw so many selfie sticks. Funny to see even a totally hooded woman making selfies. It’s a recommendable experience though, no matter that it’s a crazy amusement park around it.
It was already 10pm when we started the tour back. Now that we went faster and tired people tried to sleep, we felt that the bus was really bumpy. At midnight we arrived at the Bond Place hotel. I walked to a 24 hours shop nearby to buy some water, and I decided to stay a bit at the Imperial Pub right opposite to the hotel. Besides friendly staff, it has very fast WiFi. So, I stay as long as it is open, also to write this up.
Not much about TeX now, but we of cause had chats about various TeX things, plans, but mostly personal talk since people know each other for a long time.