2013/12/18: Suburbs in Snow

When I left my apartment on Monday morning, it was -15°C. When I came back in the evening, it was -11°C. In between, it was cold. Today it was a bit warmer, but still cold. These were my last days to explore Toronto’s northern exurbs.

In Richmond Hill…



…they are building a Bus Rapid Transit System…



…that is used by the VIVA Express buses.



The extension of the Bus Rapid Way to Markham…



…is currently under construction.



Also “Downtown Markham” is currently under construction. Once a small suburb of Toronto, Markham is today a city of more than 300,000 inhabitants (most of them having an Asian background), so Markham is now in need of a city center.



Going with another VIVA Express bus line to the North, you reach Aurora.



Although it is in the middle of the so called “Greenbelt”, also in Aurora you find a lot of boring suburban settlements, …



…and there is more to come.



But Aurora is more famous for hosting the headquarters of Magna, Canada's largest automobile parts manufacture. According to my favourite Toronto book, "the headquarters building in Aurora is designed to look like a French chateau that with trucks coming and going could well be a set for a James Bond movie."



Bikes as well as cars are stuck in snow:



North of Vaughan, I walked along the “Stadtkante”, the border between built area and agricultural land reserve.



In Vaughan, which also hosts a lot of suburban settlements, …



…I also visited the “Peace Village”. The streets in this settlement around the Baitul Islam Mosque are named for famous members of the Ahmadiyya movement; the houses provide separate living rooms for men and women.



On the way home, I passed Canada’s Wonderland.



The pace of development makes that all the (former) suburbs around Toronto seem to be a kind of Wonderland. But a rollercoster is much more exciting…