Last spring, our friend Dubbs got a notification on her phone that there was a Cleveland-to-Amsterdam flight available for $550 (via Toronto). With the chance to eliminate the five-hour drive back home from Toronto while jet-lagged, we jumped at the chance. The only downside is that the flight left on a Friday, which is a school day. Still, it left in the afternoon, so Meredith and Dubbs thought they would only miss a class or two, and could get a sub to cover for those periods.

Little did we know – airlines have the right to make radical changes to the schedule of flights without notice or compensation if you book more than a few months out. Lufthansa did just that, changing our Cleveland-to-Toronto flight time to leaving at 6:20 am. Not only did that mean we would miss the whole day of school, not only did it mean we would have to get up at 2:30 am to get ready and get to the airport, but it gave us about a twelve-hour layover in the Toronto airport.

We decided to make the best of things, and when we got to Toronto, we found a baggage-storage place, ditched our backpacks, and took the train into downtown. Our main goal was the Art Gallery of Ontario (an art museum), but it did not open until 10:30, and we got to Union Station at 9:00. So off we trekked into the spitting snow/rain mix, off to St. Lawrence Market.

St. Lawrence Market turned out to be what I had hoped it would be – a giant indoor market where vendors sold meat and fruits and such. That is not much use to the traveler with no refrigeration, but it was interesting to wander around, and, as I expected, it also had some eateries. So we had a leisurely breakfast, and then walked it off on the thirty-minute walk to the art museum.

The museum was a bit of a surprise to me – it kind of springs up on you in the middle of a business and housing area of mostly tall buildings. It was also oddly busy for a random Friday morning, but that may have been school trips.

We spent about three hours at the museum, wandering from gallery to gallery. We lingered a bit more where there was an exhibit of personal photo albums from World War I, since Meredith teaches All Quiet on the Western Front (a novel about the war). That was interesting and sobering, and pictures of soldiers from India and of troops in Egypt were reminders that it was a world-wide war.

We explored the European art section, which started around 1200 and was laid out roughly in chronological order. As always, I liked the religious art and the examples of sculpture, especially since the museum had several Rodin works.

Mer and I had seen that the museum was offering a volunteer-led hour-long tour at 1:00, so we left to take the tour while Dubbs did her museum thing. There were only five of us on the tour, so it was very personable, and the woman took us on a quick overview of the building; it was equally about art and the building’s architecture. The building underwent an expansion in 2008, and they did a great job, adding wings made of glass, stone, and wood. In one painting by Tintoretto called “Christ Washing His Disciples’ Feet”, our guide said no one knew who Judas was in the painting. I pointed out it was probably the only disciple who had his back to Jesus, and he also had a money bag on his belt (Judas kept the money bag for the disciples, as well as taking money to betray Jesus). It seemed pretty obvious to me….even if Wikipedia identifies Judas as the man by himself in the left-hand side. Clearly wrong.

We met up with Dubbs at 2:00, and she summed an Uber ride to get us back to Union Station, which saved us thirty minutes of walking. That was a good call. The train ride back to the airport was smooth, and security was easy, so we had time for an early supper before settling in near our gate with about three hours to wait.

So, usually “Day 0” of our trips is just about getting to Europe, but today was a pretty fun day in Toronto.