Roadtrip to London (Ontario, not England)

Downtown London, ON

Well, I wish I was writing about taking a drive out to the UK, but no. We only took a 2 hour drive from Toronto to explore London, Ontario. This small city was indeed quite small and our overnight trip was more than sufficient time to see the city. It was also complete with all the big box stores and a huge hospital complex. Its downtown streets were named like Toronto’s downtown but less vibrant.

We skipped the Fanshawe Pioneer Village and other museums (including Children’s museum) but we managed to check out a few attractions:

1. Western Fair Farmer’s Market:  We scheduled to go on a Saturday so we can go to the Farmer’s Market (open only on Saturdays). It was smaller than the St Jacob’s Farmer’s Market in Kitchener but had the same feel to it. We just got some soup and sandwiches from a couple of stalls for lunch before we went on our dessert-buying frenzy. The 2^nd floor had a big spread of arts and crafts—it was like being in those “One of a Kind” shows.

Farmer's Market @ London,ON

Confederation Bldg @ London, ON

 2. Covent Garden Market: now this one was almost as nice as St Lawrence Market in downtown TO but was much smaller and with hardly any fresh meat or produce (or at least I did not see much). There was underground free parking (with validation and maximum stay) and the feel was more upscale. There were more dining spots here and the 2^nd floor had a lot of seating areas.

Covent Garden @ London, ON

Covent Garden @ London, ON

3. Storybook Gardens: as we waited for this amusement park to open, we strolled along the adjacent Springbank Park. The park is located along the stretch of the Thames River and is the largest park in London, ON. The park was definitely lovely. Post on Storybook Gardens to soon :)

Storybook Gardens @ London, ON

If you get an early start and a late end, a day trip would suffice for London. We were a bit underwhelmed as we were expecting more of a quaint town not a small city. Nevertheless, there were some decent places to visit.