Weekend Escape at Kingston
Ernesto Hontoria
(Versión en español)
To celebrate a new wedding anniversary my wife and I escaped a weekend to Kingston. We stayed at the edge of Lake Ontario in the 'Confederation PlaceHotel' which, to be honest, did not completely cover my expectations. It's a decent hotel, it's clean, the staff is kind and attentive, but for the price I paid I was expecting something more. Not that the hotel is bad, but I have enjoyed more on lower-priced hotels we've stayed in other Ontario cities.
A few
days before our escape, while talking about weekend plans with some friends at
office, one of them asked me seriously puzzled ‘what are you going to do in
Kingston?’ I told her that since my plan was to celebrate an anniversary’s
honeymoon, I preferred to don’t disclose any detail of my plans once there. Of
course, I understood that she did not want to know the intimate details of our
trip, but why I have chosen Kingston as a tourist destination. Especially after
I had told her that getting there would takes us almost four hours on a Friday
afternoon. I cannot deny that I enjoyed seeing my blushing friend trying to
reformulate her question.
The truth is that little is said about Kingston in my social circles, except for the thousand islands, which we had no plans to visit, and her question did not take me by surprise. My main reason for choosing Kingston was that my wife had been asking to go there for quite few months to know Queen’s University campus. Since our oldest son started the process of chosen what university he wants to go, my wife had been heard wonders about the beauty of 'Queens' campus which is located at Kingston’s downtown. But since the city was pretty far from our home at west of Toronto, I had been avoiding the trip.
So, a whole weekend escape, presented itself as the perfect excuse to go there, especially because the city also has historical attractions that well worth the trip. Afterall Kingston was the first capital of Canada. While searching internet for a good, nice and cheap place to stay, I discovered that one of the attractions of the city is a penitentiary that served as a model for many years in Canada.
In any case our intention was to spend a weekend alone, without kids, worries free, and Kingston seemed to qualify well for it. We arrived on a Friday night directly to the hotel. On Saturday we walked unhurriedly, by the edge of the lake following the street Ontario and King street west to the penitentiary and we returned through Union street crossing a good chunk of the city. On our way back we visited Bellevue house, an Italian-style house where Sir John MacDonald, the first prime minister Canada had, lived for a few months. I estimated that we had been walked around 5 hours, about half along the lake. We stopped for few minutes on a beach, full of young people, called by them 'The Pier'. The Pier reminded us our trip to Tenerife island in Spain, where we found similar places where municipalities use concrete and bring remote sand, to design and built spaces for the enjoyment of people. Like there, people used the dock to jump into the water. Unlike, here the water is colder and less salty.
In the afternoon, on our way back, we toured the campus of Queen’s University, which was as beautiful as people had described it. We had lunch around 5pm in a restaurant, which was not good, but the beer was cold, and then we sat in the empty market square to listen a semi-private concert, of a 13 years old girl called Tiana.
On
Sunday, keeping with the habit of getting up early, we went for a run at eight
o'clock along the shore of Lake Ontario. After jogging almost an hour we
returned to the hotel to take a shower, pack up our stuff and have breakfast.
We spent the rest of the morning walking aimlessly through Kingston, snooping
here and there in a glass factory, not as sophisticated as my memories of ‘Arte Murano’ in Venezuela are, Martello Alley,
until finally we stopped for lunch at Score Pizza.
The final verdict is that it is worth traveling the city. There are a good number of well-preserved historical sites, some of which are in private hands and in full use of their faculties. Very old houses still inhabited and in good condition. Additionally, Kingston has a BeaverTails store hard to find in Canada.
(Versión en español)
To celebrate a new wedding anniversary my wife and I escaped a weekend to Kingston. We stayed at the edge of Lake Ontario in the 'Confederation PlaceHotel' which, to be honest, did not completely cover my expectations. It's a decent hotel, it's clean, the staff is kind and attentive, but for the price I paid I was expecting something more. Not that the hotel is bad, but I have enjoyed more on lower-priced hotels we've stayed in other Ontario cities.
 |
| Confederation Park |
The truth is that little is said about Kingston in my social circles, except for the thousand islands, which we had no plans to visit, and her question did not take me by surprise. My main reason for choosing Kingston was that my wife had been asking to go there for quite few months to know Queen’s University campus. Since our oldest son started the process of chosen what university he wants to go, my wife had been heard wonders about the beauty of 'Queens' campus which is located at Kingston’s downtown. But since the city was pretty far from our home at west of Toronto, I had been avoiding the trip.
 |
| Queen's University Building |
So, a whole weekend escape, presented itself as the perfect excuse to go there, especially because the city also has historical attractions that well worth the trip. Afterall Kingston was the first capital of Canada. While searching internet for a good, nice and cheap place to stay, I discovered that one of the attractions of the city is a penitentiary that served as a model for many years in Canada.
In any case our intention was to spend a weekend alone, without kids, worries free, and Kingston seemed to qualify well for it. We arrived on a Friday night directly to the hotel. On Saturday we walked unhurriedly, by the edge of the lake following the street Ontario and King street west to the penitentiary and we returned through Union street crossing a good chunk of the city. On our way back we visited Bellevue house, an Italian-style house where Sir John MacDonald, the first prime minister Canada had, lived for a few months. I estimated that we had been walked around 5 hours, about half along the lake. We stopped for few minutes on a beach, full of young people, called by them 'The Pier'. The Pier reminded us our trip to Tenerife island in Spain, where we found similar places where municipalities use concrete and bring remote sand, to design and built spaces for the enjoyment of people. Like there, people used the dock to jump into the water. Unlike, here the water is colder and less salty.
In the afternoon, on our way back, we toured the campus of Queen’s University, which was as beautiful as people had described it. We had lunch around 5pm in a restaurant, which was not good, but the beer was cold, and then we sat in the empty market square to listen a semi-private concert, of a 13 years old girl called Tiana.
 |
| Tiana |
The final verdict is that it is worth traveling the city. There are a good number of well-preserved historical sites, some of which are in private hands and in full use of their faculties. Very old houses still inhabited and in good condition. Additionally, Kingston has a BeaverTails store hard to find in Canada.
 |
| St. Mary's Cathedral |
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