Spotlight: Travel
Rolling through history on a Segway tour in Toronto
One-Tank Trip / Toronto
TORONTO—“Trust the machine,” Michael the tour guide enthuses. The machine is a Segway, an upright electric scooter dubbed, “the transportation of the future.”
Lean forward and you zoom ahead, lean back to stop and back even further to reverse. The machine and your body feel one and the same in this balancing act. The ride is an adventure in itself, but it’s even more fun when you are scooting around the Distillery District, a 13-acre pedestrian village and a National Historic Site in downtown Toronto, on a tour offered by Segway of Ontario.
A brief training session at the start has us navigating around obstacles. It’s not quite as easy as it looks. A few pylons are knocked down, but it doesn’t take long before our group gets accustomed to the apparatus and we’re wheeling through this beautifully preserved Victorian factory complex.
We zip along the cobblestone enjoying the thrill of the bumpy ride. At certain landmarks, we slow our machines to a stop and our guide explains a bit about area’s history. Then we’re off again heading toward the next point of interest. The history of the district proves to be colorful and spirited.
In 1832, James Wort and his brother-in-law, William Gooderham, built the first mill on this site. Two years later tragedy struck, when Wort, distraught by his wife’s death during childbirth, threw himself down a company well.
Whether his ghost still roams the site is a matter of debate, but spirits of a different kind were to monopolize the district for the next 156 years. Gooderham, along with James’ orphaned children and other family members, began to distill liquor in 1837. The company became the largest producer of whiskey in the British Empire.
Gooderham constructed his buildings to be as impressive as the business. We look up from our Segways at the gristmill, the site’s oldest building and the CN Tower of the 1850s. Five hundred men took two years to complete the five-story structure and four schooners were used to bring in the white limestone from Kingston, 150 miles away. The building still stands tall and strong today a century and a half later.
Just be sure to look where you are going as well as at the buildings while you are on the Segway.
Have there been any accidents?
Michael assures us that they are very rare, “but there was the person who ran into the pole.”
All of us safely whiz along the cobblestone laneways, appreciating the Victorian architecture that was spared demolition only because the site continued to be operational until 1990.We ride over the spot where Al Capone was supposedly spotted and then to the old bottling plant.
After 153 years of production, operations ceased, leaving the location vacant. It didn’t take long before Hollywood producers stepped in, and for the next 10 years, the Distillery District was the second largest movie site outside of Hollywood and the No. 1 site in Canada. Well-known movies made here include “Chicago,” “Cinderella Man,” “The Recruit” and “X-Men.”
Today, the district houses galleries, cafes, restaurants, boutiques, artisan workshops and theaters as part of the new owners’ vision of a village dedicated to arts, entertainment and culture.
Walk this way
The only downside to the Segway tour is that you can’t go inside the buildings. One solution is to combine the half-hour Segway spin (a shorter version of the tour) with a walking tour so you won’t accidentally miss places like SOMA, a mini chocolate factory where the aroma of chocolate greets you as you walk in the door. Through glass walls, you can watch chocolate being made as you sample and browse. Enjoy decadent treats like biciren (bee-chair-in), a glass of melted dark chocolate, espresso, steamed milk and whipped cream.
The Mill Street Brewery is another popular stop on the walking tour. In this award-winning craft brewery you can sample such potables as Coffee Porter made with coffee beans, Organic Lager and Wit Beer, distilled from wheat and flavored with coriander and orange peel among others. It seems right that the distillery tradition continues in the reincarnated site.
If you’re hungry after all that touring, there are lots of places to choose from. Fine dining options include Pure Spirits Oyster House and Grill, The Boiler House and Archeo. Balzac’s Coffee is a more casual option for lighter fare. The building was originally the Pump House and still contains the large steam pump that was used for fighting fires. The cafe has one of the best cups of coffee in the city and is a perfect place to people watch.
You can almost feel the history in these buildings. It is entirely possible that some of the descendants of the Irish immigrants who first worked in the distillery are among the trendy crowds that frequent the district now. The past and the present meet here at Toronto’s Distillery District, where you can use the transportation of the future, the Segway, to discover Toronto’s past.
If you go
Segway of Ontario, 37 Mill St., Toronto; (416) 642-0008; www.segwayofontario.com. Reservations are required.
The Distillery Segway Tour is offered at noon, 2 p. m. and 4 p. m. daily except Mondays. Call ahead for additional booking times. The 90-minute tour costs $69 per person, plus tax.
The Distillery Segway Spin is offered at 11 a. m., noon, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 p. m. daily, except Mondays. The 30-minute tour is $39 per person, plus tax.
Walking tours are at 11:30 a. m. and 3:30 p. m. daily, except Mondays. The 60-minute tour is $19 per person, plus tax.
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