Toronto（多倫多） → Niagara Falls（尼加拉瀑布） → Rainbow Bridge（彩虹橋） → Buffalo（水牛城） → Cleveland（克里夫蘭） → Lake Erie（伊利湖） → Detroit（底特律） → Ambassador Bridge（大使橋） → Windsor（溫莎） → London, Ontario（安大略省倫敦市） → Toronto → Lake Ontario（安大略湖） → Kingston（金斯頓） → Saint Lawrence River（聖羅倫斯河） → Thousand Islands（千島群島） → Brockville（布羅克維爾） → Ottawa（渥太華） → Montreal（蒙特婁） → Quebec City（魁北克市） → Toronto
Amish couple（艾美許人）： a group of traditionalist Christian church：horse-driven buggy，
Forty Days in Eastern Canada
Travel, Duty, and the Freedom Between
For forty days, I stayed in Eastern Canada（加拿大東部）, carrying two roles at once: I was there to supervise a study tour（遊學團） arranged by a travel company for students from Yanping High School（延平中學）, yet I was also a traveller eager to discover the vast country beyond the classroom.
Two escort teachers accompanied the students and attended to their daily activities. This arrangement gave me occasional free days of my own. Whenever such a day appeared, my Canadian teacher friend Kirven and I would set out—sometimes by train（火車）, sometimes in a rented car（租車）—following highways, rivers and lakes wherever curiosity led us.
Our principal journey began in Toronto（多倫多）, a lively and multicultural city on the shore of Lake Ontario（安大略湖）. From there, we travelled south to Niagara Falls（尼加拉瀑布）, where the immense curtain of water descended with a roar that seemed to shake both earth and sky. Mist rose from the gorge, sunlight entered it, and suddenly a rainbow appeared—as though nature had built a bridge of its own.
We crossed the Rainbow Bridge（彩虹橋）, which links Niagara Falls in Ontario with Niagara Falls in New York, and entered the United States. From there we continued toward Buffalo（水牛城）, then followed the southern shore of Lake Erie（伊利湖） westward to Cleveland（克里夫蘭） and onward to Detroit（底特律）.
At Detroit, we crossed back into Canada—most likely by the Ambassador Bridge（大使橋）, which connects Detroit with Windsor（溫莎）—and continued through London, Ontario（安大略省倫敦市） before returning to Toronto. The Peace Bridge（和平橋）, by contrast, connects Buffalo with Fort Erie（伊利堡）, not Detroit. The two international bridges belong to different parts of the route.
Another journey carried us eastward from Toronto along the northern shore of Lake Ontario. The landscape became quieter as the city gradually gave way to green fields, small towns and open water. We arrived at Kingston（金斯頓）, the historic city where Lake Ontario flows into the Saint Lawrence River（聖羅倫斯河）.
There we boarded a boat to explore the celebrated Thousand Islands（千島群島）. The vessel threaded its way among wooded islands scattered across the river—some barely large enough for a single cottage, others crowned with elegant houses and private docks. Water, sky and forest seemed to merge into one tranquil world. The Thousand Islands begin around Kingston and extend along the Saint Lawrence River, making the city a natural starting point for such cruises. Kingston 1000 Islands Cruises
From Kingston, we continued to Brockville（布羅克維爾）, another graceful riverside town overlooking the Saint Lawrence. After approximately an hour by bus, we reached Ottawa（渥太華）, the Canadian capital. Its Parliament buildings rose above the river with a dignity inherited from another age, while the city itself felt spacious, orderly and calm.
A train journey of about two hours then brought us to Montreal（蒙特婁）. Here Canada seemed to change its voice. French filled the streets, cafés occupied the pavements, and the stone buildings of Old Montreal（蒙特婁舊城） carried memories of Europe across the Atlantic. The city possessed both the energy of North America and the elegance of the French-speaking world.
From Montreal, we drove for about three and a half hours to Quebec City（魁北克市）. Behind its old walls stood steep streets, stone houses and church spires overlooking the Saint Lawrence River. Walking through Old Quebec（魁北克古城）, I sometimes felt that I had crossed not merely from one Canadian province into another, but from modern North America into an older corner of France.
At last, we returned to Toronto, completing a great circle through Ontario（安大略省） and Quebec（魁北克省）.
Those forty days were neither entirely work nor entirely holiday. I remained responsible for the Yanping students and their study tour, yet the presence of the two escort teachers gave me precious intervals of freedom. Kirven and I used those intervals well—boarding trains, renting cars, crossing borders and following the waterways of Eastern Canada.
Looking back, I remember not only the magnificent destinations, but also the pleasure of setting out without haste: the roar of Niagara, the immense blue of Lake Ontario, the green islands of the Saint Lawrence, Ottawa’s quiet dignity, Montreal’s French rhythm and Quebec City’s old-world romance.
It was a journey lived between responsibility and freedom（責任與自由）—supervising the young while rediscovering something youthful in myself.
U.S. citizens returning to the U.S. from Canada by land or sea are required to present proper travel documents according to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.
