The Terrain

You can get around the Islands mostly on paved paths and roads. Along the south side, there’s a boardwalk. Now I’m making it sounds like a concrete (paved?) jungle over there — I assure you it is not!

Pointers

Centre Island is the most ‘commercialized’. There’s a kids amusement park, food stands, wide paved paths, etc. Ward’s Island is where you’ll find the houses (yes, people live on the Island), but you can bike through the ‘neighbourhood’ no problem. Hanlan’s Point, known for the clothing-optional beach, also has the airport (Porter Airlines, etc). On the south side of the Islands you’ll find a boardwalk that’s right up against the water, and a pier lookout. You’ll find some beaches along there, as well. Biking from there towards Hanlon’s Point, you’ll pass a light house.

I didn’t even see close to all the nooks and crannies, so there’s more than I’m writing about here. In fact, there’s a PDF map you can check out before you head out!

How to Get There

You can take your bike on the ferry, no problem. The ferries go to three places: Centre Island, Hanlan’s Point and Ward’s Island, with Centre Island being the most popular and hence has a much larger ferry with lots of seating (The Ward’s Island ferry not so much — You’re basically standing). Since each are easily accessibly by bike from the others, any choice will do. As mentioned, the Centre Island ferry is the largest ferry, and has seating on two levels.

Catch the ferry at the foot of Bay Street (Bay & Queen’s Quay West - by the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel). The fare, at the time of this post, is $6.50 — which gets you back to the ‘mainland’ as well. They’ll take your ticket when going to the Islands, and thus not on the way back.

You can buy your ticket from one of two automated machines (that take coins and credit cards — I only saw two: there could be more) or from a booth manned by staff. A word of caution on that point: On busy days the line ups for the booths can be horrendous (especially just before the summer season if the weather is nice). As for the machines, I couldn’t seem to get them to work (I wasn’t the only one), and there didn’t seem to be any instructions on how to use them properly. Thus, going at a somewhat off peak time may be your best bet.

Get a Partner or Group to Join You!

Need someone (or a group) to bike with? Ask other Toronto cyclists and mountain bikers to join you! Or post your upcoming bike ride details and have others respond to join!

Below are some of ‘impressive’ football dives, as found on YouTube. We only included ones you could actually see. YouTube football dive uploads are notorious for being of such poor picture quality. These are some of the decent quality ones. One could say the dives are ‘quality’ as well. You decide.

World Cup 2010 Dives

» Ivory Coast’s Kader Keita dive gets Kaka a red card

» Italy’s Daniele De Rossi dive versus Paraguay

» Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo’s dive when barely touched - against Ivory Coast

» John Terry of England - An actual honourable dive (not acting!) trying to save a goal

Football Dives Pre World Cup 2010

» Olexandr Aliyev faking injury

» Rivaldo faking face injury

» Emerson ‘Piojo’ Acuña diving

» Kyle Lafferty diving after barely a shove

» Alberto Gilardino diving

» Fernando Torres diving

» Adriano diving in front of the goalkeeper

» Player Unknown diving after barely being touched

If you know of any others, feel free to comment below. Thanks!

Before the country drawing is made, countries are placed into ‘pots’. The host nation and the top 7 teams (this year based on 2009 FIFA rankings) make up Pot 1. Thus for World Cup 2010 this pot consists of South Africa, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, and England. The final 3 pots (Pot 2, Pot 3, Pot 4) are organized by geography. Thus…

Pot 1: Top 7 Seeds + Host Country
Pot 2: Teams from Asia, North America and Oceania
Pot 3: Teams from Africa and South America
Pot 4: Teams from Europe

The order the countries are picked, is the order they are placed into groups (A to H). There are a few exceptions, however. For World Cup 2010, they wanted to maintain some geographic diversity, and thus Brazil and Argentina were kept apart from any other South American teams. Ditto for Africa: South Africa was kept apart from other African teams. On top of that, there were a couple other minor tweaks. You can replay the drawing on FIFA’s website.

Hope that helps! I asked many a soccer fan lately and no one seemed to have an answer.

Caps means how many international soccer matches a player has played for their country.

Back in the day soccer players would actually get a cap for every game they played internationally, however this is no longer the practice. They name ‘cap’ however has stuck.

Betty’s on King East (240 King Street East, just east of Sherbourne). Betty’s has a great selection of draft beer, a nice patio out back and half decent grub. You can’t go wrong with your favourite pint and a pizza at Betty’s.

Hemingway’s in Yorkville (142 Cumberland Street, just east of Avenue Road). Hemingway’s has many rooms to choose from, with a small patios out front and a larger one out back.

For World Cup 2010, there are two (really) early games for the Dutch in the first round. Thus, with the 7:30am start times, some from the group Dutch Treat are gathering in Liberty Village. I’m not sure if this is only for those who are part of the group or not, but you can find out more details from Dutch Treat.

Where else are Dutch supporters gathering? Please let us know by commenting below. One more thing: Hup Holland.