Difference between revisions of "Kitchener"
Revision as of 01:12, 30 April 2006
Kitchener and Waterloo were pioneered by Mennonites from Pennsylvania, Cambridge by British, principally Scots, in the early 19th century. Once named Berlin, Kitchener was re-named in 1916 after British military hero Lord Kitchener. Since the 1950's when Waterloo attained city status, Kitchener and Waterloo have been known as the 'Twin Cities', or K-W. Cambridge is a 1970s merger of the older City of Galt with the neighbouring Towns of Preston and Hespeler. Now, more and more, Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge are becoming hypenated as the 'Tri Cities'.
Multi-cultural, Kitchener and Waterloo, in 'North Waterloo' still exhibit a strong German heritage, celebrated most notably in their 8-day Oktoberfest, the largest outside of Munich. Cambridge, in 'South Waterloo', has a sizeable Portuguese population, from the Azores, and a large constituency of Newfoundlanders, relocated from Belle Isle, Newfoundland, in the 1960s.
Kitchener-Waterloo Cambridge are 'on the 401' one hour west of Toronto, one hour east of London, three hours east of Windsor-Detroit.
They are served by
NorthWest Airlines with three-a-day flights to and from Detroit. Otherwise by air, principal airport is Toronto's Pearson International, with Airways Transit providing local ground service to and from Pearson.
ViaRail to/from Toronto, Guelph, London, and Sarnia;
Greyhound by bus to/from Guelph and Toronto;
Coach Canada by bus to/from Hamilton;
Grand River Transit, the intercity iXpress and local bus service in Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge
mostly get around by car
Historically, in Kitchener,
Woodside National Park the boyhood home of William Lyon MacKenzie King, Canada's longest serving prime minister, Spring Valley Drive, off Wellington Street North
the Joseph Schneider Home, built by pioneer founder Joseph Schneider, restored as a Mennonite farm home of the early 1800s, Queen St South
Doon Heritage Village, a collection of homes and buildings removed from elsewhere in Waterloo Region, restored and reconstructed as a 1914 era village