We
both slept really well in a big comfortable double bed with a duvet
that is made for curling up and hibernating under. Going down for
breakfast we were welcomed by Harry and Pippy at the bottom of the
stairs and then by Joanne. Lovely smells had been wafting up stairs
getting our taste buds going. Pippy was ready to greet us at the
bottom of the stairs with a wag of he tail and playful scampering
around.
As
with the B&B’s we had stayed at in the Cantons de l’Est, breakfast
was not a meal but a work of art and a real experience. It was
simple fare but beautifully presented. Joanne chatted with us while
we ate and talked about what there was to see and do in Toronto. We
had no real ideas of what we fancied doing other than going up the
CN Tower so it helped to shape our plans.
We
headed off to explore town. Joanne’s house is a few minutes walk
from Chester station on the subway and from here it was just a few
stops into the main downtown area. Although they have one week
passes on the subway they only run from Monday to Sunday and you
have to buy them in advance so we could not buy a ticket for the
remainder of this week. Instead we bought ten tokens which gives you
a discount of 25% compared to paying for each trip on its own.
Our
first stop was the Air Canada centre. I asked Stef what he wanted to
see here and he said “nothing, I thought you wanted to come here” –
a bit of a mix up!! They had panels on the walls explaining the
development of the centre from its original use as Toronto’s Post
Office up until today where it is a conference centre but mainly
home to the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. They had a game which
was fully booked and we are not in Toronto for the next game where
there are tickets so we left empty handed.
We
went in search of Tourist Information down on the harbour front only
to find that they have closed that office. We decamped in a Second
Cup coffee shop to decide how to spend the rest of our day. The
weather was overcast but the sun was trying to break through so we
decided to give the CN Tower a go. To get there we walked along the
harbour front passing five or six tourist boats moored up for the
off season rather than out plying their trade on the lake. One was a
multi mast schooner type ship, not a patch on Bluenose II. This
whole area has the feeling of somewhere that in the busy and warm
summer months it will be packed out with people strolling along and
enjoying the view. There are a few waterfront cafes and restaurants
and a small open air theatre.
Turning back up into town we passed the Rogers Centre and went to
ask what they had coming up over the next few days. The car show
this weekend did not really do it for us but there is a football
game on next week after we get back from Florida so we bought
tickets for that instead.
Rounding the corner to the CN Tower I breathed a sigh of relief when
the two busloads of school kids that arrived at the same time as us
went into the Rogers Centre rather than up the tower. From the
ground the CN Tower is pretty impressive, not surprising for the
worlds tallest building and tallest freestanding structure. Its
primary purpose is as a communications tower. As the height of
buildings in Toronto increased they were affecting the quality of
radio and television signals in the city so a new tower was needed
and hence the CN Tower was built. The decision to also make the
tower a tourist attraction was taken fairly late in the design
process.
At
its base the tower has a circumference of two hundred metres.
Looking up it tapers elegantly until the observation deck. We paid
our money and went up in the lift travelling at 15mph to reach the
observation deck, 346 metres up. It was a strange feeling seeing the
city of Toronto falling away beneath us as we ascended. From the
deck you get 360 degree views out across the city which stretches
for miles beneath you. From here you get a totally different
perspective on the place.
Unlike most cities we have been to, there is no easily visible old
quarter, although one must exist. The downtown area is full of tall
office blocks and apartment buildings interspersed with open lot
parking. I found it strange to see so many parking lots in a city
which is allegedly notoriously bad to park in. In London, they would
be classes as prime real estate patches of land and would have been
turned into buildings long ago. There is however, lots of evidence
that this is happening in Toronto. Everywhere you look you can see
new buildings going up and old buildings being renovated.
View from the top, looking
down
on Toronto's skyscrapers
We spent a while looking out and about and then went down a level to
see the views from the glass floor. Here I had expected Stef’s
vertigo to make him really wary and I did not think he would stand
on the glass. He walked onto the glass before looking down to see
people on the ground below and was absolutely fine. I, on the other
hand, had taken a different tactic. I leaned over and looked through
the glass before walking on it and it was a very bad idea. Even
though I knew I would not fall my heart lurched as I looked and I
felt so uncomfortable I had to walk away!
We stopped for lunch in the tower’s café before heading up to the
sky pod, another smaller viewing platform higher up at 447m.
Although we were looking at the same things we had seen from the
observation deck, the extra 100m created a different impression and
was well and truly worth doing. It was a bit of a windy day and here
in particular you could feel the tower swaying back and forth. There
were a couple of slightly white faces around! Back at ground level
we went to see a short film about the building of the tower. It took
forty months to complete and was made by 1,537 people.
Made from concrete, the building process was a 24 hour a day
operation. In effect they had a big mould that they “simply” poured
the concrete into, reducing the diameter of the mould the higher
they got. On average they added a foot in height every day. Once the
main tower was constructed they added on the observation deck and
sky pod before putting the final parts of the tower in place. These
had to be lifted up by a helicopter crane and manoeuvred into place,
a skilful job on the part of both the helicopter crew and the men
tied on to the top of the tower to guide the pieces into place.
They had filmed throughout the construction process and were able to
run a sequence showing the tower gradually going up. Before the
final pieces were put into place local people had the opportunity to
sign their names on the structure, a little addition for posterity.
Since it was completed, the tower inevitably attracted those wanting
an adrenalin rush from jumping off it or running up the stairs
inside it. There is a whole wall panel devoted to listing these
exploits.
The most challenging must have been the climb up the stairs in a
wheelchair (to raise awareness for people with disabilities) and the
chap who took his motorbike up. There is now also an annual charity
event for people to walk up the tower, the fastest time being
something like seven and a half minutes. For the rest of the day the
CN Tower acted as a magnet for Stef. Whenever we passed a point
where you could see it he stopped, mesmerised, looking up at the top
in a state of awe and saying “we’ve been up there”.
From the CN Tower we headed to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).
This is undergoing major change and expansion so some of the
galleries are closed to the public. They were still able to put on a
good show and had an unusual collection of pieces here and some
strange new concepts. On one big white wall was painted a circle
with concentric circles radiating out from the middle until the
diameter was a couple of metres. Each of the concentric circles was
painted in a different colour to the last with the colours being
repeated in waves. You had to stare at the painting for about thirty
seconds and then look away to the blank white wall. Here, you mind
transposed the painted circles into a reflected image which looked
the same but the colours were different.
Another exhibit was a film of a man making a stone spiral pathway.
It seemed to be set in a national park. Even if it was not, I was
surprised he had got the permission to do what he did (unless he had
to take it all away afterwards). Big dumper trucks brought
successive loads of big stones and emptied their loads into the
water. Once the spiral was complete the film then showed a man
running up and down along the path being filmed by a helicopter.
After about ten minutes of watching this I gave up and went to look
at something else.
As with most of the museums we have been to in Canada this one was
interactive. AT the start we had listened to an audio clip of the
type of paining lessons one of the local artists used to provide.
There were pieces of paper on a desk with three line shapes drawn on
it. The audio clip related a short story and you then had to pick
one of the shapes to draw an object relevant to the story. So it
continued until all three shapes were used. It was designed to test
your imagination – not much in my case but more than my artistic
talent!
Henry Moore collection at
the AGO
They also had an audio guide that ran for about ten minutes trying
to explain an abstract piece of art and to get you to appreciate the
complexity of the drawing. We both listened to the tape, doing the
deep breathing exercises, closing our eyes to build the picture in
our imagination. At the end of it we could both interpret some
shapes in the painting but really it still looked to me as if the
artist had lost his rag and just thrown splashes of paint onto the
canvas.
In an upstairs gallery they also had a Henry Moore exhibition. Here
they have a wide collection of his sculptures, not the final bronzes
but the original plaster casts he used for his work. Moore went
through a phase of destroying his plaster sculptures as he wanted to
be able to control how many casts were made of each. I cannot say
the collection did much for me. For some reason I was expecting
Barbara Hepworth style smooth and rounded sculptures. The Moore
collection was mainly abstract figures. One of his sculptures graces
the central courtyard outside City Hall.
By this time we were well and truly museumed out and wanted an easy
and relaxing evening. We opted for the pictures and went to see The
Constant Gardener, based on a John Le Carré novel. It was a good
film but I remember the book to have more intrigue and twists in it.
Our day was rounded off at a local Japanese restaurant where,
forgetting Canadian portion sizes, we ordered a set meal. It was
very tasty but far too much food. Staying in town we opted not to
have the left overs “to go” which came as a surprise to the
restaurant staff.
