Crid's 1999 Grand Tour of Canada

3 weeks travelling by train from Toronto to Vancouver

Day 3 (Monday) - Toronto (Mayfair B&B)

I slept for about an hour before waking up with both arms still "asleep" - a horrible sensation.  Turned on the TV while I was waiting for my arms to come back to life.  The film Apollo 13 had just started on one channel, and I ended up watching the whole film.  I've seen it before, but it's still a very good film.

Woke up again around 4.30am and couldn't help realising it was 9.30am back home and my colleagues at work would be experiencing the "fun" of a Monday morning without me to man the phones for them.  Even though I'm entitled to this holiday (and have worked hard all year), I still feel a little guilty that they're a man short for 3 whole weeks - especially as manpower is already lower than we'd like.

Showered and headed for breakfast around 9am, expecting a pile of pancakes for breakfast.  Instead we had melon (which I like), toast, ham and a quiche-like dish made from egg and cheese.  Rather nice actually.

I should mention the other guests.  Yesterday I was joined by a couple who I think were probably in their twenties.  The girl is Canadian and the guy is from Brazil. I believe he has just come into the country.

The other couple were probably in their forties.  I'm a little puzzled as to where they're from (and everybody seemed too sleepy to make much conversation other than "could you pass the...").  They were talking French to each other and the woman didn't seem to speak much English.  The man spoke good English but his accent sounded German to me - certainly not French or Canadian.  (It has been suggested to me subsequently that they may have been from Quebec, because that accent doesn't sound French).

Today we were joined by two girls from Japan.  They looked like they were in their twenties.  They seemed pretty jetlagged, having flown in yesterday.  They're looking to go to Niagara today.

Today is Labor Day - a national holiday.  The subway was still running though, and most of the places I visited were open.

First of all I took the subway to Union Station to check out how and where to check in tomorrow.  Toronto's subway is so clean.  It puts London's underground to shame.

Having found where to check in, I headed round the corner to the CN Tower (just a few minutes walk from the station).  I've been to the CN Tower before, but I wanted to visit it again.  Last time the weather was a bit murky.  This time wasn't perfect but it was still better.

At the base of the tower there is an interactive area with some displays showing how the tower was built, etc.  The best (well, certainly the funniest) were three computer-generated cartoons showing various silly antics starting at the top of the tower.  All three were from first-person perspective and shown on large screens.

The first shows a hangglider pilot jumping off the CN Tower and swooping around the other buildings.

The second shows a bungee jumper going from the top of the tower down to a closeup of a very surprised insect on the ground - only for the jumper to then ping back up and down on his bungee rope.

Probably the funniest cartoon was the third one, where a tightrope walker tries to walk from the CN tower to another large building.  He nearly gets knocked off the rope by a hangglider, then grumbles when he encounters a cloud and can't see the rope, then he has a seagull sitting on the end of his balancing pole.

I managed to get some video footage of the tower - including a shot from the window of the lift going up and down (the window faces outwards, and you travel up and down at 15mph).

The glass floor in the CN Tower is an interesting place.  I found it was fun to watch the different reactions of people trying to walk on it.  Some would just go straight on, others would slowly edge on - even though it was obvious from the number of people on it that it's not going to break.

After the CN Tower I took the subway to Eaton Square - a large shopping centre in the downtown area.  Because Toronto has a lot of snow during the winter, you can get straight from the subway station to the shopping centre without setting foot outside.

Despite it being a national holiday, just about everywhere in the Eaton Centre was open.

Paul and I headed downtown in the evening for a meal.  We had trouble finding somewhere to eat, because many places were closed for the holiday.  This surprised me a bit after finding so many places open during the day.  We eventually found a very nice place called the Red Tomato which I will definitely check out again next time I'm in Toronto.

When we left the restaurant it was starting to rain.  By the time we were driving back to the B&B we had a major deluge.  Paul told me this was the first major rain they've had for months.

 

<<< Previous

Home

Next >>>