Another day Jean took me to downtown Toronto and let me loose on my own! 
The first thing I did was to orientate myself by taking the elevator ride up the outside of the CN tower, apparently the world’s highest free-standing structure at 553.33 metres, or 1,815ft 5 inches! It took a bit over three years to build and cost about CAN$3million, opening in October1976. Looking at all its records, amongst them is they can boast the highest wine cellar in the world!!!
It takes just under a minute to whizz up in the elevator to the large Lookout level at 346metres/1136 feet where you can see for miles over the city and lake Ontario. However, you can also transfer to another elevator and travel another 33 storeys to the Sky-Pod at 447 metres/1465 feet!!! That is truly amazing! They say you can often see Niagara Falls on a clear day, with visibility being over a hundred miles So Ididn’t see that far, but I was perfectly happy with the views I did see!
See for yourself!
Well, look up first, and this is only the upper bit! That’s the first viewing level up there!
Looking sort of northwest, I never did find out what that big prominent Art deco building was!
This is looking slightly northeast. Behind the Sheraton Centre are the two arcs of the newer City Hall, while behind the Hilton Hotel you can see the classical old one!
This is me right up in the Sky-Pod….
….from which I could look right down inside the big stadium with the retractable roof, which was partially open that day.
Round the other side was the view over the Toronto Islands to the other side of Lake Ontario on the horizon. Niagara-on-the-Lake is over there somewhere!
It’s a bit spectacular, isn’t it?
And here’s the tower’s shadow over the nearby buildings.
Anyway, I couldn’t stay up there all day, so with a quick look through the section of glass floor on the lower level of the Lookout – no, I didn’t step on it - I descended once again to terra firma. It wasn’t far from there to catch the open-top bus tour of the city. I could have hopped on and off during the tour but didn’t really have enough time. The whole thing took a couple of hours and was to be followed by a short trip through the above islands. 
To be honest I could have wandered around the city centre instead, but it was interesting to see some other things, like Castle Loma, a house built by a guy with a deep pocket who couldn’t make up his mind as to what style he would have, so he incorporated a bit of everything!
There are quite a lot of old buildings still left in Toronto, like the Fairmont Hotel – another of the chain of Fairmonts - which at one time was the highest building in the city. Look at it now!
So many of the high rises were all glass panels so there were some interesting photos to be taken with the buildings reflected in them or the light shining on them.
There are several very new buildings in the city too, with strange shapes to them I can’t remember offhand just what these two buildings are – right and below -
but the next picture is of the Bata Shoe Museum window display. You may have to look carefully at it after enlarging it! Apparently there are hundreds of pairs of shoes in there, including some celebrity ones, like the ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz, and others from the past and from other countries. That would have been interesting!
Now see what we have here! A tram! I wonder if the Edinburgh people will like their trams half as much, once the system is completed. They don’t care for them at all just now!
Once the bus tour was over it was time for the inclusive boat tour out to the little artificial islands. There wasn’t a lot to see except exceptional views of the city skyline….. the Rogers Stadium roof has been closed now
or ships on the lake, but it was a relaxing little sail and I enjoyed it. I even managed to find my way back to Jean’s on the subway afterwards!
Out of the city next time.
Talk again soon.
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