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Tim and Jenn are getting married, so Jon arrives in Toronto on Friday May 17 on a spanky new Air Transat Airbus A340 (with the fancy plasma TV screens) from Edinburgh.
On the way from the airport, we stop naturally enough at the city water treatment plant, seen here behind the happy couple. An interesting Art Deco style.
The next day, Tim and Jon venture out to Ontario Place, where Jon discovers the unhealthy Canadian preoccupation with doughnuts. Beaver Tails are huge flat slabs of doughnut with cinnamon and sugar... divine.
But coolest of all, Jon finally gets to go to an IMAX film by dragging Tim along by the heels, but (just for the record) he thankfully neither kicked nor screamed. Jon is mightily impressed by the picture clarity and size, and apprehends the projectionist for an hour by sneaking backstage. Luckily he, also being a bit of a nerdy cinema buff, kept us enthusing for so long that we got to sit in on the next one for free.
Interesting IMAX stuff:
After that, we decide that a helicopter ride would be a very sensible and worthwhile thing to spend $40 on, from which stunning snaps of the city from the air were obtained, and not so stunning snaps of a Lancaster Bomber. According to the pilot, there are only two Lancaster Bombers in the world still flying. Honestly, since I didn't have a telephoto it looks like a fly spot, so I won't even bother putting the photo up here!
Believe it or not, the weather is gorgeous, sunny and hot for almost all of the time I am in Toronto. Of course, the only time it is overcast is when I am taking photos from a helicopter or trying to capture the urban splendour from the top of really tall buildings. Pants.
The next day Andrew and Sarah arrive from New Zealand via Los Angeles. We promptly decide that the CN Tower would be a pretty cool place to check out. So here it is, the world's tallest freestanding structure, built in 1976 by Canadian National Rail, at 553.3 metres. If you want to know what that is in feet, too bad, you'll have to get with the 21st Century!
From the top, the rest of the city looks like it is made from Lego.
Does every tourist in Toronto take this one?
Andrew and Sarah and me most mornings before the first cuppa.
Jon is just getting over the sheer unadulterated panic that tends to grip him when he can't see anything solid under his feet when the ground is a long way away (See Jon's amazing bungy jumping photos, coming soon!), when a little girl runs over and starts jumping up and down on the glass floor. This proves a bit too much for Jon.
After which, we had a date for Tim's stag do. This consisted of shooting little pellets of paint at each other all afternoon until we couldn't see a damn thing through the helmets. Lots of fun. Like playing Quake only with more red paint.
Followed of course by civilised dinner and drinks.
Some really cool architecture at BCE Place, designed to look like a whalebone ribcage.
A tour around the Air Canada Centre was mildly interesting. This is the local ice hockey and basketball stadium. Naturally, more cheesy tourist shop photos followed.
Tim Corson, the lesser known goon, of course.
Then we did an improptu walkabout downtown, loosely based on one of the Lonely Planet walking tours ably lead by Andrew. Here is a North American squirrel Sciurus niger. Cue David Attenborough and lots of overly squishy sound effects.
Sarah and her fetish for tulips.
The CN Tower peeps between some buildings. Failed arty photo.
One of many cool sculptures around about the Toronto city centre.
Bronze Cows. Please do not walk on the grass or sit on the sculptures. Professional grass walkers and sculpture sitters only.
The Beaches, from Pat Corson's place. Many thanks for the accommodation!
A marvellous place to see the Victoria Day fireworks from too.