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mitchy at 11:04pm on 04/10/2004
mitchy at 11:04pm on 04/10/2004The morning got kind of cancelled due to lack of interest so I completely failed to get up in time to get to the breakfast room before 10. Oh well :) I wasn't in a hurry as today was the day Jenni arrived and she'd told me in her email her flight wasn't scheduled to land until 11.20am. So I read a little and then headed off on the Subway to the Delta Chelsea for by happy coinkydink, Jenni was in the same hotel as Rik and Carol.
I got there about quarter past 12 and, having checked Jenni hadn't checked in, I headed to the café for a pot of tea, sitting where I could see the main entrance to the hotel. I didn't have long to wait before I saw a small figure dragging a suitcase the same height as she was through the hotel doors. It was great to see Jenni again and I was glad I was going to have her company. I helped her get her luggage up to her room, which was very nice and had a great view. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she told me her parents, who'd been to Toronto a few months previously, had strenuously recommended Casa Loma. As this was one of my City Pass tickets, I was quite happy to go and see this. It sounded fascinating, a British castle in the middle of the city :)
We worked out how to get there on the subway, figuring the simplest route was to just take the southbound train on Yonge until it reached the required destination, even though Casa Loma was north of the hotel. The Yonge line is a huge U-shaped line - this is important, remember this for later.
The walk to the castle from the station was only a couple of blocks, although we were warned in advance there was a slight hill involved. We saw a set of steps leading up to the castle, which was still hidden behind the trees at this stage, and elected to walk around on the slope instead. It was indeed a sharpish hill but we made it up ok. I wouldn't fancy it in winter though :) Walking around to the front of the castle, we finally get to see it in all it's glory.
Wow.
I hope Jenni's pictures come out so I can nick a few because it was an awesome sight. Apparently the man who built it made his money through electricity and was very much a man who wanted all the mod-cons in his castle home. Alas, he and his wife only got to live in it for nine years before he went bankrupt and had to sell everything. Walking around and listening to the guided tour phones (nifty gadgets, you dialled the number of the room you were in, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. and got the appropriate tour guide track), it became blitheringly obvious why he went bankrupt. The sheer amount of money he sank into the building was astonishing. Even today, it would raise eyebrows. For instance, the gorgeous glass and brass doors to the conservatory cost $10,000. And that was in the 1920's. Sheesh. There were 56 telephones (I'm not exaggerating, though I'm not sure of the exact number now. Might have been 60+), the first elevator in Toronto and electricity in every room. And I do mean every room: even the servant's attics had electric lights!
I would have given major body parts to be able to live in this castle, so gorgeous was it. It wasn't huge by castle standards, but the furnishings were (and are) top notch and the grounds truly beautiful. The view was pretty stunning too, looking out over downtown Toronto. The building is now owned by a historical society and the grounds were recently renovated to former glory by a local horticultural society. There was a display in one of the rooms that showed the work in progress. A great deal of work had gone into collecting original furniture and personal artefacts too, and it really added to the tour, you got a real sense of the people who lived there.
Both Jenni and I were much amused by a sign we found in one of the rooms. "This way to the SECRET staircase!" Very secret, obviously :P
As an added bonus, the castle was hosting a huge display of quilts for a charity auction that will be held later this month. There were some truly beautiful quilts there and I may sidle over to the auction site and see what sort of prices some of them fetch, because they were works of art. Jenni was particularly taken with one that was decorated with an elephant theme and I fell in love with several but most of them were pre-sold :(
We spent just over an hour going from room to room, until we finally had had enough and paused in the cellar restaurant for a drink. We headed out and I had the bright idea that instead of walking all around the building, we could go through the gardens to the steps we'd seen on our walk up, which was a much more direct route. So we walked through the gardens, which I have to say were gorgeous and I'm a total ignoramus when it comes to plants and whatnot. We walked down a series of sculpted paths and....came to a dead end. Confused, we peeked over the wall, and saw the main road we'd walked up, so we knew we were in the right area. We headed off down another path and came to a locked gate. Muttering, we retraced our steps and climbed back up, hoping we could find a path that went over towards the steps. Nothing. In the end, we had to hoof it all the way back into the house, scampering a bit because we could hear the bell ringing to announce the house was closing. We made it eventually :)
On the walk back, we confirmed that the steps did, in fact, exist, but decided we were not going to climb them to find out where they actually led. Instead we headed back to the Subway, and we were much intrigued by a series of metal posts/lights that appeared at intervals down the main road, each with a word made out of brass embedded into the pavement. We couldn't figure out the significance of the words: we saw Dairy, Survey and others. I looked around as we walked, betting there would be a plaque somewhere explaining and sure enough it was. Apparently it was an art project intended to highlight the crucial factors behind the development of the area. I suspect it would have made more sense to us if we'd known more about the area :)
We got into the subway and saw a train just pulling up so leapt aboard. It was pretty crowded but we managed to snag two seats anyway and settled down for the ride back. However, after a few mins, it quickly became obvious something was wrong as it was taking far too long to reach the next station. When we pulled into the station, one that I had no recollection of stopping at on the way up, we both simultaneously got up and off the train, by silent mutual consent. Blinking, we tried to figure out what we'd done wrong. We'd come up by the southbound train. Therefore we needed a northbound train home, right? Wrong!!
Remember I said the line was in a U-shape? Well apparently if you're on the left hand side of the U, you go southbound down and around it and if you're on the right hand of the U, you go southbound down and around it! So we actually needed a southbound train to get home, too! A swift change of platform later and we were finally heading in the right direction :)
Back at the hotel, Jenni let me crash out in one of the easy chairs, while she had a shower. I crashed out so well, I actually dozed off and was snoring most peacefully. I didn't move for about an hour :) When I did surface, Jenni was ready to go out so we spent several minutes scouring the hotel information and the yellow pages restaurant menus for a good place for dinner. We found a restaurant called "Fran's", which is also the name of an Australian RAMmer so we decided to go there as it was only a couple of blocks up the road. However, just before we reached it, we spotted another of our short list restaurants, called "Greek Islands". Go on, guess what sort of food they served? *grins* Having compared menus, we decided to go to the Greek restaurant which was totally, utterly empty. The waiter told us he's never known a Monday so quiet but we got quick service at least :)
I chose the fried cheese as a starter, mostly because the menu claimed it would be doused in brandy and set alight before serving. I like my food to be entertaining too :) For the main course, I chose the pork tenderloin. Jenni had spinach and feta cheese pastry parcels for starters and the lasagne for main course. I was feeling somewhat recovered from the cider indulgence the previous Friday so had a Brandy Alexander to drink. It was delicious and very refreshing. The starters came promptly and accompanied by a huge side salad that I was relieved to discover they expected to last you through the main course too. And as promised, my fried cheese was very spectacularly set alight! Woo hoo!
The pork tenderloin was so big, it covered most of the plate and hid my vegetables! But it was well cooked and very tasty so I did it as much justice as I could manage. However, neither of us had room for dessert, which was a shame, as we were sat under the dessert menu board and the choices looked very, very tempting :) After a coffee, we paid the bill (very cheap considering the amount we'd had) and wandered back. Jenni said goodnight en route and scampered back to her hotel, while I scampered back to mine via the Subway, agreeing that we would see each other the next morning on the bus for the Niagara Tour.
Back at the hotel, I watched more TV - CSI:Miami, which I swear I only watch for the comedy value. No, seriously! I mean, how can you take a show seriously that does this: Find photos taken by someone at scene of crime. Realise that crime occurred BEHIND the photographer. So highlight one of the people in the photo, zoom in on their eyes, get the reflection of what they are seeing in their pupils, enlarge it, reverse it, and get a PERFECT REPRODUCTION OF WHAT THAT PERSON SAW WHEN THE PHOTO WAS TAKEN. Good grief! See what I mean about comedy value? :)
Still chortling, I had another bath before crawling into bed, having set my alarm so that there was no danger of me missing the 9am pickup by the tour bus. And there was snoring in the land of Mitchy :)
I got there about quarter past 12 and, having checked Jenni hadn't checked in, I headed to the café for a pot of tea, sitting where I could see the main entrance to the hotel. I didn't have long to wait before I saw a small figure dragging a suitcase the same height as she was through the hotel doors. It was great to see Jenni again and I was glad I was going to have her company. I helped her get her luggage up to her room, which was very nice and had a great view. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she told me her parents, who'd been to Toronto a few months previously, had strenuously recommended Casa Loma. As this was one of my City Pass tickets, I was quite happy to go and see this. It sounded fascinating, a British castle in the middle of the city :)
We worked out how to get there on the subway, figuring the simplest route was to just take the southbound train on Yonge until it reached the required destination, even though Casa Loma was north of the hotel. The Yonge line is a huge U-shaped line - this is important, remember this for later.
The walk to the castle from the station was only a couple of blocks, although we were warned in advance there was a slight hill involved. We saw a set of steps leading up to the castle, which was still hidden behind the trees at this stage, and elected to walk around on the slope instead. It was indeed a sharpish hill but we made it up ok. I wouldn't fancy it in winter though :) Walking around to the front of the castle, we finally get to see it in all it's glory.
Wow.
I hope Jenni's pictures come out so I can nick a few because it was an awesome sight. Apparently the man who built it made his money through electricity and was very much a man who wanted all the mod-cons in his castle home. Alas, he and his wife only got to live in it for nine years before he went bankrupt and had to sell everything. Walking around and listening to the guided tour phones (nifty gadgets, you dialled the number of the room you were in, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. and got the appropriate tour guide track), it became blitheringly obvious why he went bankrupt. The sheer amount of money he sank into the building was astonishing. Even today, it would raise eyebrows. For instance, the gorgeous glass and brass doors to the conservatory cost $10,000. And that was in the 1920's. Sheesh. There were 56 telephones (I'm not exaggerating, though I'm not sure of the exact number now. Might have been 60+), the first elevator in Toronto and electricity in every room. And I do mean every room: even the servant's attics had electric lights!
I would have given major body parts to be able to live in this castle, so gorgeous was it. It wasn't huge by castle standards, but the furnishings were (and are) top notch and the grounds truly beautiful. The view was pretty stunning too, looking out over downtown Toronto. The building is now owned by a historical society and the grounds were recently renovated to former glory by a local horticultural society. There was a display in one of the rooms that showed the work in progress. A great deal of work had gone into collecting original furniture and personal artefacts too, and it really added to the tour, you got a real sense of the people who lived there.
Both Jenni and I were much amused by a sign we found in one of the rooms. "This way to the SECRET staircase!" Very secret, obviously :P
As an added bonus, the castle was hosting a huge display of quilts for a charity auction that will be held later this month. There were some truly beautiful quilts there and I may sidle over to the auction site and see what sort of prices some of them fetch, because they were works of art. Jenni was particularly taken with one that was decorated with an elephant theme and I fell in love with several but most of them were pre-sold :(
We spent just over an hour going from room to room, until we finally had had enough and paused in the cellar restaurant for a drink. We headed out and I had the bright idea that instead of walking all around the building, we could go through the gardens to the steps we'd seen on our walk up, which was a much more direct route. So we walked through the gardens, which I have to say were gorgeous and I'm a total ignoramus when it comes to plants and whatnot. We walked down a series of sculpted paths and....came to a dead end. Confused, we peeked over the wall, and saw the main road we'd walked up, so we knew we were in the right area. We headed off down another path and came to a locked gate. Muttering, we retraced our steps and climbed back up, hoping we could find a path that went over towards the steps. Nothing. In the end, we had to hoof it all the way back into the house, scampering a bit because we could hear the bell ringing to announce the house was closing. We made it eventually :)
On the walk back, we confirmed that the steps did, in fact, exist, but decided we were not going to climb them to find out where they actually led. Instead we headed back to the Subway, and we were much intrigued by a series of metal posts/lights that appeared at intervals down the main road, each with a word made out of brass embedded into the pavement. We couldn't figure out the significance of the words: we saw Dairy, Survey and others. I looked around as we walked, betting there would be a plaque somewhere explaining and sure enough it was. Apparently it was an art project intended to highlight the crucial factors behind the development of the area. I suspect it would have made more sense to us if we'd known more about the area :)
We got into the subway and saw a train just pulling up so leapt aboard. It was pretty crowded but we managed to snag two seats anyway and settled down for the ride back. However, after a few mins, it quickly became obvious something was wrong as it was taking far too long to reach the next station. When we pulled into the station, one that I had no recollection of stopping at on the way up, we both simultaneously got up and off the train, by silent mutual consent. Blinking, we tried to figure out what we'd done wrong. We'd come up by the southbound train. Therefore we needed a northbound train home, right? Wrong!!
Remember I said the line was in a U-shape? Well apparently if you're on the left hand side of the U, you go southbound down and around it and if you're on the right hand of the U, you go southbound down and around it! So we actually needed a southbound train to get home, too! A swift change of platform later and we were finally heading in the right direction :)
Back at the hotel, Jenni let me crash out in one of the easy chairs, while she had a shower. I crashed out so well, I actually dozed off and was snoring most peacefully. I didn't move for about an hour :) When I did surface, Jenni was ready to go out so we spent several minutes scouring the hotel information and the yellow pages restaurant menus for a good place for dinner. We found a restaurant called "Fran's", which is also the name of an Australian RAMmer so we decided to go there as it was only a couple of blocks up the road. However, just before we reached it, we spotted another of our short list restaurants, called "Greek Islands". Go on, guess what sort of food they served? *grins* Having compared menus, we decided to go to the Greek restaurant which was totally, utterly empty. The waiter told us he's never known a Monday so quiet but we got quick service at least :)
I chose the fried cheese as a starter, mostly because the menu claimed it would be doused in brandy and set alight before serving. I like my food to be entertaining too :) For the main course, I chose the pork tenderloin. Jenni had spinach and feta cheese pastry parcels for starters and the lasagne for main course. I was feeling somewhat recovered from the cider indulgence the previous Friday so had a Brandy Alexander to drink. It was delicious and very refreshing. The starters came promptly and accompanied by a huge side salad that I was relieved to discover they expected to last you through the main course too. And as promised, my fried cheese was very spectacularly set alight! Woo hoo!
The pork tenderloin was so big, it covered most of the plate and hid my vegetables! But it was well cooked and very tasty so I did it as much justice as I could manage. However, neither of us had room for dessert, which was a shame, as we were sat under the dessert menu board and the choices looked very, very tempting :) After a coffee, we paid the bill (very cheap considering the amount we'd had) and wandered back. Jenni said goodnight en route and scampered back to her hotel, while I scampered back to mine via the Subway, agreeing that we would see each other the next morning on the bus for the Niagara Tour.
Back at the hotel, I watched more TV - CSI:Miami, which I swear I only watch for the comedy value. No, seriously! I mean, how can you take a show seriously that does this: Find photos taken by someone at scene of crime. Realise that crime occurred BEHIND the photographer. So highlight one of the people in the photo, zoom in on their eyes, get the reflection of what they are seeing in their pupils, enlarge it, reverse it, and get a PERFECT REPRODUCTION OF WHAT THAT PERSON SAW WHEN THE PHOTO WAS TAKEN. Good grief! See what I mean about comedy value? :)
Still chortling, I had another bath before crawling into bed, having set my alarm so that there was no danger of me missing the 9am pickup by the tour bus. And there was snoring in the land of Mitchy :)
happy