We awoke to a clear day, yeh, we have looked at the CN tower from our hotel window since we arrived. Most of the time the top of it has been shrouded by cloud. Today we can see it all.

The guides list it as one of the top ten things to do when visiting Toronto. It boasts 360 degree views of the sprawling metropolis that is Toronto.

Full of brekkie, dressed to repel the wind chill, we ventured out of our room. Tokens in hand we went underground. Union street station was our destination. It’s good to see that local government restoration projects are as efficient here as in other parts of the globe. The guard at the station said it had been going on for 5 years. ‘Welcome to our country ” he said.

“The CN Tower was built in 1976 by Canadian National who wanted to demonstrate the strength of Canadian industry by building a tower taller than any other in the world. Building the CN Tower was a vast and ambitious project that involved 1,537 workers who worked 24 hours a day, five days a week for 40 months to completion”. (external link for more details)

We took a brisk walk to the CN tower, paid our entry fee, and took the lift up for 58 seconds to the viewing deck. What a view, my words can not describe the sprawl of the city and lake below, hope you can see it in the pictures. The glass floor was proving to be a challenge to some of the others visiting today. They were cautiously stepping onto rectangular panes of glass, with shrieks of delight when they achieved it. Selfies, hugs and high fives. I have a very strong zoom lens which sometimes gets its focus slightly skewed, today it focused on all the cracks in the glass of the glass floor…hahaha.

Next stop was Ripley’s Aquarium.

“Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada is a public aquarium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The aquarium is one of three aquariums owned and operated by Ripley Entertainment. It is located in downtown Toronto, just southeast of the CN Tower. The aquarium has 5.7 million litres (1.5 million gallons) of marine and freshwater habitats from across the world. The exhibits hold more than 20,000 exotic sea and freshwater specimens from more than 450 species”. (external link for more details)

Located right next door to the CN tower, it gave us something to do, kept us out of the cold, and the pub. Trip advisor warned us about the strollers and the munchkins who inhabited said strollers. Luckily today there were only the highly excited running everywhere type. Once they had taken off in search of sharks we were free to stroll or meander at our leisure.

We gazed at schools of fish. Ooohed and arrhed at sharks. Marveled at jelly fish and punished the camera once again. As far as aquariums go it was fairly small, but even the big kids in us had something to enjoy.

We hopped back on the underground with all the office dwellers. We went to the Elephant and Castle, feasted on roast beef and yorkshire pudding, shephards pie, and the obligitory pint of Guiness. Hotel room in sight, recently purchased bottle of Syrah in mind. Movies and sweet dreams. Tomorrow is Valentines Day, or Hockey day in our world….