Casa Loma and CN Tower– The beauty and the beast of Toronto

For today we had arranged a Couchsurfing get-together and a few people from the past two days joined in as well. But first I went to visit the CN tower, the tallest building in the western hemisphere and the landmark of Toronto. I had pre-booked my tickets which are open tickets and you can use it within the next 2 months or so of booking. You even get a discount when booking online.

Today, the antenna broadcasts over 30 Toronto television and FM radio signals across Southern Ontario in addition to wireless paging and cellular telephone signals.

Because I got there so early, there was no queue and not a lot of visitors, I could stroll around freely. I had the Sky-Pod included in the ticket which brings you to the second level and with that to the highest point you can get to as a visitor. I did consider the Edge-walk when I looked into the CN Tower, however the price of 175$ was not something I would have paid for something like this.

The simulator ride was actually pretty fun

This was followed by a quick breakfast at Starbucks, which you can certainly find all around the city. When it comes to food Toronto is not very creative neither offers anything special.

I then went to the meeting point for the CS meet-up. Together we headed out of the city towards Casa Loma with the subway it was just a 15 minute ride.

The way from the station Dupont was easy to find as you can see signs along the way which leads you to a park and from there it is just a couple of minutes until you reach the castle. 

The people of the day

Comparing the castle to others I had seen before, it rather looked like a mansion, which in fact I learned later is true. Sir Henry Pellatt had built the ‘castle’ as a homebase. One of the CS’er told me that he went to a stand-up comedy show the other day and that they make jokes about Casa Loma being called a castle. But regardless of what it is presenting, it is still a really nice place to visit and walk around.

Thanks to one of the girls that had a student card we all got a reduced price of just 17$ admission fee. The Audio Guide comes with it for free. The group split and we walked all around the castle for the next 3 hours and met again in the beautiful garden. 

From there we decided to head back to the city harbour for a lunch. Once we got to the harbour and had lunch we realised that it was actually a bit too late for the planned  trip over to the Toronto Islands, instead we headed towards the St. Lawrence Market which unfortunately had been closed. During that time J. from the CS’ers received bad news that his flight back home had been cancelled and he had to make some arrangements. Having a flight cancelled is always bad news and never pleasant, but he was optimistic and kept going. We finished the evening with a chat in the park.

Afterwards I met my friend P. and together we went to Chinatown and the actual Downtown City Center. We passed as well the Trump Tower and the concierge was super friendly and told us we could get inside and up to the bar for a view.

Of course the prices for the bar and restaurant are way out of my budget, however I wouldn't mind going there for a special occasion.

Swaroswki Stones cover this piece of art

View from the Trump Tower

The wall in the parking lot which entails Gold inbetween

The night finished pretty early as I was pretty tired from the day and because I knew I had to get up early.

With this that, Happy Travels my dear friends, family and fellow travelers. As always it is a pleasure to write to you. Please do let me know if any of the links are not working and I will make sure things are getting correct.

Let the journey continue!