Sonya's Blog - Day 45 - Touring around Toronto

Sonya’s Blog - Day 45 - August 6th - Touring around Toronto

Due to our late night last night, we did not get an early start this morning. We had decided that we were going to head into Toronto and get on the sightseeing hop on hop off bus. We were also looking at our transportation options. We discovered that there is a GO Train only 7 minutes from us, which beats the 20 minute drive to the subway station and the chance that we cannot find parking. The GO Train is only $28 for a group pass (up to 5 people) and we can ride all day, so we figured that was worth it for us. We found the station no problem and they had a huge parking lot and the parking was free, so that was awesome. We had missed the last train, but they had busses and it was only 10 minutes till the next bus. We lucked out there because they run every hour, so it would have not been great if we had just missed the bus. It was a large coach bus and pretty comfortable. The schedule said it would take us 40 minutes to get to Union Station, but our bus driver was speedy and we were there in 20. There was a stop for the sightseeing bus only a few blocks from Union Station so we headed over there. I had already bought our passes online, so we exchanged those for our tickets and within 5 minutes our bus came.

Isaac on the bus with the CN Tower:

The bus was already pretty busy, but we managed to get up top (it is a double decker, but the top is open air and it the best place to be) after only a few stops. We learned all sorts of interesting things and didn’t realize that Toronto was often compared to New York. They even have a flatiron building that was built in Toronto prior to the one in New York as a tester to make sure it wouldn’t fall over. This one is smaller, but the same design.

The Flatiron Building:

Toronto’s name was changed to York way back when and New Yorkers called them all sorts of names, like Dirty York, Smelly York, Not New York York, etc. Torontonians petitioned to have the name changed back, bit the dude who had changed the name said “over my dead body”. So being Canadian, they waited until he died (took 30 more years) then waited a few years and changed it back to Toronto. They also claim that the CN Tower is the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and I am pretty sure that same claim was made in Chicago about the Sears Tower. Hmm, wonder who is correct? We will have to assign that task to our kids for school work or something.

The tour was good and informative, tons of facts though and it is hard to remember them all. We took the bus for about half the tour and got off at Casa Loma. We headed up to the “castle” to take our tour. Blake and I have both been to Casa Loma, at different times, but we thought we would take the kids. They have free audio tours, so we got some of those and headed on our tour. It is a very large house and pretty over the top. Sir Henry Pellet built it for his wife, but they only lived in it for about 10 years. It cost a ton of money to build and a ton of money to maintain, plus the city raised their taxes from $600 per year to $27,000 just to add to the expenses. Meanwhile lots of things went wrong with his businesses and in the financial world so he was losing money right left and centre. They were forced to leave Casa Loma and give it to the city in payment for back taxes. Sir Henry died penniless. The city of Toronto loved him as he had been very generous and done lots of great things for the city, like bring electricity to it. They decided to pay for his funeral and it was the largest funeral in Toronto for a really long time. There you have it, a riches to rags story.

At Casa Loma:

We finished up our tour and hopped back on the bus. It was really packed by this time and we were only able to get seats downstairs. That was okay though, because we were all tired by this time and it was just a ride back to Union Station for us. This time the train was running as it was the start of rush hour. It was about 20 minute until our train came, but we found our platform no problem when it did arrive and managed to get seats together. It is a huge train and a double decker to boot. They are comfy seats and it was a smooth ride, so we like it a lot more than the subway. They also have a bathroom, which is super handy when walking around all day and when you have kids. Shockingly, the train ride back took longer than our bus ride that morning. The train did not go super fast, but that was fine. We just read and did our own thing until we got to our stop. We were back at the RV in about 10 minutes, so it worked out perfect.

Kizmet was super happy to see us so I took her on a long walk while Blake started supper. We then watched an episode of Corner Gas and called it a night. Blake and I read before bed and I was able to finish my book. Blake is reading New York by Rutherford and I finished reading The Borgia Bride. It is was very interesting, so much scandal and killing. It is based on the time of Pope Alexander VI, his birth name was Rodrigo Borgia. Well he was far from being a saintly pope or even a good person and the period of his reign is referred to as the Borgia Terror. He had illegitimate children which he openly welcomed into the Papal court and gave them key positions (unlike previous Popes with kids who tried to hide them away). . He and his son had incestuous relations with his daughter, they killed people who knew too much or they just didn’t like. It was a crazy time. So many bizarre things happened. It is historical fiction and many of the events are based on fact, which she clarifies at the end of the book. The book follows Sancha of Aragon and her life in Naples to her life in Rome after she is married into the Borgia family (not by her choice). She had a pretty crazy family and then was wed into an even crazier family. I lead such a staid and boring life in comparison, which is fine by me:) I had bought this book with the intention of putting it in my book club, so ladies I will keep the book and put it in when I return home. It is worth a read.

Sonya