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January 2001

Toronto and Niagara area

David Aaronson
2005-09-25 18:47:37

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At the time of our visit, Toronto had recently been approved as Canada's candidate for the 2008 Summer Olympics. As part of their bid they made it the theme of an ice sculpture display held downtown in Nathan Phillips square. Most of these feature the Olympic rings, the CN Tower, and a sport or two of choice. This is a close-up of one of our personal favorites (1).

There were quite a few however, this is just one set of them. Nathan Phillips square is the center of Toronto and is bounded by the city hall and Ontario government buildings among others. A summer fountain becomes an ice rink in the winter (and a really small one compared to the Rideau Canal) and it was also the location of the city's largest New Year's Eve festivities.

The world's tallest structure (that's structure, not building) is the CN Tower in downtown Toronto (2). For approximately the same price as an airline ticket from Toronto to say, Singapore, you can buy a ticket to go up in the CN Tower. Naturally, we went up in it.

Once inside, the CN Tower is much like tall pointy structures in other major cities. You have a nice view of the area but it gets boring after about ten minutes. However, the CN tower has advanced tall pointy thing technology with the introduction of the 'glass' floor. Obviously, it's nothing like glass - they really just mean transparent floor. A cleverly placed mirror allows for exciting camera angles like this one. That's the tower of course sloping away on the left side.

Look! I'm a midget! (3) No, it's just fun with perspectives, exacerbated by the eight layers of clothing I was wearing in a futile attempt to remain warm while outside.

That's Lake Ontario behind Melanie and the New York shoreline somewhere in the distance (4). Down below is Toronto's 'city airport' which is actually on an island ...