Tuesday June 22nd - Saturday June 26th

Downtown Toronto skyline

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Toronto is that it is a city of contrasts. With over 80 ethnic groups and more than 100 languages, it would have to be, but I liked the fact that high-rise and low-rise, ultra-modern and slightly old fashioned, quaint even, can co-exist in such close proximity. There are also some interesting open spaces, small and large.

Fergus at the Devonian Park, Toronto

The Devonian Park in Toronto is a small pond with large rocks surrounding it, and is located just along the street from our hostel in the city centre. The Devonian Society appears to be a charity dedicated to creating pleasant spaces in Canada's cities where people can take a little time out, perhaps simply to rest in the sun or, as suggested in the Devonian Gardens in Calgary, to have lunch in a relaxed environment. Judging by the two sites we have visited, they do a pretty good job of it.

Devonian Park, Toronto

Toronto is also a city of sculpture, and there are some strange ones kicking about. The Skydome, home of the local baseball team, has one of the strangest pieces of sculpture I've ever come across stuck half way up the side wall; unfortunately, my picture didn't come out too well. Just south of their, near the Queen's Quay, lies what can only be described as a miniature Stonehenge. Once again, the point eludes me, but I am open to suggestions:

Toronto's "mini-Stonehenge" on Queen's Quay, with Lake Ontario in the background

Finally from Toronto, we come to Casa Loma (lit. "House on the Hill"), an extraordinary mock-mediaeval castle built on a glacial escarpment in what was then the north of Toronto. The man who had it built made his fortune from, among other things, using Niagara Falls as a source of hydro-electric power. In the end, though he lost his fortune and was forced to sell his dream home after only 11 years. It was briefly a hotel before it was bought by the city as a historic building. While we were there it was being renovated, but we still managed to get a good idea of the grandeur of the building.

Veronika in front of Casa Loma, Toronto

However, to my mind the most extraordinary aspect of the site was not the main building itself so much as the stables built slightly further back on the hill in anticipation of the construction of the main house at an estimated cost of C$250,000, which in the early part of this century was a vast amount of money to spend on a house, let alone on some stables for your horses:

The stables (!) at Casa Loma, Toronto

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