Up, looking down...

Playlist

Rheostatics - Static Journey

Alice Cooper - Alice Cooper Goes To Hell

Alice Cooper - Lace And Whiskey

Alice Cooper - From the Inside

Alice Cooper - Flush The Fashion

Alice Cooper - Special Forces

Up for a day of towers and art and heat, after some three hours of so of bed-based listening due to jet lag...

Steve had marked up the weather blackboard for us...

In the event, on every day we spent in Toronto, the temperature reached a stifling 34 degrees Celsius...

Out for breakfast provisions...

...to this nearby bakery...

...for some high-priced "artisan" bread...

...then, to the local grocery store for butter...

We were liking Riverside thus far....

...and its cheeky wee inhabitants...

Breakfast in the garden...

Then, out, past the neighbourly cats, who seemed to know things were going to hot up...

A street car into town...

Alighting at Yonge and taking the subway from King...

with an excited to be in Canada Exec Producer...

...out at Union Station...

Our target this morning was the CN Tower, for many years the tallest stand alone structure in the world...

We were getting there early to beat the queues...

As we walked past the CBC building...

...I noted the Glenn Gould Studio...

On to the tower and in, past this fellow...

A fast moving outwards facing glass lift with a scary glass floor, took us to the viewing platform...

...from where the views were stunning...

Over the next two weeks we would acquaint ourselves with the game of baseball and kind of become Toronto Blue Jays fans...

Here's their stadium - which was once known as the Skydome...

Training was taking place...

The islands were in view...

...and the cityscape unfolded as we made our way around the platform...

Followed by some closer views...

What's that blue thing?

What's that dot?

Oh...

Hmmm...

The CBC Building...

The Art School...

the Scotia Bank Theatre...

...erm, the roof of a building?

Unknown to us at the time, this is the back of the Art Gallery of Ontario....

We walked down to the level with the glass floor...

Tentative...

Some people were perfectly at ease...

Others weren't...

But it seemed the glass was quite strong...

14 large hippos strong...

...or three and a half thousand racoons...

Some people were even "braver" than us...

Looking through the floor of the elevator on the way down was also disconcerting...

...but we were met by this cheery chap...

Out to the former Skydome, now named after a mobile phone company - such is the way these days...

These are tourists not players...

They take their merchandising very seriously here - you can buy shirts, balls and bats used by particular players in particular matches to do particular things which North Americans find statistically interesting...

An enjoyable memorable visit...

We could not enter the Glenn Gould Studio...

...so this will do instead...

In the shadow of the tower...

...it was coffee time...

...before taking a streetcar...

...down to the harbour area...

...with its beautiful gardens...

Co-designed by cellist Yo Yo Ma...

...and old industrial buildings...

...and boats...

...and planes landing at the island airport...

...and ferries taking people to and from the islands...

...and birds diving for food...

To the Power Plant Art Gallery and this installation...

The carpet noted (backwards) the names of extinct species, while the recorded sounds of their voices played in the background...

The mirrors on the ceiling revealed the names...

As we exited, I noted more brave/foolish people at the tower...

We took a walk eastwards past the hockey hall of fame...

...and Toronto's - rather less impressive than New York's - Flat Iron Building...

...to St Lawrence Market...

...where Portuguese tarts were enjoyed...

...and fruit was bought...

Then, on to the Distillery District with its boutiques and galleries...

...and brewery...

I enjoyed Bergo but came away empty handed...

We walked all the way to the end...

...under a roasting sun...

...and back again....

We enjoyed the complex of small galleries and artists' studios...

..where I deemed these too as "art" - cos I said so...

A walk to the streetcar stop...

...where this wee monkey was gambolling around...

But no car came so we took a roundabout way home via Downtown...

...for a rest and a coffee in the garden...

Later we were joined by an unpictured Steve and Liza for drinks and chat into the dark...

A walk round to the nearby falafel place for a late dinner...

...and off to bed at the end of day two...

Highlight of the Day : Up, looking down...