Toronto; Monday, 28 August, 2017

I was up again at 7am and after breakfast and packing I checked out of the hotel and headed to the metro to head out to the North of the city.

Located on high ground to the north of the city centre is Casa Loma, the home of a former business magnate who ran the Toronto Electric Light company and helped to build the hydroelectric dam at Niagra Falls. He wanted to build a palace for his wife and son so went on a tour of Europe for ideas and decided he liked all the castle so much he wanted a bit of each in his. Conseqnelty the buiding has a very distinctive look with Norman, Celtic, Scottish Baronial, Italianaite, Tudor and Teuronic influences across it (i.e. it’s a bit of a visual mess). The castle turned out to be very expensive to keep up and with his business failing – and a decision to invest in real estate in 1914 when everyone else was investing in war bonds – he was forced to move out of the castle, which was eventually taken over by the city of Toronto to cover back taxes.

Today it’s open to the public to wander round and see what being one of the richest men in Canada at the start of the 20th century brought you. It’s pretty impressive inside with lots of luxurious fittings and stunning views from the top of the towers.

I spent a good couple of hours looking round the castle before I headed back down to the metro and a couple of stops south to the Royal Ontario Museum.

The ROM is a spectacular museum housing a full mix of artefacts from Dinosaurs to the modern day. I spent several hours wandering round the museum and if it hadn’t been for an almost fatal case of museum feet I would probably have spent longer.

After taking in the ROM I headed down to the distillery district to have a look round and to grab a very late lunch.

Having looked round the district and had a very nice lunch I hopped on a streetcar back into the city centre and walked over to the town hall to have a look round the area there before realising it was time I headed back to the hotel to collect my things, head over to the airport and look forward to another very comfortable flight back to London.