But back to the trip…

But back to the trip…

Wednesday. CN Tower, attempt no. 2. Yep, I was determined to get back to the top of the tower, and so we headed once again into the city (later than we should have because, once again, Lynne convinced me to watch a movie the night before – this time it was Notting Hill on DVD – so we set off somewhat later than I thought we would! Oh, and it was surprisingly watchable.). Getting downtown is no mean feat, because Scarborough (despite being in Greater Toronto) is actually about seven thousand miles away from the city itself. Or at least it felt like it, especially in the snow.

At Union Station the snow started to fall again, but we were able to warm up with one of my old staple foods, the Toronto ‘street dog’. As Homer (Simpson) would say, “mmmmm, street dogs”. Not only tasty, but healthy and nutritious too – how else would you explain my figure?

When we got to the CN Tower, I had one of those ‘devil may care’ moments (as opposed to my usual British reticence) and asked if we could get a discount on the price of two tickets to get to the top, because I had worked there in the past. I think the sub-conscious reason I managed to do it was because the price of a ticket had jumped from $12.50 to almost $20 since the last time I was there. And, to my great surprise, she said that we could have a 2-for-1, because she ‘thought she recognised me’. And I wasn’t one to argue…

The top of the tower was just as I remembered, and there were even two people working in the bar when I was there five years ago! So I managed to swindle a nice cup of tea and coffee in the bar I used to work in.

Afterwards, we wandered up through the city, heading for City Hall Square so that I could take some more photos – I really wanted a picture of an outdoor skating rink in a public place (it is actually in the Nathan Phillips Square). So North American, and something that I had only seen before in the movies. After taking the photos and noticing the rental place where you could pick up a pair of skates for an hour or so, I was overcome by the desire to go skating. Apparently Lynne was too, and before I knew it, I was wobbling around on the rink!

The last time that I had been ice skating was when I was about 12 or 13 for a birthday party – so you can imagine how good I was – but the whole thing was just so cool and enjoyable (one of the most ‘christmassy’ things I think I have ever done), and I didn’t fall over once. That is important.

We topped off a great day with another evening at Jack Astors (I think Lynne just wanted to prove that my first experience there ‘never usually happens’), with her friends. It was surprisingly sane…