Toronto - TD Inuit Art Gallery

Toronto Dominion is our bank here in Canada, but we didn’t realise that their Toronto headquarters had a free Inuit Art Display. It was actually pretty cool! To be honest, it was better than the Inuit Art section at the National Gallery in Ottawa, which had two stick things and a couple of random bits and pieces, but nothing as cool as this! We took photos of just about every piece!!!

So cute! 

Toronto - CN Tower

A true tourist cannot go to Toronto and not visit the CN Tower, yet another tower that overlooks a city. So it became another tick for us! As Lonely Planet kindly pointed out, this was definitely a money-grabbing structure. Expensive food at the revolving restaurant and $25 an adult ticket for the most basic entry. Freakiest part? The elevator is on the outside and has a glass wall and a glass FLOOR. It was a little disconcerting looking down as you went up. Or down. Yikes. 

Stats about the tower: it is the highest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere (as opposed to building I suppose, or structure that is not free-standing – even though the Willis Tower is also free-standing....). It is 533.33 metres (1,815 feet) tall and when it was completed in 1976, it was the tallest free-standing structure in the world AND the tallest tower in the world, records which it held for 34 years.

The CN part of the name came from Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. Now it’s the Canadian National Tower or Canada’s National Tower, but no one actually uses that – it’s just the CN Tower. It’s a symbol for Canada and an important part of the Toronto skyline, but to be honest, it’s just a funny looking concrete building from some angles! With a funny shaped alien craft at the top. Apparently it’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (so an engineering wonder I guess!). It’s also the second-place building for the World Federation of Great Towers. In case you wanted to know!

So now we have been there, done that J. Tick to the world’s fifth tallest free-standing structure.

No being spiderman on this structure :(

Not as high/scary as the Willis Tower! This was just a glass panel in the floor, rather than an actual skydeck. 

Toronto - Cirque du Soleil founder's art display - Distillery District

As we were walking through the Distillery District we saw some awesome aerial shots of geographical features around the world. We stopped and had a look and saw some people crowding around a man and interviewing him and taking photos. I didn’t even notice, cos apparently I walked right by this happening! It must have been the opening because there were lots of dressed up people, waiters pouring champagne and doorgirls with a clipboard asking for names. An older man told us it was blah blah's art display (I missed his name) and that he founded Cirque du Soleil! We had no idea! Cirque du Soleil was founded in Montreal as far as I know. So we stopped and read his blurb and then went back and took some more photos. We tried to take a photo of him too (it may or may not have been him).

Is it him?? 

It was an awesome display and apparently it is to do with highlighting how precious water is. He spent some time in space taking these pictures and you can buy the collection in a book, but it was too heavy for us! The fanciest copy is a limited edition and a mere $7000. We got the free postcards and mini magnets instead J.  The pictures were just incredible you can find them here: One Drop.

There were also some cool random sculptures in the Distillery District too. Not too many actual distilleries, but we did see the Mill Street Brewery, which was not on Mill Street. We went to the Mill Street Brewery in Ottawa last year and sampled their beers, which are all the same as ones in Toronto, so we didn't go in this time. Besides, there was a line up and apart from there, the art event and in one chocolate store, there were hardly any people around. 

Will: 'Just take the darn picture - I'm sick of smiling'

CN tower in the distance. The Distillery District buildings are all this sort of beautiful brick. 

Another random sculpture.