This morning weve got tickets for Torontos iconic gothic revival style mansion, Casa Loma, and then this afternoon we plan to head to the beach. well that was the idea, but we look out the window at grey skies and rain, which might put paid to the bit about the beach. The beach we planned to go to was at Scarborough Bluffs a few kilometres further along the shoreline of Lake Ontario. We saw some Torontians lying in the sand sunning themselves on the shoreline near our apartment a few days ago, but noticed that none of them were looking all that keen on going anywhere near the water. Yesterday we found out why; its apparently way too cold even for Canadians. Hang on, its still liquid, so it cant be all that cold, and anyway I thought Canadians wore their immunity to the cold as a badge of honour. We dont particularly want to die of hypothermia today, or of anything else for that matter, so maybe its just as well its raining.
Casa Lomas about five kms north of our apartment on the outskirts of the CBD. Its on the top of a hill and its
gothic towers are a bit hard to miss as we make our way up out of the subway. We learn that it was built betweem 1911 and 1914 by wealthy Canadian financier Sir Henry Pellatt. Its got a whopping 98 rooms, and at the time it was built it was largest private residence in Canada. Its now described as an historic house museum.
We head down to the basement to grab some coffee. The walls are lined with posters from movies that were apparently made here, and there seem to be an awful lot of them. If this is anything to go by were probably lucky the place was open today and not closed for filming something - X Men, The Pacifier, The Handmaids Tale, Scott Pilgrim versus the World and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, to name just a few. We wander into the indoor swimming pool which was used in the Pacifier when Vin Diesel had to dive into a sewer. At least they seem to have cleaned it out. Theyve also dried it out; its now a small theatre.
slowly up towards the Norman Tower; three flights of normal stairs, followed by a struggle up two very narrow spiral staircases, which end in. well a locked door. It might have been nice to know about that a bit earlier.
I head back down into the basement which leads to a dark narrow tunnel. I think this might have been the master of the houses passage into his man cave; one of the side tunnels looks suspiciously like the door to a bar. If theyre trying to cheer me up as I make my way slowly along the here theyre not doing a particularly good job. The walls are lined with depressing pictures of the Great Toronto Fire of 1904, which apparently destroyed much of downtown. and if that wasnt enough the next series is of the Toronto plague years from 1912 to 1922 - extreme poverty, diseased cattle, typhoid fever - the whole depressing shooting match. Several hundred metres later the tunnel emerges into daylight again, and it seems Im now a couple of blocks from the mansion. That seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a man cave, but I suspect money
might not have been too much of an object for old Sir Henry. Anyway theres a vintage car collection here, and stables, and wax works figures from a lot of the movies that were filmed here.
We have lunch and Michael and I head off to the Ice Hockey Hall of Fame. Now if Canadians love their baseball, their devotion to hockey seems to take things to the next almost religious level. The place is massive and full of devoted hockey fans. Im feeling very out of place, like I‘ve suddenly realised that to the wrong temple. The Holy Grail of hockey is the iconic trophy known as the Stanley Cup. This is housed in the oldest part of a 1940s looking building with a spectacular domed glass ceiling. Its held in a vault with metre thick brick and concrete walls, and a steel door with lock structure that looks like it belongs in Fort Knox. But despite all this, the Cup isnt there at the moment.
