Toronto trip

CN Tower -
Famous Landmark in Toronto

I (Laurie) am currently in Toronto for my brother (Eddy's) wedding to Saara (more of that in the next post).


My brother Jon and mum also flew in from Atlanta and the UK respectively. We arrived a few days early and managed to do some sightseeing and shopping before the big day on Saturday. One of the trips that mum and I took was up the CN Tower - the largest freestanding tower in the world. Of course, we managed to pick the windiest day of the year with 100km gusts recorded. This meant unfortunately, that we were not allowed out on the balcony area due to the wind and also we were not allowed up to the "sky cab" part which is above the main observation deck.

View down through the glass floor

There is a glass floor area where you can look straight down. Even though they say that it is built to withstand the weight of 14 hippos (not sure how you would get 14 hippos up there to test it as the lift/elevator was not that big), there must be something psychological about standing on something you can see through. It was v. hard to force myself to actually stand on the glass bit.

Scarf on the balcony
blowing in the fierce wind

There were however some spectacular views to be had from the observation deck and it was well worth the effort to go up it. Due to the high winds, there were only 2 elevators working and so the queue waiting for the downward journey was pretty long.
Shopping in the malls here and travelling around is certainly far removed from life in Kampala. There is a very efficient mass transit system in Toronto with a Subway, Trams (street-cars) as well as buses. There are lots of bicycles and many many nationalities walking around the streets.