Today was clear and sunny after last night's rain. We left early to find the hop on hop off bus. There was a stop right near our hotel but as we didn't know what time it would be passing, we devised to walk down to the CN Tower. There weren't too many people around & we decided to get the additional ticket to the Sky Pod which took us up another 100m. We were 447m up in the Sky Pod and had views all around through clear windows. After spending some time up there we came down to the Lookout Level & a Outdoor Terrace. The terrace was surrounded with mesh which didn't give as clear a view & it was a bit gold up there. The Lookout Level was better but not as good as Sky Pod. It must have been a particularly clear day as all the staff were commenting on it. Apparently we could see all the way to Niagara Falls and Rochester, New York. The lifts have glass floors & windows so you have a view all the way up. We could see that Toronto is a large city & spread out with clusters of high rise all around.
Not long after we came down from the Tower, a bus arrived. We stayed on & did the complete loop to decide which things we wanted to see & then got off at the St Lawrence Market which is in a historical building near the waterfront. The markets offer a huge variety of fresh produce, particularly cheese, meat, seafood & fruit & veggies. There are also eateries & bakeries in there. The Carousel a Bakery in the markets are famous for serving the Peameal Bacon sandwich. The bacon is covered in Peameal, then sliced thickly & put on a roll. We decided to have one for lunch. It was tasty but I'm glad we just got one to share.
When we finished at the market we walked back up towards the city passing through the Financial District which is full of grand buildings. We kept walking up to the OCAD University which was formerly the Ontario College of Art & Design. They have an interesting building designed to look like a pencil box with pencils falling out. The pencils act as stilts for the building as the residents opposite didn't want to lies their view of the park when the uni wanted to expand. There were also several murals painted on the walls of buildings which added some colour to the area.
On the way back down we stopped at a bar near our hotel for a sit down & a drink. After a brief stop at the hotel we headed out for dinner. We are lucky that a restaurant strip runs parallel with our street. We decided to see what Chinese Tapas was. It turned out to be yum cha that you order from a menu. It was different to our yum cha but delicious, especially when washed down with some local wine.
After dinner we saw the CN Tower was lit up. Robyn suggested we walk down there & see if our ticket was good for the whole day or only one entry. It turned out we could only enter once but next to the Tower is the Ripley's Aquarium and it was open until 11pm. It turned out to be a great time to visit as there were very few people around. It is an excellent aquarium with loads of different fish, sharks, rays, sea horses, crabs & other sea creatures. We saw the biggest lobster I have ever seen & a Giant Grouper weighing in at 400kgs. We even patted a shark! There was an airport style people mover to take us through the shark area. It was an excellent way to move along slowly.
Tomorrow we will continue with the hop on hop off tour & see more of this town.