The Highest Court in the Land

Know where it is?

Compare and Contrast

My last post on Toronto.  Compare the Toronto and New York "Walk" signs.  One looks eager, the other grimly determined.  (I don't have to tell you which is which.)

Toronto has versions of just about every cultural and fun attraction one could find in the NYC area, except within a smaller area, surrounded by smaller crowds, made up of more-relaxed people.  So it's sort of a distilled and sweeter version of NYC.  I'd say New York is to Toronto as a full-bodied red wine is to sherry. 

(Sherry is not actually distilled wine, but you get the idea.)

Different Looks

Toronto has:

Much better looking mailboxes.

An excellent subway station font.

And a surprising number of stylish black squirrels.

Museums, etc.

Royal Ontario Museum (with the edgy facade) had a great Mesopotamia exhibit, with many stunning pieces from the British Museum.

The Ontario Science Center had a video game exhibit with dozens of games available to play for free -- including pinball machines and the original Asteroids. 

Casa Loma is the castle-like estate built in the early 1900s by an industrialist who helped bring electric lights to Toronto.  The place and his story (ten years after it was finished, he was broke and had to leave it) are both fascinating. 

CN Tower

Taller than the Empire State Building.  And it has an impressively disturbing (but safe) glass floor.

Incredibly Nice

Time and again, we were struck by how incredibly nice and helpful people were.  After we had arrived at the airport and were still figuring out the public transportation, a Toronto bus driver, and later a subway token clerk, waved us on without payment.  When we bought tickets from Toronto to Niagara Falls, the person selling the tickets pulled out a schedule, and using a pen and a highlighter, explained exactly where to go and when.  At Niagara Falls itself, a local shuttle driver saw several of us waiting for the shuttle back to our bus for the return to Toronto.  He told us to jump in and he took us to the bus stop (for free) even though it wasn't his route - just to make absolutely sue we wouldn't miss our bus.

In every one of these cases, these folks spontaneously offered this help even though I hadn't even thought of asking for it.  I was really touched.

Even the buses apologize when they're not in service!

Maid of the Mist