Springtime in Toronto

Casa Loma was very impressive at the top of the hill overlooking the city. The CN Tower should be visited, but not on a day filled with clouds, as we did. For a bit of pop culture, take in dinner and a show at the Second City theater.

Quick Tips:

Grab a tourist magazine from your hotel and tear out the maps to: the subway, downtown, and The Path. You will need them all, we found.

Best Way To Get Around:

We took the Airport Express bus from the airport to the hotel - CDN or so round trip - having been advised that taxis would be CDN one way. Once downtown, we found the subways to be very easy to maneuver and were very thankful for The Path when the rain came.

I expected more, actually. There was no mini bar (not that I use them, but sometimes it's nice to have a place to put things needing to be kept cold). The rooms did not have separate controls for heat or cool - and although the windows opened and we had the window unit on, we just couldn't cool the room enough. The bare minimum was provided in the bathrooms. The soap was very drying. There were no mints on the pillows. They charge for access to the gym equipment.

The hotel was fine for sleeping and it was handy in that it was where my conference was held. It is just that I have come to expect a little more from the nice hotels in the world. They do have dataports on the phones and cables that will link you directly to the internet - if you have the fast connection slot on your computer (I didn't). You are charged CDN$1.50 per telephone call you make - no matter if it is local or an 800 number.

This hotel does have a stop right outside for the Airport Express, which was about CDN$25 round trip per person. Expect about an hour from the airport to the hotel, and the same for the return. Taxi would have been CDN$40 one way. The hotel also links into the Toronto Path - the underground that webs across the city, allowing the locals and tourists to stay out of inclement weather.

The price per room is roughly the US dollar equivalent of what I paid - and I had a special conference rate. Go to http://www.sheratontoronto.com/ for more information.

As part of the dinner and show combo for the Second City Theatre, we dined at Leoni's at 6:00 on a Saturday night. It was packed, though we got in with a call that afternoon for the tickets.

The restaurant is family-style Italian. If you are doing the dinner and show, you get a simplified menu (we didn't see the other) that allows them to serve large groups of people all trying to get to the 8:00 show next door. The menu gives you a choice of salad, pasta, entrée, and dessert - each of which is to be shared between two people. A good exercise in compromise. Larger groups will be able to try more dishes, as you order one for every two people. The food was good, not great. Though if you are debating between the bread pudding and the cheesecake, go for the pudding. It was divine. The atmosphere was a little kitschy - red, white, and green Christmas bulbs and wax-laden bottles - but it was fun. Do come with some suggestions of music for accordian and mandolin, as the strolling players were fun and looking for requests. All in all, it was fun, unhurried, not too expensive (about CDN$20 included in the show ticket), and we were well fed.

Trying to come up with something "Toronto" to do, we chose to see a show at Second City, the home of alumni such as Gilda Radner, Martin Short, John Candy, Dan Ackroyd, and Mike Myers. Although known for its improv comedy, the show we saw was more sketch comedy, like that seen on Saturday Night Live. They did inform us that they do an improv show at 12:30 pm, however - and there is no charge for that.

The show itself, called Psychedelicatessen at this May 11 showing, was quite funny, though we felt kind of bad for the Canadians by the end. There were a number of jokes highlighting Canadian image problems in relation to its giant neighbor. All in all, though, the cast was very good, the skits were quite strange (but funny), and a good time was had at least by the two of us.

For tickets and information: http://www.secondcity.com/01_03.asp?pid=01_03_02

We did the dinner and show package, dining at Leoni's Italian Kitchen next door to the theater. The combo package cost CDN$55.29 each on a Saturday night for the 8:00 show. Prices without the family-style Italian dinner would have been CDN$26.75 each. If you buy online, you will be charged a hefty transaction fee. Our order actually got lost from online, but we had no problem buying tickets that night to get in for dinner and the show.

Although "tourist attraction" is a phrase that usually causes me to look elsewhere, this tourist attraction is not to be missed on a visit to Toronto. Casa Loma (House on the Hill) is one of many castles built by industrialists in North America in the first decades of the 20th century, this one really is splendid.

This castle was built by Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, a Toronto financier, industrialist and military man. It was begun in 1911, though never completely finished to his vision, as financial misfortune struck after only a decade in residence. In 1924, he had to sell the castle and the contents for a small fraction of what he had paid, so many of the interior contents are no longer original.

Unlike many of the castles I visited in Scotland, the vast majority of this building and its gardens was open to the public to tour. Included in the CDN$10 (adult) entry fee is a personal audio guide that allows you to take in the plethora of rooms at your own pace, listening to as much or as little of the information as you like. It took us two hours indoors to see all we wanted to see, including the stables and the top of the tower. We spent another hour walking through the gardens lit up with gorgeous spring flowers.

An excellent website for the property is at www.casaloma.org.

Many of Toronto's downtown buildings are connected by way of an underground they call The Path. There is a massive amount of shopping to be had down there, but equally important is the opportunity to escape the cold or wet conditions that might be going on above ground.

Several subway stations link in to The Path as well as municipal buildings, hotels, department stores, and office buildings. Carry a separate Path map with you if you are walking around the city. If it starts to rain (or snow or sleet or hail), find the nearest link by comparing the above ground city map and The Path map, and you will find yourself in a controlled temperature environment that should get you pretty close to where you are trying to go downtown.

To download a Path brochure, which includes the underground map and a guide to stores and buildings, go to http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/path/.