Various photos of downtown Toronto in winter time including inside the Eaton Centre and Dundas square christmas tree.

We managed to get a great deal on a package to Toronto from a local Travel Agent.  It was a spur of the moment decision to go, but it was a place we always wanted to visit.  A must see on the list of most people who go to Toronto is the C.N. Tower.  At 1815ft, the chance to get some good views and pics from the top proved hard to resist.  I read that in the summer it can take 2 hours to actually get to the top, due to the crowds and only 2 lifts taking people up.  In November, there were no crowds, and the only waiting we did was for other people to come along and fill the lift with us!

When we got to the observation level we took the next elevator to the Sky Pod.

The view from here was a bit more vertigo inducing due to the expanse of glass and full length windows.  Again no queueing was a bonus.

We spent some time on the observation level, where I took a few pics…

This skyscraper is one of the great visual spectacles in the Toronto skyline.

It has the ability to bend, refract, reflect, and play with light in a way that other buildings aren’t prepared to. That’s because its exterior is covered in gold leaf. Its visage has been compared to a huge ingot of Spanish bullion, though New Spain never extended this far north. It’s not just the façade that helps with this dance of light. The Royal Bank Plaza is composed of two triangular towers (one 41-stories, the other 26-stories) that help take advantage of the sun’s low angle at this northern latitude and bounce the light around at unusual angles. Incidentally, the sun is the reason there is gold on this building in the first place. The skyscraper has 14,000 windows and because of that, incredibly high heating and cooling bills. Having 2,500 ounces of 24-carat gold baked into the glass helps insulate the building and makes up for the installation cost, though the bank got the original gold for less than CAN$100.00 an ounce. No one has ever stolen one of the windows even though each contains about CAN$70.00 worth of gold. That is because the process that puts the gold into the glass makes it worthless at the same time. It is not possible to separate one material from the other.

* The Royal Bank claims there is more glass in this skyscraper than any other in the world.
* There is enough gold on the surface of the building to mint 50,000 Maple Leaf coins.

I also stood on the glass floor.  It was a very wierd sensation, looking down and seeing nothing apart from the drop down the tower.  Most disconcerting!