Toronto

Jolly nice double decker trains from the suburbs (Clarkson the nearest station) half hourly into the city. Assuming GO means Government of Ontario

but just like dear old South Eastern we had to stand all the way back..











Today we had lunch in the revolving restaurant in the CN Tower, which is very very tall - see neck-cricking photo below. The lift takes about an ear-popping 58 seconds to go 100+ floors and is on the outside of the building

If you ever visit, whilst lunch in the 360 restaurant seems a bit pricey, it includes all you can eat views of the city and Toronto Island from the viewing platforms. (If you buy a ticket just to look at the view, that's not cheap but I guess is on a par with The Shard or similar.) The food's good, but not recommended if you're really hungry. And char is, in my view, a fancy name for smoked salmon, even if it is accompanied by black sesame-encrusted watermelon.

What I don't particularly recommend is the glass viewing platform. Having expected something that ran the circumference of the building, instead I found a dimly-lit section around 20' by 10' that was covered with small children lying down on it, and members of staff inexplicably pratting about in some kind of lame college-studenty attempt to entertain punters. The large foot in the top left of the picture belongs to Dougal, T&D's youngest. He's not quite 13 but a long streak of a lad whose shoe size is giving his parents cause for concern. The waiter in the restaurant initially refused him the children's menu, though stopped short of offering him a beer.

We moved on to see a little pop-up Warhol exhibition on Bloor Street. It was a really good collection, some of which I hadn't seen before, and included pictures adorned with a glittery substance known as diamond dust. This was new to me too and I loved the effect of it as it really added appropriate showbiz glamour to the portraits.  

There were a couple of Marilyns too, as well as lots of Campbell's soup cans. Apparently the whole collection of 32 sold for $15 million a few years back - they initially cost the dealer $1000 in 1963.

The PanAm games are about to take place in Toronto - the opening ceremony is on Friday - so it provides an interesting comparison with dear old London town in 2012. Even the volunteers look as if they've been kitted out in exactly the same way as I was - except instead of purple they're being made to wear a saffron colour which would definitely not have been my colour as yellows tend to make me look like a sick person. 

Which coincidentally, I am, as slight cold has turned into something more stinky and a rain forest of snotty tissues surrounds me after a poor night's sleep. I'll leave you with that attractive image, enhanced only by my puffy eyes and glowing red nose......