Clare and the Glass Elevator

Hi there everyone – I hope you are settling back in at work and enjoying 2007 so far! Things have been pretty quiet here really. I have been making some more travel plans for later this year, which hopefully will all be sorted this week some time, but otherwise I have just been working away getting used to my new boss. That has turned out to be a bit of a waste of time as my new boss has been offered a better job and is leaving next week but never mind! That should probably buy me a couple more weeks of employment so I won’t complain!

This week’s big tourist event was going up the CN Tower. For most people this is the first thing they do in Toronto but every-time I went to go up I would look at the height of the darn building and go “hmmm, maybe next time”… Patrick was not going to let me away with not going up it though so on Saturday off we went. The CN Tower is the tallest freestanding structure in the world at 553m, and is “Canada’s Wonder of the World”. Before you are allowed up the tower you go through this crazy security check that blows puffs of air at you and detects smells that might make you a risk… BIZARRE!

The elevators which take you up to the viewing platform (115th floor, 346m up) are glass and look out over the city. As you will all probably know I am not so fond of the heights, and particularly of glass elevators, so this was relatively traumatic. I stared determinedly at my feet the whole 59 seconds the lift ride takes and ditto on the way back down! A great way to appreciate the view I am sure…

The view from the top is pretty neat – you can see right over Lake Ontario and the city stretches as far as you can see in other directions. We had a lovely lunch up there and spent ages trying to spot the hostel and other sites around the city – it was fun but perhaps not quite worth all the hype it gets either.

Also, before I go, congratulations to Kylie and Rowan on the safe (albeit delayed!) arrival of Thea – I can’t wait to meet her!

Hope you are all well,
Clare