Lau On Tour Day 2: Toronto

Part 2 of my new series, Lau On Tour. Catch up with yesterday's destination and find out what the series is all about before you join me in today's destination, Toronto.

Photo: Syed Ahmed/Unsplash

The itinerary

Following yesterday's virtual visit to New York, I'm retracing my steps to another city I visited during my childhood - Toronto. Its most famous landmark, the CN Tower, is the obvious place for a tourist to start, with the website offering live views from three different cameras, to acquaint yourself with the city below.

Image: Lined Photo/Unsplash

While New York is resplendent with tourist attractions and well-known sights, Toronto is less so. That said, it does have the Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, whose staff have kindly kitted out four of its tanks with cameras, so you can watch the sharks, jellyfish, rays or reef at any time of day, from anywhere in the world. It's all very calming.

Dry yourself off, the next stop is Casa Loma, a gorgeous stately home/castle slightly away from the city centre. It doesn't offer a full virtual tour online, but you can click through some of the exhibits, including an antique car display and an exhibition about Toronto's darker days.

Image: Francesco De Legarreta C/Unsplash

When I visited Toronto in the 1990s, the city's main stadium was known as the Sky Dome, and it housed a Hard Rock Cafe overlooking the field. The restaurant is long gone, and the Sky Dome is now called the Rogers Centre, and is home to the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team. You can see what the view looks like from various seats within the stadium on the website.

If sport's your thing, the Hockey Hall of Fame - a museum dedicated to the national sport of ice hockey - has made some of its exhibits available to view online, including a scale replica of the Montreal Canadiens dressing room.

Where I'm staying

Shangri-La Toronto? Don't mind if I do.

I was very nearly lured by the idea of the Toronto Boatel - a bed and breakfast on a boat located down at the Marina - for the quirk factor. But ultimately, I was won over by the fact that I have no budget restrictions on this make-believe trip, and have opted to splash out for a room at the Shangri-La in old Toronto. If anyone needs me, I'll be winding down from a hard day of sightseeing in the pool and steam room.

In pop culture

Hat tip to my colleague Harry for today's film suggestion, when I was struggling for something suitably Toronto-centric. What If? (released in some countries as The F Word) is set in Toronto, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and won a Canadian Screen Award, so it fits the bill nicely. It's an easy watch, and a product of its time - released in 2013, the opening credits show the neon sign of the Hard Rock Cafe, but as mentioned above, the chain hasn't existed in Toronto since 2017.

On the menu

Typically, there are two foods that us Brits associate with Canada (aside from Tim Horton's coffee) - maple syrup, and poutine. The latter traditionally combines French fries with cheese curds and brown gravy, and although it's more traditionally associated with Quebec than Toronto, I had a crack at replicating it. Cheese curds aren't easy to come by in UK supermarkets, so at the advice of several online recipes and food blogs, I substituted chunks of mozzarella, with much success. Not something I'll be incorporating into my weekly menu, but I'd revisit it when I'm in need of comfort food.

Souvenir shopping

In a nod to overlooking the Toronto Blue Jays' home stadium as I ate dinner as a child, a Blue Jays baseball cap seems a fitting souvenir of my time in the city.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Bloglovin' to see where I'll be visiting tomorrow.