We set off for Casa Loma in the morning. Casa Loma which means house on a hill in Spanish is actually a castle and former home of Canadian financier Sir Henry Pellatt. It is complete with decorated suites, secret passages, an 800-foot tunnel, towers, stables, and beautiful 5-acre estate gardens. This is the entrance of Casa Loma...
This is the Great Hall...
This is an organ built in 1923 and later rebuilt in Casa Loma...
The Library which is used for the main banquet room for evening functions now... It was furnished in the days the Pellatts lived here...
The Dining Room...
The Conservatory houses flowers and plants and used to be a favourite spot for guests for afternoon tea...
The Serving Room which has 2 purposes... When formal dinners are held in the Dining Room, this room is used by the servants as a serving room. At other times it is an intimate breakfast area for the Pellatts...
This hallway is named Peacock Alley and is modeled after the Peacock Alley in England's Windsor Castle...
Taking a rest on the chairs along Peacock Alley...
Sir Henry's Study... On both sides of the fireplace are secret passageways and we took the one on the left to the 2nd floor...
Sir Henry's Bedroom which is relatively simpler compared to the rest of the castle...
Sir Henry's Bathroom with walls in white Carrara marble...
The shower system in the bathroom... It was structured to completely surround the body with spray manipulated by using 6 taps that controlled 3 levels of pipes... This is considered very high tech in those days...
Lady Mary's (Sir Henry's wife) Bedroom... Husband and wife had separate rooms in those days... I like this room as the walls and furniture were in my favourite colour! =)
Lady Mary's Sitting Room and the piano in the room...
Lady Mary's Bathroom, smaller than Sir Henry's...
The Guest Suite...
Then we went up the to the third floor and climbed up the narrow spiral stairs to the the towers... Photo inside the tower...
View from the tower...
View of CN Tower from the tower...
Taking photos with CN Tower seen from the tower window...
The person which we asked to take this photo did not manage to capture the CN Tower... =(
Servant's Room on the third floor...
Then we were back on the second floor and this is the Windsor Room... Sir Henry had hoped to have England's Royal Family as guests in this room...
The Round Room...
Then we went back down on the first floor and this is Billiard Room...
The Oak Room, which is originally named the Napoleon Drawing Room by Sir Henry and is perhaps the finest room in the castle. The intricately craved oak wall panels took 3 English craftsmen 3 years to complete...
The 800 feet (~243.84 metres) tunnel leading to the stables...
The Stables...
Then we walked back to the castle and went out to the grounds... There was a couple taking their wedding photos at the castle when we were there... You can actually see them in the background...
The 5 acre estate gardens in the castle grounds. It is open only from May to October.
A sculpture in the gardens...
Under a passageway covered with vines...
Then we drove to the Toronto Zoo which is one of the largest zoos in the world... The Zoo is divided into six zoogeographic regions: Indo-Malaya, Africa, the Americas, Australasia, Eurasia and the Canadian Domain. Animals are displayed indoors in tropical pavilions and outdoors in naturalistic environments, with viewing at many levels... The zoo has over 5000 animals (including invertebrates and fish) representing over 500 species...
There were alot of people at the zoo, most with kids, probably because it was a Sunday and Monday was a public holiday... It was a sunny day but very chilly too due to the wind... We both wore the wrong jacket as we did not expect it to be cold... We should have worn our thicker jacket... I was cold for the whole day...
The Lion-tailed Macaque from the upper canopy of the evergreen forest in the Western Ghats, South India is an endangered species...
The Lion-tailed Macaque from the upper canopy of the evergreen forest in the Western Ghats, South India is an endangered species...
The Indian Rhinoceros is also an endangered species but their numbers in the wild are increasing due to protective measures...
The Clouded Leopard is mostly active at night and is listed as vulnerable by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)...
A peahen and a peacock... I did not know that the females are called peahen...
A Sumatran Orang Utan...
The Sumatran Tiger is critically endangered and only 400 to 500 wild tigers are believed to exist in Sumatra in isolated populations...
Entering the Africa region comprising of the African Savanna and the African Rainforest Pavilion...
Red River Hog, their name refers to the animals' red coat and their habit of wallowing in ponds and streams... They are most active at night...
Then we entered the African Rainforest Pavilion which houses indoor exhibits...
A male Mandrill.. Mandrills are forest monkeys and are rarely found in the open unless travelling from one forest block to another...
A Sacred Ibis and an Egyptian Goose...
Slender-tailed Meerkat - a type of mongoose that live in groups of 10 to 15 individuals called "mobs" or "gangs"...
Gorilla - the greatest ape...
Then we left the pavilion and went outdoors again... Warthog is a pig with flowing mane of hair and formidable husks...
River Hippopotamus - tend to live in places where there is water deep enough to cover their bodies as staying in the water keeps them cool and protect their skin from burning...
Zebras are the "wild" horses of Africa and the purpose of their strips is for camouflage...
Giraffes - males' horns are bald and females' horns are tufted with black hair...
Cougar is a shy, solitary animal and is more active at night... It is also known as puma, panther, mountain cat, painter and catamount... It is Canada's largest native cat and the only one with a long tail...
A bald eagle...
Grizzly Bear though very powerful are generally shy, solitary animals and tend to avoid humans
Golden-lion Tamarin once considered the most endangered primate in the world has made a remarkable comeback from probable extinction...
Some birds...
Red Clawed Yabby...
Yellow Tiger Yabby
Mcleay's Spectre whereby newly hatched specimens start off like an aggressive ant and once in the canopy, it changes colour and mimics a dead leaf...
Jellyfish - has no bones and no brains...
Emu...
Kangaroos... You can actually go into the kangaroos area where the kangaroos are not behind any barriers...
Kangaroos behind me...
Siberian Tiger
When we left the zoo, my feet were real tired from walking the whole day... We had wanted to go to Zellers to buy more of the maple cream biscuits but the "Zellers" our GPS brought us to was this Oriental Food Mart... It seems that the Zellers that was supposed to be here has been taken over... Since we are already there, we went to explore the Oriental Food Mart...
It was huge! Something like a Walmart that sells all Asian stuff!! Guess it is because Toronto has a large Chinese population, so envious... =p
Me with our purchases that includes Vitasoy and a box of 出前一丁 noodles! =p
Then we went to Pacific Mall, the largest Chinese indoor mall in North America, as it was nearby... It is basically a shopping centre with all Chinese shops... Too bad we went near closing time and most shops were closed... =(
Surrounding Pacific Mall are other Asian restaurants and shops... We were very hungry and it was getting late so we decided to try one of the restaurants for dinner... We decided on this restaurant as from the outside it looked like there were quite a few people inside dining which we interpret as being not bad... =p Later when we were inside the restaurant we realised that it was almost full and that they had won quite a few awards... =)
Waiting for our food to come... Very hungry as it was already 8 plus... =p
Our dinner!! It was an awesome meal!! The food was all very nice!! And it was also not very expensive... We were very happy and satisfied after our meal!! =)
This is the night view from our hotel...
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