Bartvb: 2005/06/19 - 2005/06/26

A flight of cormorants

Fishing black-crowned night heron

Two cormorants taking off

Flying black-crowned night heron

The Toronto Islands are a sanctuary for quite a few animals and plants. Canada geese are everywhere, so are wild ducks and gulls. In this picture, there are also a few cormorants and even a black-crowned night heron.

Smog is not only unhealthy, it makes for very ugly pictures. This is the skyline on May 25th, 2005.

This is how the skyline looked like on June 23rd, 2005. Nice and bright!

PATH - The Underground City

PATH is informally, and more friendly, called the Underground City. It is a set of interconnected walkways below street level. These walkways connect the major buildings of the financial centre to each other. It is a fantastic system to move from building to building in a comfortable temperature when it is either scorching hot or icy cold outside. A lot of the walkways are nothing but shopping centres in disguise and they have stores lining the path, with food courts sprinkled in.

Close to the starting point: The Eaton Centre. The real starting point is the Atrium on Bay, but since it not accessible from Yonge Street at this time, I think it better to consider the Eaton Centre as the de facto starting point.

A map of the entire PATH-system

Food Court

Going to Commerce Court

A map of the Richmond-Adelaide part of PATH

Going towards Commerce Court

Food Court

Going towards Commerce Court

Commerce Court

Another view of Commerce Court

Another view of the PATH level of Scotia Plaza.

The elevators in Scotia Plaza, the skyscraper with the red granite exterior, are quite an experience. There are two levels where the elevators can be taken. To go to an odd floor, one must take an elevator on this floor. To go to an even floor, one must take an elevator one floor higher. There are also several corridors with elevators on each of these floors. Every bank of elevators services a different set of floor.

Typical sign in the underground city (officially called PATH)

The basement level of BCE Place.

This is the South end of the underground city. From here, you enter Union Station.

The Toronto Harbor Commission building. The geography of Toronto's lakeshore has changed since the time and the building is no longer at the harbour. I haven't looked into its current use, but I do know that the main floor is a steak house.

The building of the Toronto Harbor Commission (detail). Notice that it says 'harbor', not 'harbour' as is normal in Canadian English spelling.

Allan Gardens

Allan Gardens is remarkable. Not only is it a beautiful park, a restpoint in a bustling city, but it is also home to some remarkable greenhouses. Although greenhouses are not exactly rare, the fact that one can walk into a greenhouse mid afternoon, at minus 25C, and find tropical gardens is in my opinion simply an unreal experience. On top of that, the Allan Gardens greenhouses are architecturally important for this city, and the main building, the Palm House, is quite unique. All in all, this is a part of the city that you should see when you come here, after you have seen the CN Tower, the Eaton Centre and the other more touristic places.