Day 1 - Arrival & CN Tower, Toronto
Well, I won't bore you with details of the actual journey from the UK to Canada. Suffice it to to say that I was on the road/in the air for approximately 19 hours, and was ready for a rest instead of two weeks of solid theme parking and coastering ahead of me! But this trip is a coaster enthusiast's dream and therefore it didn't matter too much.
Due to the size of our group, we were split over two flights. I was on the first flight and on arriving in the early evening at the first hotel, which was very close to Toronto Airport, ignoring a slight mishap when the airport wouldn't allow the coach in to collect us (we were waiting there approximately 2 hours!), there was enough time for us to head into Toronto itself to visit the CN Tower.
The CN Tower is the tallest structure in the world. It stands close to 2,000ft tall. There is a visitor centre at the base (where I managed to crash one of the PCs running the interactive information program!), and a lift which carries passengers up to the Observation Deck. This is only about two-thirds the way up the tower though, the rest of the tower is one big antenna sticking into the sky.
The lift zooms up the tower at an incredible pace and you can see the world outside shrinking through the glass windows. My ears popped. In less than a minute, we were at the Observation Deck. This consists of a gift shop (!), a restaurant, an inside platform around the edge of the tower, and an outside platform. Also, it has a glass floor section. Oh dear.
I never thought I had a problem with heights before. Walking over this piece of perspex was no problem, but when it clicked that I was looking 1,400ft down at the city, standing on....absolutely nothing, it made me feel quite ill. It was an experience I'll never forget, but not one that I'd particularly rush to try again! Actually, I don't have a problem with 'normal' heights. But 1,400ft was a tad too much.
As if that wasn't enough, I paid an extra $7 to go up a second lift to the Space Pod which is a little bubble 200ft higher up the tower. That was yet another crazy experience. There you are, overhanging the 'thin' tower body, looking way, way down at the Observation Deck which itself was 1,400ft above the ground.
After deciding I'd had enough, I made my way down to the base again and waited for the shuttle bus to take us back to the hotel, where I had a nice Italian meal and then went to bed.