Day Two - Toronto

Slept well but woke early at about 05:30 local time. Had breakfast in the hotel and then went walkabout. It was still very murky with the tops of the tallest buildings still enshrouded in fog. The CN tower looked just like a tall chimney, as it's observation deck and restaurant were invisible. As we walked, we happened across some Mooses – if that is the correct collective noun for Moose. Not real ones of course, but life-size concrete ones, dotted around the city and bedecked in various colours and artwork. All part of some art exhibition apparently. They certainly added an element of fun to the streets.

Heading uptown, we found the Eaton Centre, the third largest shopping centre in Canada apparently. The inside was huge, with 4 floors of shops. Jo was in her element. We spent a shitload of money on clothes, DVD’s and footwear then headed back to the hotel late in the afternoon. The sun then came out and burnt off the fog. The sky was wonderfully clear and blue, so we decided that it would be a good time to go up the CN Tower. I grabbed my camera bag and off we set. Unfortunately, when we got there, we found everyone else had had the same idea. The queue to go up was 90 minutes long! Sod that. I know I am British, and as such I have the queuing gene, but I just couldn’t be arsed!

Instead, we had a drink and headed back to the hotel where we booked a bus tour for the morrow. The young Chinese/Canadian fellow at the tour-desk was dealing with an older fellow with a northern accent - Yorkshire, I would guess. The tour-desk chap was doing his best to look interested as northern man explained the intricacies of English cricket to him. He nodded his head in an understanding manner as the LBW rule was explained to him. He clearly had no idea of what it was all about though, and clearly no interest, but he continued to smile politely to his customer, occasionally dropping his head and pretending to read some notes in order to show how busy he was. Northern man carried on unabated though and the tour guy seemed genuinely pleased when I walked over and interrupted his lecture. Once the tour was booked, we changed for dinner and headed out to eat. Jo put on a posh frock. “Does this dress make me look fat?" she asked. "No, my darling" I assured her, "You have an arse like Britney Spears." "No I don't,” she said, furrowing her brow at me. "OK then, you have an arse like a Brittany Ferry." I laughed loudly, pleased at my witticism, but that remark earned me 15 minutes of silence and some of her best scowling looks.

We had dinner in Planet Hollywood - which was expensive but very nice. There were rumours that Sylvester Stallone might pop in, as he was in Toronto shooting his new movie. He didn't though, at least not whilst we were there. The walk up the stairs had paving stones on the wall, with the handprints of celebrities embedded in them. I was surprised to see that my hands were the same size as Arnold Schwarzenegger's. I wonder if that means we have other similar attributes. I'm sure we do, the biggest exception being our bank accounts though! Our bellies stuffed with food, we went back to the hotel, had rumpy and slept like babies.