Summer in the City
May. 31st, 2004 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carynb
So, yesterday was a fun day.
There was this thing "Doors open" thing happening in Toronto last weekend, which meant that a lot of the historic and/or interesting buildings in the city were open to the public for viewing. There were over 150, all over the city, of which I saw 3. *g*
It was fun, though, to be just out and wandering the downtown core. I'm once again reminded how much I love the energy of it.
The buildings, you ask?
We started at the CBC building, which we really didn't get to see much of, but we did get a listing of everything nearby that was open. So, that stop was useful, even if we didn't do much more than gaze up the atrium.
The new OCAD building was way cool. I'd love for my father to see the tour some day - I think it would thrill his civil-engineer heart. You can see a picture at the main OCAD site, but I couldn't figure out a good angle to take one with my camera.
We wandered past the TD building, but the lineup was ridiculously long. Since the point of the day was not to stand line for hours, I gave up a shot at gazing out over the city from a 55th story boardroom, and we moved on.
The last stop of the day was The Church of the Holy Trinity. This will, of course, always be known to me as "the place where the Cowboy Junkies recorded The Trinity Session" . The Church itself is this lovely little oasis of peace (complete with a grass labyrinth just outside) a 5 minute walk from what is, arguably, the busiest pedestrian intersection in the city. It's small, but it seems like all the Anglican Churches in the city are small compared to what I'm used to. The windows are gorgeous, as is the woodwork around the building. One thing I though was neat - it was built with benches instead of fixed pews, in an attempt to keep the congregation more egalitarian. This kept the wealthier families from "owning" pews, and was supposed to help make everyone feel welcome. They even, after a few years, put little divider bars on the benches to keep people from taking up too much room.
The acoustics in there are amazing. But I'm guessing that they have a very small congregation, since they don't actually have a choir. Acoustics like that, with a real, old fashioned, working pipe organ, and they don't have a choir. That just seems wrong to me.
Anyway, 2 1/2 hours after we got downtown, we got back on the subway to go home. It was a really nice way to spend a late-spring Sunday afternoon.
There was this thing "Doors open" thing happening in Toronto last weekend, which meant that a lot of the historic and/or interesting buildings in the city were open to the public for viewing. There were over 150, all over the city, of which I saw 3. *g*
It was fun, though, to be just out and wandering the downtown core. I'm once again reminded how much I love the energy of it.
The buildings, you ask?
We started at the CBC building, which we really didn't get to see much of, but we did get a listing of everything nearby that was open. So, that stop was useful, even if we didn't do much more than gaze up the atrium.
The new OCAD building was way cool. I'd love for my father to see the tour some day - I think it would thrill his civil-engineer heart. You can see a picture at the main OCAD site, but I couldn't figure out a good angle to take one with my camera.
We wandered past the TD building, but the lineup was ridiculously long. Since the point of the day was not to stand line for hours, I gave up a shot at gazing out over the city from a 55th story boardroom, and we moved on.
The last stop of the day was The Church of the Holy Trinity. This will, of course, always be known to me as "the place where the Cowboy Junkies recorded The Trinity Session" . The Church itself is this lovely little oasis of peace (complete with a grass labyrinth just outside) a 5 minute walk from what is, arguably, the busiest pedestrian intersection in the city. It's small, but it seems like all the Anglican Churches in the city are small compared to what I'm used to. The windows are gorgeous, as is the woodwork around the building. One thing I though was neat - it was built with benches instead of fixed pews, in an attempt to keep the congregation more egalitarian. This kept the wealthier families from "owning" pews, and was supposed to help make everyone feel welcome. They even, after a few years, put little divider bars on the benches to keep people from taking up too much room.
The acoustics in there are amazing. But I'm guessing that they have a very small congregation, since they don't actually have a choir. Acoustics like that, with a real, old fashioned, working pipe organ, and they don't have a choir. That just seems wrong to me.
Anyway, 2 1/2 hours after we got downtown, we got back on the subway to go home. It was a really nice way to spend a late-spring Sunday afternoon.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-31 12:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-31 12:45 pm (UTC)There were a number of people wandering around yesterday, so it didn't seem as quiet as it usually does. I've never been inside, before, but it has this...vibe, y'know? Spiritual does seem like the best word.