Canada Chronicles - Part III: The Castle Inside Itself

The first day, after seeing Scott Pilgrim again, we went off to Casa Loma. Imagine Hogwarts, but not just any Hogwarts.

It's historic, and was owned by the alleged inspiration to none other than James Fricking Bond, Sir Henrey Pallett. Henry was the owner of this castle which housed a secret British spy training camp in WWII. Situated in Toronto, it has a few towers, one of which, the Scottish Tower, offers a fabulous view of Toronto, and houses the infamous Casa Loma Escape scenarios, which were unfortunately sold out for our trip.

We entered the castle at the start, wandering around and encountering a tunnel used in Canada's prohibition days. Yes, an old dark tunnel used to shuttle gin, rum, and the occasional lost kitten to and from the castle of secret British spies.

We were in the thick of it matey!

At the end of the must, just when we were tiring of walking to the end of what seemed like a light at the end of the tunnel (verbose writing, eh?) we encountered none other than a bounce house. An actual rubbery bounce house of the exact castle that we were standing under!

Now we were about 10 times the height and weight limit (exaggeration for comedic effect) for the blown-up house so we doubled back and viewed Sir Pallett's modest collection of various Model T, Model Q and antique electric cars. Oh nothing fancy of course. Just indispensable automobile artifacts.

Off to the various rooms and hallways, each ordained by detailed tiles, marvelous marble, and lavish luxurious-looking metals. The porcelain tubs were gleamingly white, tapestries were dashing and colorful, and skeletons were hidden away, out of our view - but I heard a zombie grunt under the bed.

Rooms were set up with activities. Em and I decorated cookies and made dream catchers. It was pretty amazing and awesome. These wooden carvings were outside on the balcony:

As we left, I encountered a blue glistening at the edge of my eye. I turned, and came face to face, to the left of the large wooden door beyond which the sun gleamed brightly, a glowing blueish white portal! As I stepped into it, beckoning Claire to come with me, I-