Canada Day 2- Casa Loma

Sunday was our last day and we had the entire day to do whatever we wanted. Our flight didn't leave until 2:30. Ben's boss, Kenneth, and his wife invited us to go with them to Casa Loma (house on the hill). It is a 98 room mansion that they call a castle. Sir Henry Pellat built it and eventually when bankrupt, before it was even finished. He began the project of building it in 1911. It took 3 years and $3.5 million. The Kiwanis Club owns it now.

This fountain is right out front.

This is the swimming pool in the basement. It didn't get finished. In the basement there was also a space that was supposed to be a bowling alley. It just has a cafe in it now for the tourists.

My favorite room was the conservatory. It was Canadian Thanksgiving and they were setting up for a brunch so we couldn't go inside.

This is Sir Pellat's room.

When the house was built he had top of the line everything, including this shower that sprayed from every direction when most homes barely had running water.

This room belonged to Lady Pellat. She was in a wheelchair so she spent most of her time in her room. Looking at these pictures, Josi said she wanted this room. I have to agree with her. I wouldn't mind have a bedroom like this.The closet was amazing too.

This room is called the Round Room. It is perfectly round and all of the doors and windows were specially made to fit with the curve of the walls. Look at the detail on the ceilings too! This was intended to be a sitting room for when royalty was visiting.

Ben's favorite part were the secret passages.

There was one on each side of this fireplace. One went up to his room on the second floor and the other went down to the wine cellar in the basement.

There was also a passage that went from the basement to under the stables/garage/potting shed. It felt like it was a mile long. You couldn't really see the other building from the main house, so it was far even if it wasn't a mile.

You could go up into the towers of the castle. To get there you climbed 4 sets of stairs, two of which were these spiral stairs. It was tough for me going up and even worse coming down.

And this is a view from the tower.There was only a tiny window to look through. The other tower was closed for repairs, but normally you could go out on top of it.

This is the back patio and a view of the grounds from it. I love the fountain.

The grounds were so beautiful, probably my favorite part of the whole thing. This is a little of the formal part of them.

You'll need to click on the photos to see them better. The one on the left has a a cool gazebo in it.

And this is a path to the informal part of the grounds.



This is a really neat sculpture that was on the grounds.

When we got closer I discovered just why is was so neat. And then I read the plaque.