On Dragon Hill: Climbing More Stairs

Stairs. . . .

Lately Regis and I do not do stairs very well. I blame my mother, as I have inherited some of her arthritis and my knees and hip do not like stairs. COVID delays have only allowed Regis to get one cataract fixed so far, so her vision is not the best and with one fixed eye and one bad one, her depth perception is way off, particularly at ground level, so she does not see sidewalk cracks or stairs very clearly. The condo here is on six levels, and we are constantly going up or down stairs to do anything, so stairs are unavoidable.

You would think we would know better than to go visit an attraction with lots of stairs, but no, we decided to visit Casa Loma castle here in Toronto yesterday.

Baldwin Steps . . 110 of them

In order to get to the castle, you can drive, but we decided to take public transit which we enjoy using here in the big city. Out of the subway station we walked up Spadina Rd., and ended up at the Baldwin Steps. As the name implies . . . . more steps, 110 in fact leading up the hill to the castle.

And the castle itself . . . . . wide elegant central stairways, but also narrow wooden stairs, secret passageways with even narrower stairs, and rickety spiral stairs to climb into the towers. Then the worst of all, an underground tunnel with uneven surface and dim lighting and images projecting onto the walls and floor. But with a lot of, “watch out, one step down.”, “three steps up”, or “careful, narrow stairs!”, we made it through and actually enjoyed the visit to Casa Loma very much.

Casa Loma

Casa Loma really is a spectacular attraction. Built in 1911 by financier Sir Henry Pellatt for 3.5 million dollars, it was the largest private residence in Canada. It sits on top of a hill, providing a lovely view over the city of Toronto. The actual design envisioned by Pellatt was never finished completely. For example, he planned to have three bowling alleys in the basement but only one was finished, and the third floor was never completed while he lived there. Unfortunately, the castle cost so much to build and with the financial troubles of the great depression Pellatt only lived in the house for 10 years before he had to give it up. It is currently owned by the city of Toronto and is leased to an entertainment company and used at a setting for movies.

And we did climb the spiral stairs to the top of the tower to enjoy the views over the city. A great adventure in Toronto.