Tourists in Toronto: ROM

After a short lesson from my brother about getting around Toronto on our own and a visit with my husband's cousin who is taking her doctorate in the University of Toronto, we started the serious business of sightseeing. The first place we visited was the Royal Ontario Museum, located at the corner of Queen's Park and Bloor Street West. We approached it from Bloor, where we got a good view of the original 1914 building with the 2007 Michael Lee-Chin Crystal wing.




The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal is named after the Jamaican-Canadian billionaire who donated $30 million for the building, which was designed by American architect Daniel Libeskind. As I was taking photos of this amazing, gravity-defying, crystalline structure, a man who was just about to enter his car came up to me and said, "Isn't that the ugliest building you have ever seen?" Not quite ready to get into a possibly long discussion with a resident, I grinned at him and said, "Let's just say that it's unusual." He laughed, continued getting into his car and drove off.




We spent most of the afternoon in the ROM's World Culture Galleries, but just before the museum closed for the day, I insisted on a short visit to one of the Natural History Galleries. Now I can finally say that I've seen a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton! Whee!