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| - The Casa Loma museum tour has the potential to be spectacular. However, it was a hectic, crowded, and somewhat disorganized experience.
Per Wiki its a "Gothic Revival style house and gardens" set atop a hill in a quiet Toronto neighborhood. It's an easy walk from the Dupont subway station (you can see it from the subway), up a set of winding stone stairs, into the front gate. Upon paying admission you find yourself in the building's great room, from which you must head downstairs to get a headset for a walking tour.
The building mainly occupies 3 floors and a cellar. The main floor, has a wide staircase that leads to all levels, the greenhouse, a study with "secret" staircases to other levels, and several all rooms,dining rooms, and assorted entertaining spaces. The second floor contains the main living and sleeping quarters (his and hers) as well as guest quarters. The third floor is most museum-like, with exhibits that showcase the history of the home and it's owners. There's apparently a staircase on the third floor that leads to a tower with spectacular views of Toronto, but I wasn't able to locate it. The basement opens into a long series of tunnels that contain 'bonus' items like entryway to the stables and greenhouse.
As mentioned earlier, the museum is a bit disorganized. Although the audio tour is helpful, certain of the recordings go on long tangents and some wholly fail to describe the items in front of which they are placed. The museum is so crowded that you have about 30 seconds to view each exhibit before having to move on. It also has insufficient signage; exhibits will have two entrances with signs placed only at one entrances. For both the his and hers quarters, I circled the entire wing before stumbling on a sign that explained anything. There were also a number of signs, within the exhibits, that advertised the wedding services offered at the castle, which was just tacky.
All in all it's a beautiful building, but the crowding and inattention to detail detracts from the experience,
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