People Watching In Toronto-Day 2

After tinkering with the alarm half a dozen times, decide the best course of action is to sleep 'til 9:00

The plan was to get up before the crowds hit the streets and at least enjoy a bit of peace downtown. Decide that breakfast in bed is by far the better option.  You have to admire the coordination of services in such a place.  Should you want breakfast brought to your room, simply hang your menu choices outside your door before 2:00 AM  Presumably a team walks the corridors post 2AM to collect the requests.  Seems like quite the undertaking for a random door tag. 
I indulged in my Market pastry, three cups of coffee and the paper.  Felt sufficiently revived to start the day, proper, at 11:00. The noon checkout is great-that extra hour makes all the difference.  More places should adopt this.

The ten minute walk to the car defeated me and with 35C humid temps, started the walk north feeling less than enthusiastic. UGH. There is no air flow in the downtown.  There is no air space left with all the high rises.

However, amid the scrapers are buildings that have a little character to them.

Off to spend the afternoon with Picasso.  Arrived at the AGO at peak tourist time.  People are sheep and one by one filed into the rooms and viewed the pictures IN ORDER.  It is OK to spread out and have a look around.  See what takes your eye.  It felt more like visiting someone lying in state.

Paintings of note for me are:

~2 Figures in a Forest, Woman in Blue Hat, Woman in Red Chair, Village Dance & Reading

Cubism becoming clearer.

Doesn't matter where you stand to view a piece of art, someone will always come and stand in front of you.  Why?

The AGO is all business-the program, the audio guide, the exhibit-specific gift shop.  Is this necessary?  I think most people visit a gift shop, they don't need it shoved in their face.  In order to access the family friendly cafe, you have to walk through the main gift shop; the children's gift shop is right at the bottom of the stairs.  You can't get away from it.

I do give 10/10 for the muffins.

Other exhibits of note are:

~Berenice Abbot-black & white photography

~Memory Doors

~The European collection

~Ken Thompson collection-love the snuff bottles

Fading fast and took off for Yonge and Dundas-only to get out of the rain.

Finished off the day on Front East.  Conversation with a Japanese student-here for a year working on her English.  She was off to St. James.  Delightful conversation which was interrupted by a lunatic needing $0.80.  He claimed diabetes and, when we refused to engage with him, upped the ante with a brain tumour.  A verbal assault followed and there was a tirade against Dalton McGuinty.  Language one normally only hears in a British independent film.