A Day at The ROM...

Gloria and I recently spent a couple days in Toronto, she for workshops and I as a tourist. I walked many a mile around the city during our stay and found myself one afternoon at the main entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum. Thinking "when will I have this chance again" I went in.

There are over 6 millions items in the museum collection and while I'm sure I didn't see all of them I'm certain a good many of them passed through my view that afternoon.

One of the special exhibits open at the moment is "The Nature of Diamonds" being presented by De Beers. This is a fantastic display showing every aspect of the diamond mining process with a multi-multi-multi million dollar display of jewellery and gems including this one... "The Incomparable Diamond." This stone is a fantastic 407.48 yellow diamond cut in the shield shape and was found in its original 890 carat state by a young girl playing in the rubble beside her uncles house in the Congo. Value? Only about $12 million! I had thought about picking it up for Gloria but looking around at the 12" thick steel vault walls, the cameras and the security guards complete with bullet-proof vests sort of discouraged my idea a little bit!

How about Marie Antoinette's dress? I know someone who claims that in a previous life he was a soldier in the French court who actually saw this lady on several occasions. He swears that he never saw her in this particular dress but that she was in fact a bit of a show off and normally wore more colorful and flamboyant apparel. Probably one of the things that got her in trouble with the good citizens of the day as she was beheaded shortly after my friend remembers being drowned in a fountain by a group of rioting peasants.

The museum is crammed full of human artifacts from all over the world some dating back 5,000 years and I won't even try to describe them all. Suits of chain mail and weaponry from the time of the knights, statutes of Buddha, Japanese porcelain, dinosaur skeletons, Hawaiian costumes, Chinese tombs... a person could spends months here and still not see and understand everything. I'm going back for sure... anyone care to join me?