After I finished up in Japan, China and Korea (the areas I really wanted to see), I decided that the efficient way to go through the ROM would be to go up to the top and work my way down.

In the Textiles and Costume gallery they had an exhibit – Fashion Follows Form: Designs for Sitting.  This was a really interesting exhibit about fashion and accessibility.

Beside that is the Roloff Beny Gallery, which had a really cool exhibit.  It’s called The Entire City Project: Royal Ontario Museum, and is amazing.  Basically, a photographer went all over the ROM (even in the areas that the public cannot access) and took pictures.  He documented the entire museum, and boy was there a lot to document.

There are walls covered in photographs.  I could have spent days in here, looking over everything.

I took the elevator up to the fourth floor, but then walked the Stairs of Wonder down to the third floor.  The Stairs of Wonder have little mini-exhibits on the landings (seashells, paperweights, etc).

On the third floor you can find Greece and Egypt (among many other things).  In the Egypt area you can even go inside a full scale, touchable, replica of the inner chapel of the Tomb of Kitines.

I’m all for interactive art.  Also, I arrived early enough that there weren’t too many other people in the area.

From there you can wander into the Middle East and Africa, and all the way over to Europe.

I wandered through Europe: Evolution of Style, which I didn’t know if I’d like, but found quite interesting.  If you have any interest in interior design or any kind of design then take a wander through here.  There are rooms in styles throughout the times – fully decorated – as well as decorative items.

And it has armour.  …And more swords…  …Yup, I definitely have a problem…

From there you can take the Totem Pole Stairs down to the second floor.

Definitely worth a look.

The second floor is the dinosaur floor, but also has mammals, birds, earth’s treasures, and other stuff I didn’t get a chance to explore.  It also has a bat cave, which I didn’t notice on the map and subsequently missed.  I wonder if Bruce Wayne goes there when he visits the ROM…

Honestly, my legs were getting tired of standing by this time.  Also, I had dinner plans, so I didn’t have much time left to explore.  After a brief visit at the gift shop it was time to leave.

Maybe next time, ROM, maybe next time…