People asked “Why go to Toronto? It is just a sprawling concrete jungle!”. Apart from the CN Tower, good food, a chance for a beer in what seemed an eternity and a pre-arranged spot to meet Tan from months ago, we really came here to see one thing – apart from each other, it was Niagara Falls. Tones and Justice, our concierge guys organized the trip with CU Tours and we headed off at 8:45am. We passed lots of concrete buildings on the busy motorway, then into Oakville and past two steel making factories along the way. We turned off only 800m from the border with “Hello US and A”. Our first stop was the floral clock, wow, we were blown away by it, or was it the mass of powerlines setting off the vista in the background. The half way point on a nearby bridge marked the border with cars parked up on either side.
We checked out a power station in the US from Canada and then moved onto Whirlpool Pool. The mass of water running down the Niagara River come into this right angle and the water swirled in a large anti-clockwise flow. After a few shots we found a squirrel. Yes, another one but we were prepared as we had some muffin from the hotel. This little fella was wrapped with a bit of free tucker. With a honk of the horn we dragged our heels back to the bus.
Niagara is a bit like Las Vegas or so we can gather with lots of hotels, theme parks, tourist traps and maybe a few less bums. Oh, and casinos and replicas of replicas such as the CN Tower. Well all of that wasn’t for us. We went right to the honey zone and were dropped off at the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. Canada is the best place to view both the falls, luckily for us. The water as it flows towards the falls is quite turbulent and there are some great rapids. The sound of the water cascading over was loud and the mist was spraying everywhere. Our first glimpse of the full Horseshoe Falls was breath taking. This is truly a modern natural wonder of the world. They say 1,000,000 bath tubs of water flow over the falls every second which is much less now as up to 80% of the water is diverted in hydro electric plants. This is good as it stops the erosion of the falls back up river. 
After viewing the falls and watching the classic “Maid of the Mist” boats work their way under the mist of the cascading water it was our turn. We donned our blue plastic ponchos, a definite fashion statement, complete with draw string hood, and we were off. The first and less impressive falls is the American Bridal Veil Falls where 10% of the total water flows over. The base of the falls is complete with lots of rocks which make it appear like a set of Class 5 + rapids. We got our first touch of mist from these falls which was refreshing on this 29 degree day. 
We steamed (slowly) towards the chasm of mist, camera ready, at Horseshoe Falls. The view was absolutely amazing and the sound of the water falling was pretty loud. The sprinkle of fine mist couple with the wind generated from the water cascading was cool. It become more cool when we got a little closer and pleasant mist turned to drenching rain and strong winds. Trying to take photos at this stage was pretty difficult as the “rain” was pretty intense. We got a few and one awesome video which we might try and post one day. As we idled with the flow away from the falls and recounted our experiences, we both decided that this is must do if you are ever in Canada. A remarkable experience. 
After getting off the boat, we had a beer and a hot dog and then walked back along towards the Horseshoe Falls. With the sun in a different direction, rainbows started to form dazzling rings.
After a rest in the green grass we hit a winery. We sampled (scoffed) down some wines and famous ice wine. Ice wine is made after the fruit is frozen for a period of three consecutive days and somehow this helps keep the sweetness. It tastes like a sticky botrytis Riesling and it wasn’t that bad. We got talking to the lady and all the others started heading back to the bus. We weren’t budging as we wanted more. We bought a sample of this expensive $65CDN a bottle red ice wine (unique to the area) and it was very nice. The bus tooted the horn and lady asked if we wanted a plastic cup to savour to the taste. Tan necked it no worries and we were off. I think the bird was a bit bemused by the two Aussies but hey we weren’t coming back here for a while!!
Back in Toronto, Dan was super keen on going to Wayne Gretzsky’s bar as this guy is a (ice) hockey legend. It was great but we were more excited to see Lancie’s yellow jersey from the La Tour de France. After a couple of tins and a few photos of the memorabilia and the need for Tan to study up on hockey we were off. Some tea at a jazz bar and that was Toronto for us!!
We checked out a power station in the US from Canada and then moved onto Whirlpool Pool. The mass of water running down the Niagara River come into this right angle and the water swirled in a large anti-clockwise flow. After a few shots we found a squirrel. Yes, another one but we were prepared as we had some muffin from the hotel. This little fella was wrapped with a bit of free tucker. With a honk of the horn we dragged our heels back to the bus.Niagara is a bit like Las Vegas or so we can gather with lots of hotels, theme parks, tourist traps and maybe a few less bums. Oh, and casinos and replicas of replicas such as the CN Tower. Well all of that wasn’t for us. We went right to the honey zone and were dropped off at the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. Canada is the best place to view both the falls, luckily for us. The water as it flows towards the falls is quite turbulent and there are some great rapids. The sound of the water cascading over was loud and the mist was spraying everywhere. Our first glimpse of the full Horseshoe Falls was breath taking. This is truly a modern natural wonder of the world. They say 1,000,000 bath tubs of water flow over the falls every second which is much less now as up to 80% of the water is diverted in hydro electric plants. This is good as it stops the erosion of the falls back up river. After viewing the falls and watching the classic “Maid of the Mist” boats work their way under the mist of the cascading water it was our turn. We donned our blue plastic ponchos, a definite fashion statement, complete with draw string hood, and we were off. The first and less impressive falls is the American Bridal Veil Falls where 10% of the total water flows over. The base of the falls is complete with lots of rocks which make it appear like a set of Class 5 + rapids. We got our first touch of mist from these falls which was refreshing on this 29 degree day. We steamed (slowly) towards the chasm of mist, camera ready, at Horseshoe Falls. The view was absolutely amazing and the sound of the water falling was pretty loud. The sprinkle of fine mist couple with the wind generated from the water cascading was cool. It become more cool when we got a little closer and pleasant mist turned to drenching rain and strong winds. Trying to take photos at this stage was pretty difficult as the “rain” was pretty intense. We got a few and one awesome video which we might try and post one day. As we idled with the flow away from the falls and recounted our experiences, we both decided that this is must do if you are ever in Canada. A remarkable experience. After getting off the boat, we had a beer and a hot dog and then walked back along towards the Horseshoe Falls. With the sun in a different direction, rainbows started to form dazzling rings.After a rest in the green grass we hit a winery. We sampled (scoffed) down some wines and famous ice wine. Ice wine is made after the fruit is frozen for a period of three consecutive days and somehow this helps keep the sweetness. It tastes like a sticky botrytis Riesling and it wasn’t that bad. We got talking to the lady and all the others started heading back to the bus. We weren’t budging as we wanted more. We bought a sample of this expensive $65CDN a bottle red ice wine (unique to the area) and it was very nice. The bus tooted the horn and lady asked if we wanted a plastic cup to savour to the taste. Tan necked it no worries and we were off. I think the bird was a bit bemused by the two Aussies but hey we weren’t coming back here for a while!!Back in Toronto, Dan was super keen on going to Wayne Gretzsky’s bar as this guy is a (ice) hockey legend. It was great but we were more excited to see Lancie’s yellow jersey from the La Tour de France. After a couple of tins and a few photos of the memorabilia and the need for Tan to study up on hockey we were off. Some tea at a jazz bar and that was Toronto for us!!
No comments:
Post a Comment