Niagara Falls

Sunday was a day of great excitement as we were going to go to Niagara Falls!  Our plans of a great night’s sleep on a comfy bed in a quiet hotel failed to factor in the stupid hotel air-conditioning.  It seems to be set for an ambient temperature of about 23°C.  This is way too warm to sleep.  We tried turning it down, but that unleashed a howling gale of cold air into the room.  We eventually just turned it off but the room got hotter and hotter during the night.  Sleep will have to happen some other time.

We had to be ready for pick-up outside our hotel between 8.30-8.45am.  We planned on heading out for something to eat first and being back at the hotel by then.  Unfortunately, nothing around us was open that early except for BK, so it was some sort of muffin thing for breakfast.  We were back at the hotel at the appointed time, but there was no sign of our tour bus.  Siobhan had booked it and just had an email confirmation on her phone and no voucher.  She was starting to get worried, even though we had called and confirmed with them the previous evening.  We called them again to find out when the bus might arrive, and the guy told us he’d be there in 5 mins in his black BMW.  He turned up in his flash 7 series car, and whisked us away.  We were going to be travelling in style.  Unfortunately, he took us to another hotel where there was one of those half-size buses.  We got kicked out of the flash car and into the bus.  The bus was packed with no spare seats.  It had clearly seen better days, and seemed to have been made before suspension was invented – or that was how it rode.

We set off for Niagara and our first stop was a winery where we got to taste, white wine, red wine and ice wine.  I had been looking forward to the ice wine as I had heard good things about it.  Don’t believe them.  It is pretty nasty stuff.  More interesting though was another couple on the bus were from NZ.  He was from Wellington and she was from Christchurch.  They had been living in Vancouver for a year, and are about to go to the UK too.  

 

Back on the bus, we headed to Niagara on the Lake.  This is a very picturesque little town with beautiful plantings through the streets and shops full of quaint and useless stuff.  We wandered around there for about 40 minutes.  Well actually more than that, as one couple (who only spoke French) turned up back at the bus when it suited them rather than when we were supposed to be there.  

Whirlpool - water comes in bottom right and goes out top

That coffee-filled interlude over, we then stopped at a couple of lookout points where we could take photos, and then stopped at the whirlpool.  This is where the Niagara river comes to a right angled corner.  Instead of simply turning the corner, the water is in such a hurry that it has carved out a cul-de-sac where it turns around on itself before heading back out again.  This creates the whirlpool.  Apparently the current is so strong that stuff that goes in to the whirlpool often takes a week or two to emerge again.  Hopefully our photos will give you a better idea.

These appetisers and tasters had all been greedily devoured as we raced to the main event of the Falls.  They are pretty big and pretty impressive.  Somehow when I imagined them though, I expected that they would be higher.  Not as high as the ones we saw in Yosemite, but I was expecting a bit more height to them.  However, I didn’t and am still struggling to comprehend the volume of water that goes over the Falls.  When you see the volume of water going over the edge, it seems as if that could keep going at that rate for about a minute, but then all the water in the world would be used up and it would stop.  But it just keeps going.

American Falls

Horseshoe Falls

Our tour guide took us down to the Maid of the Mist and Siobhan was most impressed that there were no queues of people.  When she had been to the Falls with her Mum, they had stood outside in the line for about an hour.  We simply grabbed our ponchos and walked straight on.  Given it was freezing cold, we already had our big warm coats on.  The ponchos seemed superfluous.  They weren’t.  The spray from the water is very soaking, and in true Wellington winter style, comes at you virtually horizontally.  The ponchos were good, but we still got reasonably wet.  The Falls were amazingly impressive.  Very cool.

Horseshoe Falls

Once off the boat, we walked up to the top of the Horseshoe Falls and it was there that you could see up-close the volume of water going over the edge.  The American Falls are also impressive and they have more water falling over rocks tumbling down.  The Horseshoe falls have water disappearing straight down at an incredible rate.  It really is one of the wonders of the world.

We then had some time before we were due back on the bus so we headed into town.  This place is crazy.  It was like we were back in Las Vegas again.  There is a street where every garish thing you can imagine and then some is gathered there in a single place to try and trick you into parting with your money, for what looked like pretty crappy entertainment.  It is also possible that I’m a little bit cynical.

The ride back to the hotel was reasonably uneventful, or we hope so as we slept for a good part of the way.  I guess that you get to a point where you take sleep where you can get it.

As we had only really snacked during the day, we headed out to the 3 Brewers for dinner.  It was the closest restaurant on Trip Advisor to our accommodation that had reasonable reviews.  Honest.  Anyway, a nice dinner was had and I got to try a couple of their beers.  They did have a weird beer menu of beers though.  They brew their own and they have a white, a blonde, an amber and a brown beer.  Rather than picking styles, it seemed that they had simply gone for colours.

Tasting notes: 

Pillitteri Estates Winery – Ice Wine – Pours very clear almost like water.  Tastes nasty.  Sweeter, more winey than wine.  Don’t drink it.  Drink beer instead.

3 Brewers – Amber ale – this was very nice.  A nice deep red, and without being over hoppy.  Maybe a bit sweet, but I liked it.

3 Brewers – Brown ale – while I was looking forward to trying this, it was a disappointment.  It simply tasted brown.  Not chocolately, not caramel either, just brown.