Toronto and Niagara Falls

On Wednesday morning I woke up to heavy rain. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, I thought that the CN tower was out of the question cause of the low lying cloud so that left Niagara Falls.

They do free pancakes in the morning in the hostel but as it had stopped raining by 930 I went out for a walk before the tour to Niagara Falls left (1115). The tour cost CAN$50 and it doesn't get back until about 1130 in the evening.

I was right to choose Niagara Falls (I think). I just went for a walk and I could only just see the base of the CN tower. The clouds are so low that it would just be a waste of time.

We got picked up from the Hostel at about 11am and we headed out to the Niagara region straight away. We stopped for lunch before we got there as it was going to be a bit cheaper. The first stop was NOTL (Niagara on the Lake). It was described to us as a retirement town and it lived up to that. The town center seemed very quiet (apart from the tourists) and the shops where all geared towards the older generation. I managed to find a Scotish shop that sold Irn Bru, unfortunately a 2L bottle costs CAN$8. Needless to say I left it on the shelf.

Next we headed off to do some wine tasting. It was the same as most other wineries, we had a look around, heard the story of the winery then there was a tasting. They also made a wine there that I wasn't aware of before going there. It is called Ice Wine. They pick the grapes during the winter when they are frozen. Doing this reduces the about of juice you get from each grape and hence the wine is very expensive but it is also very sweet.

Next we headed off to the whirlpool, it isn't the kind of whirlpool you would make in a pool, like in Florence for example, but a culmination of about 70 smaller whirlpools where the Niagara river takes a 90 degree turn and stirs up all the water.


After that we headed off to the Falls. From the top I was wondering what all the fuzz was about, sure they looked fairly good, but it wasn't until I was down on the Maid of the Mist that the true power of them became apparent. The boat went right into the horse-shoe falls and the sound, the height, the way it rocked the boat and just how wet we got from the spray was amazing.

We had a little free time after that to look around and get a bit of dinner before we went back to the falls for the night show. The town that has sprang up at the falls is one of the most touristey places I have been. It looked more like a carnival than a town. There where adventure rides, theme'ed restraunts, strong man competitions casinos and even haunted houses.

At night they shined coloured light on to the water and it created a great effect.

During the bus ride back to the hostel I managed to get a bit of sleep, you will all know how much trouble I have sleeping :-)