15 November 2006
Falls
Wednesday 1 November
When we arrived at Niagara train station yesterday we asked the station attendant if there was anywhere nearby she could suggest to stay. She said there wasn’t much near the station as round there it was mostly small seasonal places and that it was a long way from the falls anyway. So we took her advice and got a taxi to Clifton Hill. It turned out to be a good move as he gave us some vouchers for free entry into various things, and haggled with the motel to get us a better rate (we probably wouldn't have known we could do that and would have just paid what they asked).
Niagara Falls, ON, is incredibly tacky: full of motels, cheap restaurants (“famous ribs”), amusement arcades, casinos, haunted houses and “museums” (freak shows). It’s an odd contrast with the falls. The accent is more like New York (which is just across the river) than other Canadian accents, and we had a bit of trouble understanding the taxi driver because he talked fast too.
After an “all you can eat” buffet breakfast at a nearby hotel this morning, we headed towards the falls. At the tourist information centre we asked for any tips on the best places to go. The woman gave us a bagful of leaflets, most of which we didn’t even look at till we’d left Niagara, and told us the way to the main viewing point. Her directions began with, “Go left up to the next stop sign, then left and left again” which sounded suspiciously like driving directions, even though we'd said, “We’re walking.”
As we were right by the Skylon Tower (it’s a bit like Toronto’s CN Tower only not so tall) we went up there. At the desk the woman said the discount coupon we had found in the leaflets bag was out of date, but she gave us the discount anyway, which was nice. They probably never sell full price tickets. From the observation platform at the top we could see the falls very well and the whole town as well.
When we tried to leave the Skylon Tower complex we found that there wasn’t a short cut down to Falls Avenue, so we thought the visitor information woman might have been right. We did, however, find an obvious short cut across a car park that meant we didn’t have to go via the stop sign, so we thought she was really giving directions for driving. We walked down the hill to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. The viewing areas are really just a wide pavement: the road runs right past the falls.
The falls were amazing – so powerful and so much water. Even several hundred yards away, the spray from the falls is like rain. It was quite hard to get the scale of it. The weather was very sunny so the rainbows were really bright.
We went down for the “Journey Behind the Falls” (saving over $20 with our coupons from the taxi) and learnt that the Horseshoe Falls has 17-35 million gal/min, and the American Falls 1.5-3 million. There are two observation platforms just above the Maid of the Mist Pool, which the Horseshoe Falls fall into. Then we went to the two tunnels dug into the rock directly behind the falls. You can’t get very close (but you get wet anyway), but the sound is incredible. We came back up, and decided to walk down the river and try and use some more coupons for the Whirlpool Aerocar, but as we approached the Rainbow Bridge we decided to visit the US instead on the spur of the moment. On the Canadian side there was just a 50¢ toll, but when we got to the US side we had our photos and fingerprints taken, and had to fill in visa waiver forms and pay $6 each. The US side is prettier than the Canadian side – all beside the falls is parkland (Goat Island, between the two falls, is the oldest State park in the US). We took a look at the American Falls from close up, then walked to Goat Island and saw the other side of the Horseshoe Falls. We were glad we’d gone: worth $12 (and we got another stamp in our passports!) It seemed funny to be able to pop over to a foreign country for half an hour.
We walked back to the motel, retrieved our luggage, then (the owner having disappeared before we could ask him to call a taxi) set about trying to hail a taxi to get to the station. After a couple of failed attempts, someone shouted “flagging them down doesn’t work here – they’re all %()$&*%$” then came and gave us the phone number of an “underground” taxi service. While we were wondering what to do next, an above-ground taxi finally responded to our waving. The train arrived on time, but left an hour late because it comes from the US and Canadian customs check it at Niagara.
Once in Toronto again, we found the hotel easily, had dinner in the hotel "pub" (fairly pub-like but it had waitress service and no nicotine stains on the ceiling) and prepared for tomorrow's marathon train journey across the country.
When we arrived at Niagara train station yesterday we asked the station attendant if there was anywhere nearby she could suggest to stay. She said there wasn’t much near the station as round there it was mostly small seasonal places and that it was a long way from the falls anyway. So we took her advice and got a taxi to Clifton Hill. It turned out to be a good move as he gave us some vouchers for free entry into various things, and haggled with the motel to get us a better rate (we probably wouldn't have known we could do that and would have just paid what they asked).
Niagara Falls, ON, is incredibly tacky: full of motels, cheap restaurants (“famous ribs”), amusement arcades, casinos, haunted houses and “museums” (freak shows). It’s an odd contrast with the falls. The accent is more like New York (which is just across the river) than other Canadian accents, and we had a bit of trouble understanding the taxi driver because he talked fast too.
After an “all you can eat” buffet breakfast at a nearby hotel this morning, we headed towards the falls. At the tourist information centre we asked for any tips on the best places to go. The woman gave us a bagful of leaflets, most of which we didn’t even look at till we’d left Niagara, and told us the way to the main viewing point. Her directions began with, “Go left up to the next stop sign, then left and left again” which sounded suspiciously like driving directions, even though we'd said, “We’re walking.”
As we were right by the Skylon Tower (it’s a bit like Toronto’s CN Tower only not so tall) we went up there. At the desk the woman said the discount coupon we had found in the leaflets bag was out of date, but she gave us the discount anyway, which was nice. They probably never sell full price tickets. From the observation platform at the top we could see the falls very well and the whole town as well.
When we tried to leave the Skylon Tower complex we found that there wasn’t a short cut down to Falls Avenue, so we thought the visitor information woman might have been right. We did, however, find an obvious short cut across a car park that meant we didn’t have to go via the stop sign, so we thought she was really giving directions for driving. We walked down the hill to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. The viewing areas are really just a wide pavement: the road runs right past the falls.
The falls were amazing – so powerful and so much water. Even several hundred yards away, the spray from the falls is like rain. It was quite hard to get the scale of it. The weather was very sunny so the rainbows were really bright.We went down for the “Journey Behind the Falls” (saving over $20 with our coupons from the taxi) and learnt that the Horseshoe Falls has 17-35 million gal/min, and the American Falls 1.5-3 million. There are two observation platforms just above the Maid of the Mist Pool, which the Horseshoe Falls fall into. Then we went to the two tunnels dug into the rock directly behind the falls. You can’t get very close (but you get wet anyway), but the sound is incredible. We came back up, and decided to walk down the river and try and use some more coupons for the Whirlpool Aerocar, but as we approached the Rainbow Bridge we decided to visit the US instead on the spur of the moment. On the Canadian side there was just a 50¢ toll, but when we got to the US side we had our photos and fingerprints taken, and had to fill in visa waiver forms and pay $6 each. The US side is prettier than the Canadian side – all beside the falls is parkland (Goat Island, between the two falls, is the oldest State park in the US). We took a look at the American Falls from close up, then walked to Goat Island and saw the other side of the Horseshoe Falls. We were glad we’d gone: worth $12 (and we got another stamp in our passports!) It seemed funny to be able to pop over to a foreign country for half an hour.
We walked back to the motel, retrieved our luggage, then (the owner having disappeared before we could ask him to call a taxi) set about trying to hail a taxi to get to the station. After a couple of failed attempts, someone shouted “flagging them down doesn’t work here – they’re all %()$&*%$” then came and gave us the phone number of an “underground” taxi service. While we were wondering what to do next, an above-ground taxi finally responded to our waving. The train arrived on time, but left an hour late because it comes from the US and Canadian customs check it at Niagara.
Once in Toronto again, we found the hotel easily, had dinner in the hotel "pub" (fairly pub-like but it had waitress service and no nicotine stains on the ceiling) and prepared for tomorrow's marathon train journey across the country.
