Monday, 22 July 2013

Canada Trip - Niagara Falls

We had to get up quite early on Wednesday (4:30am) for our coach trip to Niagara Falls, (760km from Montreal). Our driver-guide was Richard and Normand the tour guide. They kept us entertained on the long drive south.The motorways were huge, at one stage 12 lanes! When there are accidents (and we saw one bad 3-car accident on the opposite side), the traffic gets held up for many kilometres  Arriving at Niagara, some of the people on the trip went on the helicopter sight-seeing, while we waited. Then we were taken down to do the “Maid of the Mist”. This boat trip takes you right up into the middle of the horseshoe shaped falls on the Canadian side. We could also see people walking down to the falls on the US side. We were taken to our Hotel to drop off our things, and then some of us went on a side-trip to a Winery http://www.pillitteri.com/ for a wine-tasting. The wines were really delicious (well, at least I though so), and included a Gewürztraminer and white and red ice-wine. Part of this was also some time in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a quaint community with beautiful historic houses with fabulous gardens, and a historic town centre, where the buildings have been preserved. Also here was Fort George where a major battle was fought in 1812 when the English defeated the French and Quebec then became Canadian. Back at Niagara Falls we walked right up to the edge of the Horseshoe Falls, and waited for the lights to be turned on. It was very beautiful to see, but the photos didn't turn out. We then walked back to the Hotel, past the streets which were like a theme-park, and stopped to watch some fudge-making on the way. We didn't get dinner until 10:15pm, and just grabbed some take-away. We had a really cool good night's sleep.   




A deep canal at "Niagara"

Richard, the driver, teaching us how to taste wine.









US Falls

Horseshoe Falls



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