Blogs from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, North America

If I’m in the countryside of Nicaragua drinking a Toña Cerveza at a local bar waiting for a delivery of smoke-able contraband and I tell the waitress that I’m from New York, she imagines a city full skyscrapers, fame, crime, and fortune. Well… That’s not the New York where this adventure begins, but it is where it ends (see the next blog). For this trip, we needed to visit upstate New York and beyond with our final destination being the Canadian version of France’s Bordeaux, Grimsby-Ontario near Hamilton. This area is famous for big box stores, strip malls, and weddings. Did I say weddings? I meant money.... No.... I meant weddings... No money.... weddings.... mo$$ey$we$dd$$in$gs!>&$#%@*) Yes, money and weddings go hand in hand and Grimsby has figured that out. To accommodate the wedding crowd, they’ve also ... read more

We wake up to sunny skies with just a little cloud, we have organised a bus tour today, we off to numerous historical sites to look at Niagara Falls, the parks are just beautiful, well maintained with green lawns, lovely flower beds, we stop into the Butterflies enclosure, what a magnificent place to be, as you walk through the enclosure, hundreds of butterflies flutter around, some even land on you, the colours & patterns on there wings are majestic. We now head towards the last part of our tour which is a boat ride to Niagara Falls, we now board the Maid of The Mist and head towards the bottom of Niagara falls, to appreciate the beauty and the enormity of the Falls you need to see it for yourself. The tour now ends, what a ... read more

Since my last entry I have experienced a fire alarm at 4.30am & a bus breaking down. All interesting experiences but I am glad that I wasn't in a rush to get to Niagara yesterday. I have spent the day admiring the falls from both the Canadian & American side. I was told that the Canadian side had the best views of the falls & whilst I agree that the sheer size of the falls can be seen, I really enjoyed the American side where you can see the water racing towards the edge & then simply disappear. It is great to stand at the top & just look at the water going over the top & seeing all the spray come up. I did the Maid of the mist tour this morning & got a ... read more

We have been to Europe a number of times, however; the way we travel has changed dramatically since that time. In 1984 I booked our trip with a travel agent. All my information came from travel publications such as Travel & Leisure, and the travel section of the Star and Globe. Our reservations were made by teletype, fax or snail mail. This time, our information was obtained by travel blogs, Trip Advisor and other websites. Airmiles was used for the airfare and hotels, and everything else was reserved online - instantaneously. Rarely did we think about calling home. We knew everyone would be excited to learn about our trip once we returned and had the film developed. Now I have a global SIM that I will put in a quad band GSM phone and make calls ... read more

Sunday 28 August. We were supposed to be joining the tour in NY today, but coudn't get there because of Hurricane Irene. Montreal is OK, weather is cool but fine. We went for a wander to the underground shopping centres for something to do. Monday 29 August, Went for a walk to the Old Port area, and just strolled around the streets looking at houses, shops, and Notre Dame Cathedral. Went back to the underground shops, and Joyce bought a couple of things. We found a Dollarama shop and bought some cheap food. Tuesday 30 August caught up with the tour here and went on a sightseeing drive to the Basilica (3rd largest dome in the world behind St Peters in Rome and a church on the Ivory Coast in Africa). The tour went to a ... read more

Today we woke up and got ready to go to Niagara Falls. We had a quick breakfast and set off along the highway. When we reached Niagara the sight was absolutely unbelievable! The around the lake there was Victorian Era housing. The falls themselves were massive, with unimaginable amounts of water flowing over them - enough to fill million bath tubs every second. When you drove by them there was so much mist that clouds were formed and a light rain fell. We parked the truck and walked over to the top of the falls, where you could see the calm water flowing peacefully in Lake Eerie before its plummet down 78 feet. After spending 20 or so minutes just watching the water and taking some pictures, we walked into the main building to buy everyone ... read more