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Published: June 26th 2017
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Geo: 43.9138, -78.6885
I've not updated this for a couple of days because the computer was not connecting. Having had it looked at the irony was that the most upmarket hotel we have stayed in, The Hyatt in Buffalo, did not have a workable wireless connection. We are now in a small hotel in a backwater in Canada and we are connected!!!
So now to the events of the last few days.
We flew from Seattle to Buffalo on Wednesday. This was just a travelling day as it was a 5 hour flight to Chicago and then a 2 hour flight to Buffalo. We had to spend an extra 1 1/2 hours in Chicago airport waiting for our plane, so in the end we arrived in Buffalo at midnight as there was a 3 hour time shift.
Thursday morning was spent in collecting our new hire car, a Pontiac. It was the first day we had experienced pouring rain so we didn't mind the time spent in doing this. Once we had picked up the car we headed for Niagara Falls, as this was the main reason we had come here. Fortunately, the rain cleared up as the day went on. In Niagara we organised
to take two tours. One on this night which would take us to the Canadian side and allow us to see the falls by night, and a second on Friday morning to explore the American Falls. We had a few hours this afternoon so drove towards Lockport, a town on the Erie Canal at which there were Historic Locks. On the way we stopped at a couple of wineries in this area. The first was ordinary, but the second, Arrowhead Springs Winery had excellent riesling, chardonnay and 2 very good reds. Their piece de resistance was their Icewine. Absolutely delicious!!
In Lockport we explored the Historic Locks which take boats through what is a 60 foot drop in water levels. Quite amazing. I had heard of the Erie Canal but this was eye-opening to see the level of engineering that went into this back in the early 19th century.
Back in Niagara we embarked on our tour about 6pm. We first went across the border into Canada and then to the feature, Behind the Falls. This takes visitors down through tunnels behind the Horseshoe Falls which are the most spectacular and well known. The tunnels take tourists to viewing platfoms where the
wall of water can been seen and then out very close to where the edge of the falls roars down. We were given very attractive,(not!!) ponchos to wear as the spray ensures tourists get soaking wet. It was amazing, standing next to this falling tumult of water thundering past. We really got an idea of the power of this force of water. We then got to view the falls from the top and see the rapids before the river reaches the Falls. We were then taken to other interesting features of the area, including a Floral Clock and the Power Stations which use the waters of the Niagara river to generate electricity. Back in the main centre of town we went up to the top of the Skylon Tower where we had an amzing view of the Falls. It was now getting dark and the Falls are illuminated at night.The changing colours playing on the incessant water are spectacular. Fletcher took lots of photos some of which I will include with this entry. Back on the ground we were also able to view the colours on ground level. We returned to our car by 10-30pm and then drove back to
Buffalo which only took about 30 minutes.
In the end a great day with the close up look at the beauty of this natural feature the highlight.
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