Days 4 & 5 - Niagara

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Off on the tourist trail we went! A 2-hour drive along the wide roads with big vehicles, past several Canadian wineries saw us parking up outside the Radisson at Niagara Falls.

Ontario is host to two-thirds of Canada’s vineyards, and in 2015 was responsible for 62% of the total 56.2 million litres produced. Due to the weather patterns ice wine is produced in Canada. Ice wine is something I’d never heard of, but is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. I’ll report back when I’ve tried some.

My first view of the Horseshoe Falls was from a view point just across the road from the hotel. It is breath taking, with the thunder of the water and the misty spray swirling up from the bottom of the falls. It's 57m high, and has the equivalent of around 1 million bathtubs full of water heading over the crest every minute. However beautiful and captivating nature is however, this is definitely a tourist area, with many hotels and restaurants, and an area called Cliifton Hill which is full of fairground-style activities.

We wandered across Lock Bridge, a small bridge across the road loaded with thousands of locks and several chains, many of them with names on. A sign tells one that locks can be purchased in a nearby hotel should that be your want.

Heading through the visitor centre we bought tickets to visit the tunnels that take you behind the falls, and headed out onto the terrace to have a better look at the falls, joining the hundreds of other tourists doing the same. Looking down into the falls from so near gave a better impression of the massive power of the water as it plunged over the crest – very impressive! It was also quite a relief that the falls caused the air to be cooler down here than up by the hotel.

We headed to the entrance to the tunnels, donned our bright yellow ponchos and headed down. We followed a queue to a viewing point about halfway down the Canadian end of the falls, and it was lovely to feel the tingle of the cold spray on my face as the water plummeted down just a couple of metres away from me.

The tunnel then goes approximately 200m – almost 1/3 – across the width of the falls, the whole width being 650m, and you see the falls as it cascades down a couple of metres in front of you. It’s really loud here, and we had to shout to be heard!

Joanne served our lunch of a charcuterie board in the Terrace Rock restaurant. It was really pretty and quite delicious apart from one item which we couldn’t identify. It was thin slices of something off-white in colour and with a chewy texture and little flavour. Joanne told us it is was egg plant, and that it was good. We took her word for it.

We headed towards the jetty opposite the American Falls to catch a boat. For the boat we donned bright pink ponchos. The boats coming from the USA side had blue ponchos. The boat was packed with a few hundred people, mainly adults, each paying around $35. The cruise to the falls took around 20 minutes, and the boat left approximately every 40 minutes. It was an experience! There were loud shrieks from people as we headed right into the massive ball of spray at the bottom of the falls, and while most people pulled up their pink hoods to protect themselves from the water, I revelled in feeling the cold drops on my face and arms. Wonderful!

We took a stroll around the Clifton Hill area, popping into Reece’s chocolate shop where they sell the biggest choccie bar I’ve ever seen, weighing in at 5lbs! We both came out with a small packet of something.

Heading up the hill we decided that with all the fair style attractions it would be a nightmare with children in tow. We avoided everything except the Ferris wheel; the ride was quite enjoyable if a long, and gave excellent views of the falls and the whole Niagara Falls area.

We logged a virtual cache before heading up to TGI Friday for dinner, and after a couple of libations headed back down to the terrace to wait for the light show and fireworks. It was getting a little chilly now. Luckily, we had both picked up light jumpers from our room on the way to dinner, and we managed to find a wall which was beautifully warm to sit on, having been bathed in hot sunlight all day. We partook in a bit of people-watching to pass the time. The light show started off quite slowly, and wasn’t hugely impressive overall, but the 5 minutes of fireworks starting at 22:00 on the dot was worth the wait. We did feel sorry for all the gulls who rose up in a huge flock from their nesting sites, disturbed by the bangs and booms of the fireworks.

Waking up on Friday morning we had a healthy-ish breakfast of yogurt, fruit and granola. Portion sizes in restaurants here are large, and seeing some of the other options from the menu come out on their plates, I’m glad I didn’t choose them!

Today we drove to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a beautiful little town on the shore of Lake Ontario. We stopped on the way to visit the Floral Clock in Niagara Park. The design of the clock is changed twice a year, and is has up to 16000 bedding plants – quite a task.

There were several sprinklers in action on the lawns around the clock, and it was like a game attempting to avoid them as we walked (scampered!) to the back of the clock to see the mechanism and photos of previous designs. Susan was unscathed, but I lost a life!

Parking opposite the church at Niagara-on-the-Lake, we headed inside to have a look. Susan was greeted by a church guide who took her around the church telling her about all the beautiful stained-glass windows and some other general information. I went free rein, earwigging on their conversation at times. I found some memorials to people from Ireland, and one for The Rev. Romaine Rolph from Thornbury, about 30-minute drive from Clevedon, where I live in the UK.

I managed to get a quick paddle in the beautifully clear water of the lake. Sadly, only up to my knees as I’d omitted to bring my swimming cossie.

The houses here are quaint, old-style houses, mostly clad with wooden boards in various pastel colours, and surrounded by picket fences. There are some hugely impressive homes, and we had a look in an estate agent (realtors) window to see that the majority were on the market at over $1million; we noticed one at $6,650,000 - as I’m typing this on Saturday morning, Susan found one online at $10,750,000!

The shops are lovely, selling good quality clothing, food, souvenirs etc. I purchased a linen top in preparation for our Vietnam trip later in the year – yes, there’ll be a blog! Susan bought some chimney cake from the Budapest Bakery – another first for me – it’s a hollow tube of sweet bread dough covered in sugar and cinnamon – delicious! We went into the oil and balsamic vinegar shop next door to the bakery; now I do like my olive oil and balsamic vinegar, but my goodness, what a choice! Sooooo many different flavours of oil. We came out with a bottle of delicious but unflavoured balsamic.

We managed to complete another Adventure Lab cache, which took us around some of the historical buildings in the town, and finally to the Old Angel Inn – a British style pub apparently haunted by Captain Colin Swayze. We didn’t see any sign of hauntings, but they did have lots of branded items for sale. We also grabbed a physical cache on the beach.

We popped into the Apothecary – a museum of the Apothecary shop that operated in the building from 1820-1964. Lot of original bottles, flasks, pill boxes, tills and so on, and a very definite smell of liniment.

Susan drover the 2 hours or so back to Cambridge, with me smiling at her narrative – she chatters to other drivers, commenting on their ability and questioning whether they really wanted to do that! We popped into Zehr’s, a local supermarket to get some food for the next couple of days. While we were there, I visited the pharmacy to buy some antihistamine cream for the many bites on my arms and legs – these Canadian mossies are a nuisance!

Once back at home with the food unpacked, we debriefed in the garden over a glass of wine before having a supper of a yummy charcuterie board without any egg plant.

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