Niagara Falls

26th May 2006

On our second day in Canada, Joel lent us his car to drive to Niagara, which is about an hour and a half by motorway from Georgetown. I say car, it was more like a truck! Poor little me had to drive this massive people carrier on the wrong side of the road and on somebody else's insurance. I was terrified! And just to make things REALLY difficult, it had been peeing it down with rain with no signs of letting up any time soon. Joel had tried to be helpful by explaining the route back to the house when he picked us up from the airport the night before, but what with all the roads over there being called things like 3rd Line and 8th Avenue, I was totally confused.

Somehow, though, we managed to find the Queen Elizabeth Way which was to take us all the way to the falls. Once we got on the highway (Eh! Get the lingo!) the weather turned even worse. It wasn't really raining as much as we just seemed to be driving through wet air. You couldn't see more than about 10 yards into the distance and to confuse me further, you're allowed to overtake on the inside over there. But I soon got the hang of it and was weaving in and out of traffic like a pro. Joel will now have permanent nail imprints in his passenger door where Gavin was hanging on for dear life...

We arrived in an extremely damp Niagara and found it to be busy with tourists in brightly coloured rain capes. Despite the weather, I thought it was pretty exciting driving along the main road through Niagara and seeing the river down to our left. Across the river you could see the American side of the falls and we did get a brief glimpse of the American Falls before they were enshrouded in mist. We got the car parked and walked over to the falls, stopping only briefly for me to run back to the car and see what our number plate was cos the only information I had to go on once we got back to the car park was "It's big and grey."

Well, what can I say? Niagara Falls.

Loud.

Wet.

I'm sure it's an absolute sight to behold. Unfortunately, we weren't beholding anything because we couldn't see anything through the extremely soggy mist that hung in the air like a big smoke cloud. The ONE day of the entire holiday it rained and we were somewhere where you really could have done with nice weather. Harrumph. But we could certainly hear them. Cor, what a roar! Even though the weather was bad, the falls themselves throw up so much mist that you'd need a good rain coat either way! It was really quite incredible.

I was initially quite keen on taking the tour behind the falls or going on the Maid In The Mist, a fleet of boats that go right up to the falls, get everyone drenched in the mist before heading back to pick up a new set of tourists eager to get a soaking. All around Niagara you could see people wearing the free Maid In The Mist rain ponchos they provide for you! But we decided there wasn't much point if you couldn't see the falls. Maybe next time, eh? Looked fun though, this tiny little boat chugging up towards the huge mist cloud. Even though you know that absolutely nothing can happen, it does look weird the first time you see it because you think it will stop a lot sooner than it does, giving the illusion that it's just going to keep going right into the falls. But it doesn't. Obviously.

So we just toddled off to have a look at Niagara itself, and there's not really much to see. It's a tourist town with lots of sweet shops and arcade type places, plus a big casino. We though we'd have a quick squizz at that, maybe place a couple of modest bets. But I nearly didn't get through the door! The doorman felt the need to stop me and ask me my age, at which I got so flustered that I blurted out: "I'm 18!" (Doh! Age for being legal across the pond is at least 21!) "I mean, I'm older than 18." Gav steps in to help: "She's 28!" "I'm 28!" At which the doorman just looked bemused and let us in. Turns out I was lying either way cos I'm actually 27. Hah!

As Niagara is a pretty tacky place, we felt we needed a tacky lunch, so Planet Hollywood it was! Horrid as it sounds, like the Hard Rock Cafe, they do a pretty mean burger and it's not anywhere near as expensive as you'd think. Plus the service is pretty good. Maybe even a bit too good. We Brits tend to get a bit edgy if someone's too polite and our server very nearly fell into that category. He was just a bit too eager to please. But he did a good job, the food was nice and we had fun, which is the main thing, innit!

Niagara also happens to be a pretty big wine region, famous for its ice wine (a dessert wine made from frozen grapes) which not many people seem to actually like cos it's horribly sweet. So on the way home we stopped off at a winery. There's loads of them dotted about the place and most do tours and/or tastings. How could we resist? So we ended up at Vineland Estates, where I embarassed Gavin by a) not knowing the first thing about wine and b) making a silly face when I tasted anything cos it was all yucky! Oh well, maybe I'll learn to like it once I've grown up. Last stop of the day was St Stephen's Church just near Georgetown. We'd driven past it on the way from the airport the night before and my first thought was, "It looks just like out of the movies." Funny that. Seeing as loads of films have been made there. Well there you go, I've now seen one of the most famous sights in the world. Or rather, I've heard it.

Where the Falls weren't

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