Wed 29 Apr 2009
Picked up from our hostel in Toronto, we embarked on our day trip. Our bus headed down beside Lake Eerie and in the direction of Buffalo and I popped Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band on my Ipod to set the mood. “Low Bridge, everybody down. Low bridge we’re coming to town. You’ll always know your neighbour and you’ll always know your pal if you’ve ever navigated on the Eerie canal.”
The first stop on the way to Niagara Falls was the wine region of the Niagara Peninsula, between Lake Ontario and Lake Eerie. These are two of the five Lakes that make up the North American Great Lakes. Lake Ontario is the smallest of the five at 300 kilometres long and half that size wide. When you are standing at the waters edge looking out, it feels a lot more like you are looking at an ocean, a very calm ocean. The five lakes combined holds a quarter of the worlds fresh water. Pretty impressive!
Birchwood Estate Wines was a lovely first stop where we learnt that 8o% of Canadian wines came from the Niagara Peninsula. The soil here is rich and perfect for growing grapes. And the wine was wonderful! We had a tasting of both a red and a white as well as my first taste of ice wine. I’ve since had some ice wine mixed with champagne and it’s simply delicious!
There are not many countries in the world that can produce ice wine. It is a very high risk endeavour but with it there is a high reward. The temperature has to stay between -8 degrees and -13 degrees for three consecutive days then harvested. If the temperature falls or rises from this within those days, the crops are ruined. High Risk! But the results are wonderful! And make the vineyard a tidy reward. The bottle that we sampled sells for $140 at restaurants. I left Birchwood Estate with a bottle of the red I had sampled and enjoyed it later over a big catchup with Eben once I got to Ottawa.
Back in the bus and onto the Falls we went! The first real glimpse I’d seen of Spring awaited us when we arrived in Niagara. Flowers were everywhere! Bright yellows and reds and the grass was such a vivid green! It was such a beautiful setting and when we stepped out of the bus, the thundering of all that water could be heard! Goosebumps!
It was such an impressive sight and truly a natural wonder! I could have stared at it for ages, and I did. We went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride, an obligatory tourist thing to do. So much fun! First uncontrollable belly laugh I’ve had since parting ways with Matty. When they hand you a giant blue plastic raincoat that goes all the way to your ankles, that should have been a giveaway that we would get a little wet! But I guess in my imagination I always thought it would just be a spray that comes off the falls if the wind is blowing in the right direction. A mist, just like the boat’s namesake! How wrong was I! There gets to be a point where you cannot open your eyes for the amount of water that comes bucketing down on you! And I nearly wet my pants I was laughing so hard. It was just so unexpected!
When the whole boat disembarked like a group of drowned rats it became obvious why photos were taken of us before we even stepped on board the Maid of the Mist. Hair was plastered to people’s faces, mascara was creating panda eyes on a lot of the women on board, we were all just drenched. When we looked at the photo of what we looked like before the boat ride we laughed to see what the experience actually made you look like! Not quite so coiffed!
Niagara Falls has moved 12km over 12000 yrs and has created the Niagara Gorge in the process. The Falls compromises of two different water falls. The America Falls, which is actually in the United States, and the Horseshoe Falls, the one recognisable as “Niagara Falls”. The Canada and US border runs right in the middle of the gorge.
After buying a little bit of tack in the souvenier shop we wandered up Clifton Hill, “the street of fun,” in the sunshine to dry off. This little strip reminded me of Las Vegas, but this was all “G” rated. Guiness Book of World Records Museum, Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, Museum of Rock and Roll. So many fun things to do! And this is where I wish we’d had a bit more time. We only had time to grab a bite to eat and walk around the street a bit before returning to where the bus was waiting to pick us up and take us on to the next sight to see.
This was a very big whirl pool in the Niagara River. There was a lookout point were we spent some time looking down into the swirling natural terbulant waters. Over the other side of this area we gazed upon New York State, USA.
The next and final spot was Niagara-on-the-Lake, nicknamed the loveliest town in Canada. In 1792 it was the capital of Ontario but later lost the title to York, now known as Toronto. Walking around the beautiful main street with its colourful blooms everywhere, it almost felt like stepping back in time.
It was such a full day and I could feel my eyelids growing heavy on the drive back to Toronto. But Finding Neverland was playing and who can close their eyes on Johnny Depp!