The tour comes to an end

Leaving Niagara Falls we drove along the Niagara River. This is a fairly wild stretch of river due to the speed of the water, the variability in the width of the gorge and the fact that there are great blocks of rock randomly deposited on the river bed. There is also the odd sharp bend in the river and this can result in other phenomena such as the huge whirlpool that we stopped to see.

This is the actual whirlpool basin

Our next stop was Niagara on the Lake. This is quite a pretty little town and one that is determined to keep the tourist buses out of their streets. Tour buses are not allowed to enter the town. There is a parking area on the edge of town and a free shuttle bus runs from the parking area into town. Actually, it is an easy, pleasant walk in and I think everyone on our bus walked into town and back.

Niagara on the Lake was our lunch stop. Trevor and I grabbed a sandwich and headed down to the lake. There were tables and benches in a park overlooking the lake and quite a number of people eating their lunch there. The seagulls were a bit of a nuisance and rather raucous.

Trevor enjoying our lunch spot beside Lake Ontario

Looking arcoss Lake Ontario

Next to the area where our bus was parks on the outskirts of Niagara on the Lake was Fort George.

We didn't have enough time to tour the inside of the fort but we did manage to get a quick peek inside the grounds as well as a look at some of the exterior features.

The Niagara Penincular used to be a tabacco growing area. These days there is little or no tabacco grown. Instead vineyards and orchards are the order of the day.

One of the many vineyards we passed

 By bthe time we arrived back at the outskirts of Toronto the weather had turned awful. It was raining and the wind was up. Not pleasant and a pity as we were having dinner in the restaurant up in the CNN Tower.

Looking out over Toronto from teh CNN Tower

John and Elaine Miller, from Scotland, one of the couples on our tour. Elaine kept getting Trevor in her photos so he became a bit of a feature.

The wind was so bad that two of the lifts in the CNN tower were closed down.

Our tour officially ended with breakfast on Thursday morning (11 September).  Trevor and I headed out to Pearson International Airport to collect our hire car and start the final leg of our trip.

More on that in the next post.

Niagara Falls and environs

Tuesday 9 September

We arrived at Niagara Falls in the middle of the afternoon. Certainly different to our previous visit.

The first activity was the Maid in the Mist. Apparently the company that runs the boat trips has been purchased by a US firm and now the Maid in the Mist runs on the US side and the Hornblower runs on the Canadian side. Whatever! It is still a boat trip on the river to the base of the falls.

There was a lot of mist drifting down from the Canadian falls which meant limited opportunities for taking photos from the boat. I did manage some.

The American section of the Falls

The American Falls are lower than the Canadian section and the water drops onto large hunks of rock

The American part. The passengers on the boat were suited out in lovely pink ponchos and they appear in many of the photos

 

And now for the Canadian section which is a horseshoe shape and, consequently, difficult to get in a single photo

Look at the spray coming up from the Falls

 

Trevor on the boat

Once off the boat we were free to wander around until we were picked up and taken to our hotel.

The spray was blowing across the path that wound along the top of the gorge which meant that we all managed to get wet just walking along the top. There were some good viewing places and, as usual, timing is everything when attempting to get a good shot.

This photo and the ones above are of the Canadian section

The American bit

And more views of the Canadian part from the rim

We were staying at the Hilton Fallsview and actually had a suite on the 19th floor with a view of the American side of the falls. The suite was really unexpected. In the middle was the bathroom with a window so that you could sit in in jacuzzi and look out at the falls.

The view from our room over the American part of the fall

Looking out from our bathroom

Having checked out our room we ventured up to the 34th floor and the cocktail lounge where we indulged in a drink while watching the falls below. The view was wonderful. Here is one of Trevor's photos.

Once it got dark the falls were lit up in various colours. We watched the changing colours from the vantage point of our room however none of our photos managed to capture the effect all that well.

Wednesday 10 September

I was up in time to see the end of the sunrise over Niagara.

After breakfast we headed off to the Skylon Tower for another birds eye view of the falls. On the way in we were photographed and here we are superimposed in front of the falls.

And here are further views of the falls:

The American bit

and now the Canadian horseshoe:

We had time to walk out along the rim again before returning to the Hilton and our bus.