Day 3, Visiting the Niagara Falls
Thursday, September 12, 2019
We wanted to be at the car rental company at nine in the morning so we got up
at seven en had breakfast at a quarter to eight. We had a very nice breakfast
with scrambled eggs, bacon, some potato 'things' and pancakes with cream and
strawberies.
Breakfast at Denny's
The Enterprise Car Rental office is only a short walk away from our hotel so
with our luggage we walked from the hotel to the car rental office on 1475
Aerowood Drive.
The Enterprise Car Rental office
Our Volkswagen Passat
We got the car and tried to program the Garmin for the address in Niagara Falls
that we wanted to go to but the Garmin could not find it. The guy from the rental
company solved it because he knew an address close to it that was in the Garmin.
It was dry when we walked to the car rental office but when we were on the freeway,
it started to rain.
Rain on the Freeway
Woody and Buzz Lightyear
It was about eleven o'clock when we parked our Volkswagen on a big carpark, close
to the falls. It was not cheap, $ 20, but there was plenty of room.
Then we walked to the information center and the falls.
The bridge from Canada to the USA
The amount of water coming down the waterfalls (there are two, the straight
American waterfall, near the bridge and the horse shoe formed Canadian waterfall
near the information center) is unbelievable. So much water, every second for
years and years.....
The Canadian waterfall
We had a coffee in the information center and walked through the gift shop (but
we bought nothing) and then we went to the ticketoffice of the Hornblower cruises
to get a ride to the falls on a boat.
Boarding the boat, all wearing red rain capes
It was very impressive to get so close to the waterfalls. I did try to take some
pictures but close to the falls, the wind and the waterdrops (on the lens) were to
much to take much pictures.
So much water
Trying to take some pictures
Despite the rain capes, everyone got wet
The American waterfall
Sailing on a boat gets you hungry so we bought cheeseburgers near the landing stage
of the Hornblower ships.
Two people played good life music near the tent where
everybody was eating and drinking.
Life music
To admire the greatness of creation from closeby is a wonderful experience.
The wind, the water that gets everywhere espite the rain cape and the sound of
millions of liters of water coming down in a cloud of waterdrops is amazing.
...and then, the anticlimax. The streets of Niagara Falls look like a drunk Las Vegas
on steroids. Music and voices blasting from the stores, atractions and theaters, the
crazy prices and things like an Empirestate Building with King Kong on top of it.
It is such a contrast with the beauty of nature.
We went to the Hard Rock Café for a coffee, but they told us top go to starbucks
next door......
Hard Rock Café
From the crazyness of the shopping street, we went back to the beauty of nature and
we walked back to our car via de boulevard so we could see the falls.
While we walked back to the car, we noticed a squirrel, eating something so I made
a picture. Five seconds later, ten people were taking pictures......
A squirrel
The weather is not so nice and it is not a holiday but despite that, there were a lot
of people looking at the falls.
People, looking at the falls
A lot of seagulls flew over the water of the falls. I guess the force of the water
makes fish coming to the surface. I don't know.
Seagull
Before we go back to the car, I take some more pictures of the falls.
At a gasstation, not far from the falls, we filled the tank of the Volkswagen. We
wanted to buy some food too at the gasstation store, but unfortunately, all 'food'
they had in that store was junkfood.
With a full tank, we got on the freeway to Hamilton to go to our rented appartment.
To Hamilton
Tim had warned us, that Hamilton was not the nicest town in the country and he was
right. Most buildings we saw were old and not very good maintained.
Unfortunately, The Garmin GPS we rented is not very reliable so we used the
navigation app on my old Nokia phone instead.
At a store in Hamilton, I bought an car-sigaretlighter to USB plug and a USB cable,
so now we can use my Nokia as a backup satnav. We also bought bread, yoghurt and
peanutbutter for our dinner and breakfast.
Finaly, we found our appartment for one night. We don't like the neighborhood
to much, the appartment is not very clean, the front window (on the ground floor)
can not close because of an airco unit and the dog upstairs is howling and
barking all evening long.
But on the bright side, it was not expensive, we have plenty of room and the
internet connection is good.
Our next hotel where we will stay from September 13 to 14 is:
The Countryside Motel
3343 Egremont Drive,
Adelaide Metcalfe, N7G 3H6,
Canada
|
