Tuesday,
July 17th 2001
A visit to Niagara Falls, the quickest way to get wet if there is no rain...
What is vacation in Canada, Toronto, without a visit to the famous Niagara Falls? Very dry I guess. And as the wetter was improving a little bit, we needed to find a place to get some "rain". Besides that, the Niagara Falls offers an exciting day of entertainment and astonishing views! more than 10 million visitors do this annually, so why not we?
Another CN tower? that was our first thought as well. This 200 meter high observation point is called the Skylon tower and indeed looks very similar to its taller brother in Toronto. No Greenpeace today, so we were able to get up here and see the falls in great bird perspective....
Below is the so called Canadian Horseshoe Falls and at the right the Rainbow Bridge leading to the USA, built first in 1941 (how did they cross before you ask yourself). Yes, the border between Canada and the USA was agreed upon among all the Lakes after the British / American War in 1818. This would keep them apart for a while...
At the left side the American Falls are much smaller as you can see. Small? I think 340 meters wide and 56 meter high is still quite considerable. But still beaten by the Canadian Horseshoe with 670 meter wide and 54 meter high. The large amounts of rocks at the bottom of the falls, tells us that the Falls are still "moving back" with an average of one meter per year! Just note the little boats which go as far as almost under the falls. This is only meant for tourists who did not had their daily shower that morning...
We did our best as well to get wet, which is no problem. The water clouds come all the way back up and give a nice constant rain at the Canadian side
In an attempt to worsen things, we bought tickets for the
"Journey behind the Falls". The yellow poncho's were included in the price. Not
a bad idea as you can see from the picture at the right ! Through a network of tunnels,
the visitor has access to have a peek at the side and actually BEHIND the water. What all
is being done to please the tourists, but we definitively enjoyed it....
After we dried up a bit, we had a walk around in the Town with the same name as the Falls.
Very very very touristic, looks like an entertainment park. Lots of horror shows. I could
not find out what this had to do with the Waterfalls, except for "how can we get a
few dollars more out of your pocket". So we decided not to co orporate with the
latter and move on to the Whirlpool --------------------->
The Whirlpool is a few kilometers downstream and you can make an amazing walk among the river bank, down in the Gorges of the Niagara. This is the most wild water I ever have seen. Tons of water pass by at an amazing speed. No wonder there is a large electricity plant downstream. Interesting to know, that in the early days, lots of artists walked across the river on a cord. Unnecessary to say, that not all made it alive..... We plan to go riverrafting on Friday. I now hope the category of that river is a few points below, what we saw here! For the real thrill, we will visit Canada Wonderland tomorrow. Loads of dazzling rollercoaster rides, and all dry.....