Wednesday had been reserved for a trip to Niagara Falls long before the holiday started, because we all knew that this is the one place that we want to visit the most. Niagara Falls is one of the true wonders of Nature, as well as a demonstration of the power that Nature has. It's definitely worth to make an overseas trip just to see this wonderful place.
The Falls are about 120 kilometers (when measured on the road) from Toronto. John and Dar picked up Nicole, Torsten, and Michal at their hotels in the morning and we drove to the Falls. This time, however (and I don't know why!), Dar didn't trust the Tom-tom, so she had printed instructions with her. Now we had not one, but two voices saying things like turn left, and there was even an occasional bear right too!
On our way from Toronto, we passed the CN Tower (yes, you'll see a lot more pictures of the tower on this website) and the Rogers centre (a multipurpose stadium in Toronto, formerly called the Skydome because of its retractable roof).
Then we drove the Queen Elizabeth Way for about an hour, passed Hamilton, which you can see on the next few pictures, and after another hour, we finally made it to Niagara Falls.
The view of the Falls opened when we were approaching the parking lot. Even from a moving car, you could tell that the trip would be worth it. The weather was great, as you can clearly see on the pictures; just the wind was blowing from the Falls, so we had to pass through a shower or two - just to get us into the right Niagara mood!
We started our walk from the parking lot.
The first image we saw was the Skylon tower. There are two restaurants on the top of the tower, one of which revolves once every hour. It offers spectacular view of the Falls, but we didn't have enough time to go up.
The parking lot was above the Falls, so we walked along the Niagara River for a while. The first part of the Falls that we saw was the upper part of the Horseshoe Falls. The Horseshoe Falls are on the Canadian side; the American Falls, along with the tiny Bridal Veil Falls, are located on the American side. We'll get there later; for now, check the pictures of the area above the Horseshoe Falls.
I also have two videos taken at the upper part of the Horseshoe Falls. Pay attention to the sound too; that sound of the Falls is as good as the view. You can almost feel the power that hides in all the water. You will also hear Lukraak the necro and Queen Keeta talk about the odds of surviving the fall into the Falls at the beginning of the first video.
Once we moved below the Horseshoe Falls, the view got much better, as we were finally able to see the Falls in the full beauty. Especially the mist coming from the Falls was spectacular; no doubt that the ship that you see on one of the pictures is called The Maid of the Mist (and you will see it in much better detail in one of the next chapters).
The American Falls are smaller compared to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, but still spectacular. Unlike on the Canadian side, the water falls on huge rocks. The American side is split into two waterfalls: the large one, the American Falls, and a much smaller one, the Bridal Veil Falls. You will see the Bridal Veil Falls on the right side of the pictures; if you check the area at the upper water level carefully, you will see a group of people standing on a platform between the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls.
Copyright notice: Text, images, and videos copyright by Michal Řeháček, Nicole, Torsten, John Philip, Darlene Sine.