Canada - Niagara Falls

Day 4 - Friday 30 August

Today was our big, exciting trip to Niagara.  We took a bus from Toronto bus station (strangely our bus actually parked outside on the road but that's Megabus for you) and off we trundled towards the falls.

The bus station at Niagara is a short hike from the falls.  Our first views of the Niagara River showed how icy turquoise the waters were.  We passed under the Rainbow Bridge, one of the border crossings to the United States.

Oooh, look.

Once under the bridge and round the corner the vista opened up.  The falls in centre shot are the American Falls.  On the left of these (as you look) is a green viewing platform.  From here, those on the American side can peer out, but I suspect they can't view the Horseshoe Falls.  The Horseshoe Falls are to the right and what most people probably refer to when they say 'Niagara Falls'. 

First stop, coffee with a view.

From here we could see lots of yellow caped tourists walk down to the foot of the American Falls to get duly soaked and squealy-delighted in equal measure.  They looked like yellow ants.

We decided to reccie the Horseshoe Falls in anticipation of our boat ride later that day.

There were rainbows all over the place, as you'd expect.

And we could see how close in the tourist boats took their passengers.  The red decked boats were actually red-caped voyeurs and from the Canadian side.  The blue enrobed tourists were from the US side. 

We stood at the head of the falls and marvelled at the power of the water as it plummeted over the edge.  Quite awesome and scary at the same time.

Right, time to get wet.  We took a funicular down to the river and shuffled onto our boat. Red capes of course.

Dry Riona.

We sailed to the base of the American Falls, waved at the yellow people, and got spray in our hair.  We then turned towards our main goal.  We stood near the front and as we travelled watched the birds skim the water in front of us.

The boat nudged its nose as close as was safe into the Horseshoe Falls.  We spent 2 or 3 minutes just getting rained on by the largest natural power shower I've ever been near.  We laughed, screamed and dripped.

We headed back to base via the American Falls.

Soggy but thrilled with our tiny adventure.

We went to dry off, shop, have a drink and then walked back up to the Horseshoe Falls.  We knew they'd be illuminated (Riona had wisely suggested a late bus back) so we chatted and watched the sun set.

Once dark we hung around and eventually the falls were lit.  I liked the Canadian colours on the Horseshoe.

And the American colour scheme on the American Falls.

It got quite showy after a while, although we had to leave to catch our bus back to Toronto.

Here endeth Day 4.

Canada - Toronto - City Hall, a Castle and Lots of Shoes

Day 3 - Thursday 29 August

We had a big list of things to see today and started our trek at Nathan Phillips Square.  However, before we'd reached it, we'd already spotted some of the quirky and interesting architecture Toronto has to offer.

The old and new city halls sit on adjacent sides of the pond.  Time for a photo shoot.

Smiley, happy people.

In an O.

We wandered up through a local park.  I love the way that Toronto's open spaces have dog parks.  Gated areas are set up where dogs can be unleashed and snuffle around to their canine content.

Even the water fountain has dog bowls.

Toronto has a real selection of eclectic buildings.  This is the Sharp Centre for Design.  

And next up was the AGO, the Art Gallery of Toronto.  The back of it looks half finished, covered in blue plastic - the sort workmen put over scaffolding mid-build.  But, on Googling, I have discovered it's meant to look like that.  The front is a mishmash of windows and angles.  It's apparently an 'understated' Frank Gehry architectural design.

As we walked east we came across a 3D Van Gogh portrait.

And if you popped around the back you could see it better.  Van Gogh's nose and a Riona.

I'm a fan of botanical gardens and Toronto's offering is the Allan Gardens Conservatory.  Built in 1858 it is a classic Victorian set of hot houses. 

I really love pottering around these.

Look - plant!

Not quite Medusa.

These terrapins were really cute.

Stacked up higgeldy piddeldy.

We headed towards the Government Buildings, found a super spot to buy lunch, passed the Women's College Hospital (which Riona was eyeing up...) and plonked ourselves in Queens Park to munch.  Wow, it was good to sit down.

I don't think I've ever seen squirrels this dark.

We could have stuck our heads in the Government Buildings apparently but unfortunately only realised this after the event.  I've no doubt it was quite impressive inside.

Our next architectural treat was the ROM, Royal Ontario Museum.

Arty farty pavement.

And the modern extension.  Again, not sure it quite works for me...

As if we hadn't already put enough mileage under our feet we headed out, away from Downtown Toronto, to a castle we'd spotted from the CN Tower the night before.  This is Casa Loma.  

Casa Loma was built in 1914 by a rich financier with his accumulated £17M fortune.  It's up on the ridge away from the lake side where the wealthy settlers lived.  He filled it with priceless art and his family hosted lavish parties.  Unfortunately, the First World War hit his income stream in many ways and 10 years later he was forced to auction off his dream to pay his debts.

In a spur of the moment decision, I purchased my annual (if that) lolly which turned my lips red.   It was one, big, sugary, drippy thing but perfect for the hot day.

We headed back down to the 'common' side of Toronto keeping the CN Tower in view as we strolled.

The final item on our itenary was the Bata Shoe Museum.  We timed our visit with the free entry session - it's a Thursday evening thing.  It was the first museum we'd entered that day being too conscious of our time and money to loiter in any other.

We both had a lot of fun discovering the weird and wonderful history of shoes.  These are Hindu shoes for a wealthy woman.

And these are testament to the Chinese practise of foot binding.  I can't think how terrible that must have been: to have been bound and, effectively, handicapped from an early age.  No running, walking, climbing - a life of small dainty steps was all you were henceforth capable of.

Moon boots!  These never made it up, but it's always good practice to have a spare pair.

And these were my favourite.  Mainly because I could see me wearing these.  And if I ever see them in Exeter...

All in we walked over 15 km today.  Despite flat sensible shoes it was a welcome break to stop and head home although I wouldn't have shortened one step of our exploration today.  Wonderful.