What Lovely Niagara's...

What a difference a day makes! Well, to be more specific...what a difference a bed makes, when compared with a faux leather seat on a Greyhound coach. And a big double bed too! After sleeping in various conditions over the last few days (bunk beds, shared double bed, aforementioned Greyhound seat) it was absolutely outstanding to have a couple of beers and climb into a spacious double bed, and in a room you could swing a cat in. Actually, it was so big you could probably swing a tiger in here! But I wouldn’t want to...not unless it had been properly sedated. Plus it’s got to weight the best part of a ton.

James plots world domination from his laptop

The schedule [ske-dule] for the day only really had one thing on it – see the Niagara Falls. Our wander down the road, past Dad’s Diner, was interrupted continuously by a variety of runners, both old and young, sweating like beasts in the already hot morning sun. But they all seemed very nice and light-hearted, with a few jaunty hellos and thanks when getting out of their way, which you certainly wouldn’t have got in New York. Already I was beginning to like Canada a lot. And that’s even considering the strange liquor licensing laws which means that offies close whenever they like or at by 6pm on some streets.

When we finally got to the Falls it was just an amazing sight. It certainly beats any waterfall I had seen in the Lake District, and the fact that the sun was again out and blazing just made everything seem that much better. Thankfully the Falls throws up a torrent of spray into the air, and if the wind changes you can get a thoroughly refreshing mist shower, much like the artificial ones we tried to get from the sprinklers in Washington DC! After seeing The Falls from the road we ventured onto the Maid of the Mist – the small passenger boats that ferry people in their delightful blue waterproof smocks up to the Horseshoe Falls and pauses there with engines on full blast whilst we all get a drenching from the torrents of water thundering over the cliffs. A great time, and hopefully some great pictures too, but it was hard to get a good shot when there’s so much water in the air!

On the Maid Of The Mist

The evenings task was a trek to The Silo, a restaurant on the US side of Niagara, that serves a rather large steak, cheese and has brown hogie, that was featured on Man vs Food. However, this plan had to change when we realised it was a 6 mile trek there and 6 miles back, with the possibility of negotiating passport control. So we ended up somewhere local, by Niagara Whirlpool, where apparently the words “with soup” means “with chips”. But being English I didn’t complain. I just ate my chips (and turkey/swiss sandwich) in peace.

And that’s all really. Next up.....Chicago (after another overnighter on the Greyhound).