Niagara
On the Wednesday of our week in Toronto, we caught an early bus out to St Catharine’s where we were met by fellow blogger Birgit of BB Creations and her husband Michael. This was the start of a wonderful day on which we had a pair of fabulous tour guides all to ourselves!
After a short drive from St Catharine’s, we parked by the Skylon Tower at Niagara Falls.
Perhaps remembering our fleecing at the CN Tower we didn’t go in, but walked down to the Falls which are, of course, best viewed from the Canadian side.
These guys seem to be thinking “seen it all before”.
Above the Falls, this building is the first major hydro-electric plant in the world – one of the investors being Sir Henry Pellatt of Casa Loma, subject of an earlier post. Opposite is a statue of Nikola Tesla, engineer and inventor, who was also involved.
After visiting the Falls, we drove to Niagara-on-the-Lake, making a few stops along the way. One was at Brock’s Monument, Sir Isaac Brock being a hero of the War of 1812. Some of the figures at the base were quite strange (and I don’t mean me and Birgit!)
We also stopped at the tiniest chapel I have ever seen, the Living Water Wayside Chapel.
Then we arrived at Niagara-on-the-Lake for a convivial lunch and a wander around this pretty town.
The fort seen in the gallery above is Fort Niagara, on the American side of the Niagara River. During the War of 1812 the British and the US managed to “swap” forts, with the former capturing Fort Niagara and the Americans capturing Fort George on the Canadian side. We visited Fort George – I’m not sure it was strictly open (there was a lot of work going on), but we wandered through without challenge anyway.
After that, it was time for Birgit and Michael to take us back to St Catharine’s to catch our bus. It’s also time to close my tales of Toronto – this must have been one of the most sociable breaks ever. Not only did we meet fellow bloggers Birgit and Jill, we met up with old friends from Glasgow too. So thanks Birgit and Michael, Jill, Stewart and Edith, and Amr and Anney for giving us such wonderful times.
Our next venture “abroad” was to England – coming soon, Northumberland.
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
Love reading all your Ontario posts. And it’s interesting for me to read the comments of others’ thoughts and experiences. My question is how come you have so many Canadian commenters? Most of my commenters are from the States. I think the whole “Spanglish” thing is very unstereotypical of the “Canadian” experience, and more stereotypical of the American experience.
Again, so grateful to have met you. You are the first (and only thus far) blogger I’ve met in real life. I hope you’re doing well xx
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I am thanks, and I hope you are too – so glad to see you back in action. Not sure about why so many Canadians. Also US and Australia / NZ. Quite a few of the latter are ex-pat British which might explain their interest. Happy memories of our meetup!
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So far so good! I cross my fingers every day 🙂
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I have always wanted to travel to the falls…I was certainly a shorter journey for me when I lived in NYC, but I sadly never made it there. I am certain to get there when I return home. The pictures of it were AMAZING!
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Thank you! I shall pass that on to my photographer-in-chief.
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