Niagara

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Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls

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!

Birgit, Anabel, Michael
Birgit, Anabel, Michael

After a short drive from St Catharine’s, we parked by the Skylon Tower at Niagara Falls.

Skylon Tower
Skylon Tower
Skylon Tower

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.

Niagara Falls
Maid of the Mist
Maid of the Mist
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls

These guys seem to be thinking “seen it all before”.

Gull
Gull

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.

Power station, Niagara Falls
Nikola Tesla

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!)

Brock’s Monument
Brock’s Monument
Brock’s Monument
Brock’s Monument
Brock’s Monument
Birgit and Anabel

We also stopped at the tiniest chapel I have ever seen, the Living Water Wayside Chapel.

Living Water Wayside Chapel
Living Water Wayside Chapel
Living Water Wayside Chapel

Then we arrived at Niagara-on-the-Lake for a convivial lunch and a wander around this pretty town.

Cenotaph
Apothecary
Fort Niagara (US)
Coach
Park
Lighthouse

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.

Fort George
Fort George
Fort George
Fort George
Fort George

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.

Bloggers, Canada, Ontario, People , ,

47 Comments »

  1. 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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  2. 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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  4. Great pictures! I’ve seen the beautiful falls before and I’m partial to seagulls. Also noticed the Skylon Tower is very similar to the Space Needle that I recently visited in Seattle, WA–interesting!

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    • It is – we have also been to Seattle (many years ago) and I remember the space needle being similar. And as a Frasier fan I’m familiar with its outline from the credits.

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  6. I have to say, you saw a lot more than me. When I went to the Niagara Falls, I just spent the day there… which, btw, was perfectly fine with me. I LOVED the falls.

    I was visiting a friend in Boston. She belongs to the Mohawk Nation (Iroqueses), and since the Niagara Falls used to be inside the traditional lands of her people (Niagara is a Mohaw word) she told me: Sarah, we just have to go.

    We went around the Falls, indise the Falls (that’s what I loved the most), and inside the Horseshoe with the ferry (that was an amazing experience). We also visited the rapids a bit further on the river and it was truely beautiful.
    Yeah, I suppose mine was more of an environmental trip, while yours looks a more historic one 😉

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  7. I am a very new follower – and super excited that the second (or is it my third) post here is of niagar falls – my sister lives in st Catherine’s !
    Anyhow – u did a great job on this post !
    ☀️☀️☀️

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  8. I’ve seen a lot of waterfalls here in New Zealand these past few weeks, and while most of them were in much more beautiful settings than Niagara, none of them could match it in force and, well, impressiveness. I don’t know how I managed to miss that Tesla statue though! I don’t think we strayed much from the horrible touristy bit, which is a shame because it looks like there’s some interesting things there, including that fort!

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    • It was almost 20 years since we were last there and it was much as I remember it. Yes, the circles are one of the options for a WP gallery. When there are only 2 pictures in a gallery I feel it’s more interesting then just two rectangles in a row!

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  12. The falls look spectacular as always. An image that will keep urging me to check the falls out myself one of these days in the near future. Glad you could combine the social aspect with the natural and beautiful one!

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  13. The last time I visited the Falls, I was about 5 years old. I am looking forward to seeing them again in a few months… hopefully the weather will be a little warmer for our trip than it looks like it was for yours! 🙂

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  14. I am so happy that we could treat you to a wonderful day and see all the sights of Niagara…we’ll, almost all:) My body was telling me we saw all and we were so happy to do this with you and meet both of you. It was a true highlight of the year so far. We were and are so happy to have shown you the sights and enjoy a beautiful day.

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  15. Hi Anabel,
    Thanks for sharing. 🙂 The Niagara Falls are definitely something on our bucket list. But that Skylon Tower? hmmm Very liekly not. 😉
    Have a wonderful time,
    Pit

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  16. Hi Anabel – I know the Victoria Falls … but have never been to Niagara – one day … wonderful photos you’ve given us. So good to know you had lots of fun meeting friends and bloggers – cheers HIlary

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  19. I’m glad I got to see Niagara Falls through your eyes, Anabel, as I’ve never been there in person! Niagara-on-the-Lake looks charming and that chapel is really tiny! What a fun time you were able to have, meeting up with both blogging friends and old friends. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to Northumberland. 🙂

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  21. The power of water! We took a train to Niagara Falls and had a day there. Quite amazing. One of those places that you wonder whether they will match up to the hype, like the Grand Canyon or Uluru – glad to say the falls did. I’d have liked to have gone to Niagara-on-the-Lake as it looks like a much nicer town.

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  22. Lovely…particularly liked the fact that you took photo of Nikola Tesla, an inventor of Serbo-Croatian origin ☺
    gx

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