We will land in New York airport early for a quick link to the Buffalo
flight. Once there, we will take a taxi to the hotel, crossing Canadian
border in our way.
We would walk watching both
falls there: the Brideveil and the Horseshoe, and go for the Maid of
the mist ride, a boat which sails to the foot of the falls, the closest
one can be to them.
There are some other options
here, as the attraction “Behind the falls”, which allows to walk behind
one of them, or Sky tower, with great views.
At night we will go for a newer sight of the Falls
with the lights
.
It’s 6:15 AM in the East Coast when we’re landing in JFK
airport of New York. We’ve been proven planes are not a good place for
sleeping for us. I’ve spent more hours on the Trivia game in my screen
than in closing my eyes and trying to sleep. Flight to Buffalo leaves
at 9:05 AM, so we’ve got a couple of hours to spend in this airport. We
get our boarding gate and try to sleep a little in our waiting.
This plane to Buffalo is quite small and we get wonderful
views of Manhattan when taking off. It is a few minutes less than two
hours long.
At 11 AM we’re in a Buffalo’s taxi. The driver
gives us his car for calling him anytime we need on despite of knowing
we’re going to be in Canada. Taxi fees are fixed and it is 30$ for a
Canadian hotel and 30 minutes’ ride.
We can see the falls for first time when reaching the border.
It is in a bridge with boxes in every lane as in a toll. At the
entrance of the bridge our passports are stamped as US exit Unidos,
y en and, at the other side of the bridge, they’re stamped as
Canada entrance. We don’t get out of the car in any moment.
Hotel looks great. There are some hotels in the
edge of the river and this is behind them, in second line. We mention
we’re in our honeymoon but they cannot offer an upgrade to us as we’ve
already got the best rooms: higher floor with Jacuzzi and view to the
falls.
Rooms are fantastic and we agree on resting for a
while, so we’re in a nap in bed in no time.
After three hours we get ready for going out,
although our bodies are already missing the bed. We need to lunch and
the will have just the afternoon for our visit to the falls.
It’s late and that’s the reason all restaurants in
town look empty or closed. We choose a Italian restaurant called “Four
Brothers” in our way.
We get a small lunch as jet lag and flight snacks
have confused our stomachs. My sister gets a single dish meal and my
wife and me share a pasta main course and a salad: 40$ in total.
Now we’re finally reaching the natural
wonder around of which has grown this entire touristic town. The road
ends in a small roundabout with nothing in the middle. It seems made
just to let cars turning around. Only pedestrian can then walk across
the park in front of the Skylon Tower to reach the falls walk.
There, the first we can see is the American Falls. There are
two falls here: Brideveil is also called “American Falls” and Horseshoe
is also known as “Canadian”. These nick names are obviously coming from
the country they’re really sited. Brideveil are a flat falls with a
horizontal and white look while Horseshoe are spectacular falls shaped
in “U”.
They’re close each other as per having a sight of both in an
outlook. We chose to be in the Canadian side because of this. The
problem in the American side is the American Falls are located just
there and they cannot have a front view of them. The solution has been
building a lookout, like the beginning of a bridge, in the way people
can go to the end of it and looking back to the falls for the best view
from that side.
And then is the popular Maid of the Mist, working
from both sides. When leaving the restaurant after 5PM I thought this
activity would be for tomorrow morning, but we’re in front of the falls
and the entrance to Maid of the Mist is just at our left. I didn’t know
if it would be opened by 7PM, but it is, so we purchase our tickets by
14.50$ each and go down the stairs fixed in the cliff until the river
shore. We’re delivered blue raincoats; they’re poor quality ones but
you can keep it. We could see from the lookout all the people in the
boats were blue.
While waiting with this look we can have great
views for the American Falls and the boats: American one is going while
Canadian one (ours) is coming back.
We all uniformed go on board. I don’t know if it’s due to the
season or the time but the boat is quite empty, which is perfect as we
can choose any location.
We first pass by Brideveil, quite close of it. We can see a
lot of people on its right wearing yellow raincoats all over some
platforms. This is the “Behind the Falls” activity. Then we start our
trip to the middle of the Horseshoe. If you look at the picture at
right, or any other general picture of these falls, you will see there
is a cloud of water drops in the middle of it. That’s where “Maid of
the Mist” must come from and we’re going to be inside in a few minutes.
In our way we can see a lot of water birds which makes me think it must
be a lot of fishes in this place.
There are so many seagulls that the riversides
appear completely covered of white points. Picture above at left maybe
is not showing this as in live, but it is an approach.
As we’re reaching our goal, the views of this semicircle of
water are becoming more stunning as they’re coming with its sound: the
roar of the water here is an endless thunder and we cannot talk to each
other. Another problem appears for us, poor little persons: there is
water everywhere around! Obviously, if you get into a cloud of water
you get full of water. The raincoat is our friend at this point and the
camera must be kept inside of it. Everything out of the raincoat gets
wet in a second. Also, if you manage to open your eyes you can see
nothing as everything is white.
As the boat is going out of the mist we have sight back from the
feet of the falls. The amount of water running here is amazing and
seems incredible it can be maintained the whole year.
We move to the poop of the boat while it is coming back to get our last
views of the falls at river level and having photos posing with them,
photos looking as a blue mass in front of a beautiful falls.
We’ve ended completely wet, no matter how careful any of us has been in preventing it.
The falls are amazing, but this is all. Once you’ve seen them from one
side, from above and from the below you have nothing else to do. We
just walk to the end of the walk to observe closely the massive amount
of water of the Canadian Falls and getting into a gift store for some
souvenirs.
I don’t know what people coming here for several days
are doing, unless they spend the time in casino, but for the falls
themselves three hours seem more than enough. So we walk peacefully to
our hotel thinking about the time we can spend in Jacuzzi and bed. At
night, the falls are in lights, but I think we will have enough with
the views from our room.
As we’re coming back we can feel like the sun is leaving too and
gives us this beautiful image of its last rays over the Brideveil.
We get our dinner at hotel, a big meal with crab from Alaska. As it is
a wonderful dinner it is expensive too: 121$ all three, tip included.
It is our last meal in this travel, except for tomorrow’s lunch in New
York airport while waiting for our flight back to home.
Before going to bed I can enjoy a cigarette in the balcony looking at
Niagara Falls town by night. It seems a place with a lot of night life.
I can see the colorful lights in the American Falls. Today we can sleep
without any alarm for tomorrow, although, honestly, it has not being
used a lot in this travel.
This plane to Buffalo is quite small and we get wonderful
views of Manhattan when taking off. It is a few minutes less than two
hours long.
Unidos,
y en and, at the other side of the bridge, they’re stamped as
Canada entrance. We don’t get out of the car in any moment.
They’re close each other as per having a sight of both in an
outlook. We chose to be in the Canadian side because of this. The
problem in the American side is the American Falls are located just
there and they cannot have a front view of them. The solution has been
building a lookout, like the beginning of a bridge, in the way people
can go to the end of it and looking back to the falls for the best view
from that side.
