Woke at 7am to see the sun rising over Niagara Falls out of the window, a sight I’ll never forget. After getting up and getting dressed we went to an ‘All You Can Eat Breakfast Buffet’ – a taste I’ll never forget. Pure filth would be a good way of putting it. It was the usual cooked breakfast fayre, but just tasted of pure fat and artificial crap. They should have paid us for eating in there.
Anyway, with it being a nice day, we tentatively made our way to the entrance for the ‘Maid of the Mist’ boat trip which takes you into the heart of the falls. The only problem with wanting to do Niagara’s main attraction is they’re not opening it until April 25. Tits. Bit of a shit-out after the website said ‘open from April’.
Feeling a bit deflated, we headed back to the hotel to look on t’internet at what was actually open here. Turns out it was just the Maid of the Mist that’s shut, so not a total disaster. So what do you do when you’ve got one of the world’s great wonders outside your hotel door? Have a kip of course. I remember watching a bit of the ode Bernie Mac and then waking up some time in the afternoon (perhaps the breakfast had Rohypnol in it?). I think I could have slept until the next morning. This trek hasn’t been that relaxing in all honesty as we’ve been busy and on the move every day; there’s too much to see over here that we may never see again.
Finally got myself back out of bed and we headed on the world’s shortest train journey. Next to our hotel there is this red carriage thing that goes down a steep slope on railway track and lasts for about 30 seconds. Was worth it though as I was still half asleep. On arrival we headed into the Table Rock visitors centre and bought some tickets to enable us to walk behind the falls. At first it was pretty lame truth be told, as the inlets just looked like windows that were being soaked by heavy rain. However, this changed with the observation part of the tunnel, which looked right out across to the American Falls and was right next to the powerful Horseshoe Falls, enabling you to look deep into the rocks at the bottom which the water crashes down onto.
From here, we decided to walk along the falls and up to the town part itself. Had a walk through the ‘Secret Garden’ (which obviously isn’t that secret if we found it), before having our eyes lit up by the duty free shop that lies on the border entry to the USA (you can see America out the window, which is joined by a bridge about a mile from the falls). After having our pants pulled down continually on drink prices over here, we were getting a bit carried away by the prices (a litre of Jim Beam - £6 etc), that was until they told us we couldn’t have any if travelling by train!?? Don’t know how that works, as we’re still crossing the border, right!?
The opposite end of the town away from the casino and the hotels is basically Skegness/Southend with a view. Millions of tat shops, crappy wax museums, dodgy rides and other examples of typically British seaside paraphernalia sort of cheapened the magic of Niagara Falls a little bit in my opinion (and that’s not me slagging Skeg or Southend, I love both of them).
Night time was coming and we’d decided to go to the rather plush looking casino after getting something to eat. Just like Toronto, we’re having trouble find off licences and even had to go to the measure of finding one on the internet. Odd that. Found one a mile away, got supplies and then went to get something to eat in some steak and ribs place joined on to the hotel. The casino idea was well and truly out of the window when I saw they did ‘All You Can Eat Ribs’. Nice one. Obviously I hadn’t learned from this morning’s all you can eat disaster, but you just can’t turn down the ribs can you? Managed two full racks ta very much, but didn’t feel greedy at all when the waitress told me there was one bloke who managed 78 racks plus sides. If he was in there, I don’t know whether I would shake his hand or look at him with that ‘you sicken me’ face. Anyway, they were ace and that was me for the night.
