Day Six - Niagara
What a fantastic day! Up and breakfasted by 9 o’clock, then we made our way down to the Maid Of The Mist boat. Having got down there quite early, we only had to queue for a short while with a large party of incredibly rude French people before going down and boarding the boat. As we waited in the queue, Jo managed to drop the camera I had bought her for her birthday. D’oh!
We were all given a blue polythene raincoat as we boarded, and then the boat headed out toward the Niagara Falls. The nearer we got, the heavier the spray became until eventually it was like being in a torrential rainstorm. The sound of the water pouring down made a noise like thunder and the whole experience was both fun and awe-inspiring. Raincoat or not, we got soaked, but it didn't matter, I had just witnessed, up close, one of nature's most fantastic sights. Jo’s face was a sight: she had put on waterproof mascara, but it certainly wasn’t Niagara-proof! Back on dry land we found a coffee shop and sat out in the sun to dry both our cameras, and us, off. Suitably dry again we walked along River Avenue for a few clicks until we came to the Whirlpool Bridge. This is one of four bridges that span the river and connect Canada to the USA. There was a pedestrian walkway that ran the length of the bridge and so we thought it might be fun to "go to America" for 10 minutes! When we got to the other side, we planned to cross over and come back along the other pedestrian walkway. However, to do this we had to pass through US Immigration Control. We could have climbed the barriers but there were American officials - with guns - watching us. I explained to the Immigration Officer that we just wished to cross over to the other side and go back from whence we came. He asked to see our passports. We didn't have them. We were not allowed to enter the United States without passports. We didn't want to enter, we just wanted to cross over and go back. He would have to fill in some paperwork.
Names, nationalities and birthdays were divulged and then he gave us a piece of paper that showed that we were aliens that had been refused entry into the United States. We crossed the road and crossed the bridge back into Canada. The female Canadian Immigration Officer seemed somewhat bemused and confused when we handed her our refusal paper, but not overly bothered. Personally, I thought the whole thing hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing for ages! We continued our journey until we reached the cable car at the Whirlpool. We had lunch there: pizza bagel and coke, and then went on the car. Nothing too spectacular, just a cable car that spanned the river whirlpool, with a ten-minute return journey that gave a fantastic view of the rapids. After that we walked down to the Niagara Gorge Adventure Walk. This was a walkway that ran along the side of the rapids at water level... well, almost. To be that close to the fast-moving waters was quite exhilarating.
We continued our walk back to downtown Niagara, a round trip of about 5 miles or more. Whenever we go on holiday, we always walk everywhere. We walk more miles in a week’s holiday than we would in 3 months at home! Of course we are not serious hikers: I have my camera bag and Jo just has a bumbag. As we amble along, many serious hikers pass us with rucksacks the size of a Nissan Micra and walking shoes built to tackle the north-face of the Eiger. Once back in town, we found a bar with an outside seating area and had a few drinks. I'm sorry to say that I got a bit pissed. After, we took a walk up the road toward the Horseshoe Falls. The sound of the water and the spray in the air was working on my bladder - as was the 3 pints of lager I had downed 10 minutes earlier. I needed to find a washroom. Badly. Strange euphemism for toilet that: “washroom”. But not as strange as “restroom”. ‘Just popping in here for a rest, love.’ We walked on a bit more and I was now finding it difficult to walk. I was in severe need of a "wash". We eventually found one, I had a wash and all was well again. We made our way back to the hotel, stopping to do a little shopping en-route, and showered and changed for dinner.
Not sure where to eat, we called in to the Hard Rock Cafe, conveniently situated next door. We ordered a portion of nachos to share and Jo went for the Rack O Ribs whilst I opted for the Cajun Chicken. The nachos arrived: a huge portion. There was enough for six people to share, never mind two! We devoured what we could, leaving room for the main course. Just as well, as Jo then had half a pig placed in front of her... with chips! My chicken was slightly more modest I am pleased to say.
Afterward, we headed up to the casino: 4 floors of slot machines; blackjack tables; roulette and craps. The tables looked rather intimidating, with people placing 100-dollar bets here, there and everywhere. We stood at one of the craps tables and watched for a while, but try as we might, we couldn't figure out the rules and so we moved on. People were sitting at the slot machines with small buckets filled up with quarters. I changed 20 dollars into quarters, and it filled just an inch of my bucket. We sat at a machine and one by one I fed it my money. The machine had a top payout of $1000. Some of the other machines had much higher jackpots: $70,000 or more, but they were a minimum of $1 a play. My machine occasionally paid out the odd dollar or two to me, just to keep me interested, but eventually devoured my entire 20 bucks. Jo had better luck: she put in 35 dollars but managed to win 27 of it back. We decided to quit while we were behind. It was actually quite a frightening experience to see the amounts of money people were throwing away.
Our interest sated and our budget blown, we headed back to the hotel and bed.