Niagara (Day 8)

We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel and then were collected by a nice New Zealander in a minibus to take us on a Niagara Falls Day Tour.  We learnt a bit about Toronto as we headed to collect the last people on the tour.

The tour took us out along Lake Ontario through the wine regions.  We passed a lock big enough to fit huge ships, quite different from the tiny ones on the canals.  Our first stop was Niagara-on-the-lake.  A quaint little historic town.  We took a walk along the high street and then down to the Lake shore.

Our next stop was the smallest chapel in the world.  Right next to the roadside, next to a fruit orchard,  barely enough space to seat 6 but very popular for weddings.

We followed this with a trip to the Reif Estate Winery.  We sampled a red, a white (which was very nice) and the most beautiful wine I have tasted.  A sweet white, an ice wine.  The grapes are harvested whilst frozen on the vine, one maybe two drops of delicious concentrated grape juice is squeezed from each frozen grape.  Naturally I had to buy some to take home.

We also stopped by the Brock Monument, the floral clock, saw the bridges taking traffic between Canada and America and the hydro electric powerstations that generate power from reservoirs on either edge of the falls, stocked by water diverted from the falls during the night.

At the start of the tour, there was mention of an optional helicopter ride over the falls.  Yes it was expensive but when were we ever going to experience that again?  We were dropped off and the rest of the tour was taken to start their time at the falls. Today's shot was taken from the ride.  We were then collected and dropped off at the Maid of the Mist.  A boat tour that goes right up to the falls.  We were given a plastic poncho, we obligingly put them on, not thinking we would need them.  How wrong we were!  There was so much dampness from the spray!

We then wandered up to the head of the falls, did some tourist shopping, grabbed some lunch and it was soon time to head back for our return journey.

A fantastic day that I would highly recommend to anyone.

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