Niagara Falls
A train ride to remember
6 September 2007
I insisted that Jean-Jacques was up bright and early because there is only one train each morning that calls at Niagara Falls and that is the train on its way to New York.
This was our last full day in Canada and we could not afford to miss it. We allowed lots of Gramps' snag time and arrived with twenty minutes to spare.
Via Rail, the Canadian railway system advertises that it will whisk you in comfort across Canada at speed. It is a good thing that they don't announce at what speed. Toronto to Niagara Falls is about 120 kilometres we reckon and it takes the New York train two hours to cover it.
We were only allowed into one compartment by the one door and I assume that this was because we were not crossing the frontier into the States.
Our train was crewed by Canadians but was actually an Amtrak vehicle. It was comfortable enough I would have to say: the seats were huge with lots of leg room.
It was all a bit like the wild west. You have to climb up into the carriage and the train driver was forever whistling. Our conductor was forever up and down the car telling us that the buffet car was open/closed or to remind us that we were only allowed off by the one door. We were also reminded that we were not allowed to leave our seats until the train had come to a complete stop.
As we trundled across the countryside, the train whistling away, I read a bit whilst JJ watched the countryside walk past. At one point he turned excitedly to me to say that there was a dog running alongside us and that was why we were hooting so much.
It was certainly an experience and one we would repeat on the way home again.
Arrival at Niagara Falls
Today was going to be a clear blue sky, very hot and require a lot of walking.
We got off the train and started our dander into town along the gorge. After two hours sitting down we needed the exercise and besides the sense of occasion grows as you get closer and closer. I had been telling JJ for days that Niagara: was just a water fall, don't go getting too excited, but once you see the gorge and walk a bit further and hear the American falls and then see them, the tension is well mounting.
The first real thing that you see of the great horseshoe Canadian falls is the mist. The power of the water drives up this incredible spray which travels hundreds of metres away from the falls. JJ was well impressed.
He had talked and talked about going to see Niagara Falls for so long that now that he was here I was pleased that he found it as impressive as he had imagined.
You can do lots of things at Niagara, but the three that I insisted we do given our limited time was go out on the boat, see it from the air, and walk down and behind it. I suggested that the famous Maid of the Mist boat trip should be first because that would give us time to dry out if necessary.
The queues were not enormous and within about twenty minutes we were down at the quay waiting to get on board. We had all been issued with blue plastic capes but had also been warned not to put them on until we were on the boat. The weather was far too hot for a layer of plastic.
Off we went. I let JJ take the camera whilst I tried to get some video. All goes well until you get close to the Canadian falls, By then there is so much spray all you get in the viewfinder are drops of water. It is very windy down there in the midst of the spray and the noise of hundreds of plastic capes rustling in the wind made conversation impossible but the smile on JJ's face spoke louder than words. He was having a fun time.
Coming off the boat JJ decided to keep his souvenir plastic wrapper for his fishing. More things to keep in the garage. Back on dry land again the heat hit us again so we took a coffee break and worked out where the helli-pad was. I would have to admit that I misjudged the distance. I assumed that the Bridge Street on the map was the road bridge but it was actually the railway bridge.
Intrepid pair that we are we set off to find our helicopter. Niagara Helicopters have been flying for years and I do believe that it must have been with them that I flew twenty years ago.
I had already phoned and asked about bookings but they told me that we would only need to turn up and they would get us up and away - which they did within about twenty minutes of our arrival.
Later that afternoon we went up the Skylon Tower for a static view of the falls but the thing about the helicopter is that you go right behind the falls and look down on it from there. It is a completely different view and just as majestic.
The flight only lasts about fifteen minutes but was another first for JJ. He took the still photos whilst I tried to get some footage with the camcorder. It was difficult enough because the vibrations of the aircraft made keeping the camera steady almost impossible. The results are reasonable though and JJ got some fine stills.
We slowly walked our way back into town stopping twice to pick up more water as we seemed to be leaking according to the back of my T-shirt. We took shelter in the Skylon Tower and managed some more photos. The Canadian falls do take hold of you as you try to get every conceivable angle and come home with dozens of photos of much the same thing.
We picked up our presents and souvenirs and then walked along the front towards the falls. You can go right down and behind the falls if you so desire but I don't think that it is worth the price, you just get wet from a different angle and don't appreciate the length of the falls. So we stayed up top.
Jean-Jacques was astounded by the fact that even hundreds of metres from the falls he was getting wet as the spray came up over the parapet. At 675 metres long and 54 metres high the Horseshoe Falls has millions of litres of water pouring over it: every second.
And so our day came to a close with photos of the two of us standing against the backdrops of the rainbows created in the mist. We looked about for a cab or a bus to take us back to the railway station but not finding one walked it.
At the little railway station, we waited on our train to come across the frontier. It arrived on time and then left an hour late because of something to do with the customs formalities. There was no word of apology, no explanation, just a revised time of arrival broadcast by our ever present conductor.
We did manage to claw back fifteen minutes on the way to Toronto. Given the distance and the time allowed - it wasn't that difficult.
See also