VALENTINES DAY AT NIAGARA FALLS

Niagara Falls is a pretty cool place to spend Valentines Day, even when you don’t really believe in all the hype and hoopla that surrounds it. After all Niagara Falls is known as the honeymoon capital of the world so where better to spend Valentines!

Niagara Falls is certainly a place of many contrasts. On the one hand you have the majestic beauty and fury of Niagara Falls, whilst on the other you have the tackiness and tawdriness that inhabits the Canadian side that faces the Falls.

Fun parlors, haunted houses, sideshows and rides compete with high rise hotels. There are butterfly houses and exotic bird displays. A huge indoor water-park is linked to the hotels with covered walkways. It isn’t uncommon at this time of year to be walking down one of the covered walkways, dressed in a heavy coat, gloves and scarf and to pass a family dressed in swimming costumes on the way to the water park.


You can eat at the Hard Rock Café or Planet Hollywood or any number of other restaurants who all appear to offer the message that ‘kids eat free.’ Coca Cola and Hershey have huge stores to display and sell their goods and shops selling cheap t-shirts abound.


Niagara Falls may have built its reputation as the honeymoon capital of the world but it now appears to be one huge kid’s playground with Niagara Falls just a minor player in the background. The Falls are truly magnificent whilst everything else leaves a lot to be desired.

There has been lots of snow over the past few days so everything was dusted with a fresh coating of white. The ice flows that inhabit the raging waters above the Falls look stark bleak and every now and again one breaks away from its moorings to take a wild ride down the torrent and then plunge over the Falls only to bob up far below in a swirling mass of ice debris.

The volume of water that roars over the Falls is amazing and a chilled spray of mist is thrown high into the air. Even in this cold atmosphere tourists abound and the click and whirr of cameras is a constant background noise to the roar of the Falls.


I can only imagine what the crowds must be like in the warmer months.


We will spend Sunday night at a hotel located at Toronto Airport and take the flight back to Kelowna early on Monday morning. Just one day at home before heading off to the Olympics.

NIAGARA FALLS

Tammie and I travelled down to Niagara falls from Toronto yesterday. The snow had stopped and it was a bright, clear day with the temperature just below zero. The drive is just over a 100 k's and is really nondescript with a lot of heavy industry along the way belching out pollution.

We checked into our hotel, the Sheraton Fallsview just after midday. The hotel is situated just across the road from Niagara Falls. The hotel itself is a little shabby, but that is forgiven when we observed the view of Niagara Falls from our hotel room. Wall to wall windows allow a spectacular view and you can hear the boom of the Falls when the balcony door is open. 

I must admit that I thought the Falls would be a little bigger. The American Falls have a lot of big boulders at the bottom of the Falls which diminishes their size. The Horseshoe Falls are much bigger and the volume of water that falls over the top is amazing

I had a quick walk around the Clifton Hill area which is glitzy, without the glamour. Wax museums, fun parlors, rides and fast food chains abound. At this time of the year there is hardly a soul on the streets, though I can only imagine what it would be like in the summer months and school holidays. Bedlam I assume.

This morning I went to the hotel gym which is located on the 14th floor. All of the exercise machines face towards the Niagara Falls. There I was on a treadmill looking out over the Falls during a snow-shower. Amazing! I had physical pain with a brilliant view.