After packing my bag I went to a new cafe that had been recommended on the internet: the R-squared cafe on Queen Street. I wrote my last blog here and a had a fantastic new kind of coffee: the Orange Mocha. I will definitely try that at home!
In this area there were also a few designer shops around. I bought a few wooden design souvenirs for our living room and looked around in a crazy shop with a bison head, a sharks head, new designer furniture and old telephones and type writers.
After doing a bit of food shopping I only went back home, did some clothes washing, relaxed, blogged a bit more and when Rene returned we cooked together and decided on our final route for the next week and booked all stays.
On Saturday we checked out at 11 AM and proceeded to the airport to collect our car. The man at the counter had a good look at Rene and then asked if we really wanted the economy car I had pre-booked. He said that he was going to give us a Fiat 500 and that Rene would not feel well in that small car. As I had imagined the car to be a lot bigger (I had seen an example photo while booking) I was quite surprised but finally we agreed to pay a little bit more and to get an upgrade to a VW Tiguan, which proved to be alright to sit in but the luggage could hardly fit into the trunk. After shoving it a bit it was okay, but I missed my old New Zealand car with the enormous trunk to fit in lots of bags and a tent and sleeping bags and more more more.
When we drove onto the highway around the airport we realized quickly that the highway system over here in Canada differs a lot from that at home. The lanes come and go, the information boards are sometimes a bit confusing as they first point out e.g. that it is the left lane to go to a certain direction and suddenly a few meters further it is the right lane. Also Canadians can take you over either on the right or left side which can be scary. So best stay in the middle and let them pass around you for the beginning.
With the average and maximum of 100 km per hour the traveling seems endlessly long.
Even my average 130 km/h at home seemed slow to m before. Now I really appreciate how fast it really is.
Anyway we reached Niagara Falls at around 4 PM. The sun was burning down on us and when walking towards the falls we had to pass a street down to the water that I can only call kid's Las Vegas or road to hell. It really was hell to us!
Unasked carnival in the middle of this hot day with lots and lots of tourists getting drawn to the slush machines, haunted houses, restaurants, carousels...
My personal nightmare.
But when we had left this street behind us, we saw them: the Niagara Falls!
Cool!
We arrived by the American Falls and Bridal Falls and could see the Horseshoe Falls in the back. Of course just looking was not enough. I had to get on board of one of the boats who drove right into the falls.
The initial Maid of the Mists tour was just on the U.S. side of the border, ours was the Hornblower Tours. So what, it was also a misty boat.
We received red rain coats and off we went. Rene and I were standing at the actual front of the boat and catching every misty drop that the Horseshoe Falls could throw at us.
It was soooo cool. The boat stayed on one spot and the mist whirled all around the boat and wet everybody on board.
After Niagara Falls we made a quick detour to Niagara-on-the-lake (on Lake Ontario). It was pittoresque with very clean, very coloured and cute-looking houses.
But we skipped taking a tour on foot as we were quite late already.
After a trip to the Walmart (I bought 3 jeans there) we finally arrived at Hamilton, a town between Niagara and Toronto to spend the night.
The house looked very rundown, but the host was quite nice and told us to make ourselves at home. He said he was coming and going all the time (we never saw him again). Our room was okay, but not the "deluxe" as it had been called when booking. It was also not a "lodge" but an old house, which badly needed a cleaning.
The kitchen looked like it had not been cleaned once in the last year and there was mold in our fridge (which had been disconnected from the electricity).
The surroundings scared me a little obviously and I had bad dreams even though the bed was absolutely okay to sleep in.
After having a quick breakfast in the morning we took off towards Toronto and beyond to the Thousand Islands in the St Lawrence River. Funnily the rest of the trip would be all the way next to this river up until Tadoussac where we wanted to go whale watching. All in all we would be going for about 2100 km in one week.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen