Friday, July 27, 2007

Niagara Falls

So I had the chance to go to see Niagara Falls. I must say the place was not as commercialised as I first thought it would be. You are allowed to access the falls without having to pay extortionate prices. The parking was reasonable, but I think that is were people make a lot of money. The minute you drive into Niagara (the Canadian side) there are several people with signs saying 'Parking'. In some cases they will walk out in front of the car just incase you did not see their signs. Well lucky for us we found a great place to park for the full day only $12 CAD.

The place is extremely alive. It has everything from Casinos to Coca Cola store etc. I think at one point I saw a fair, a Marvel comic building. Oh there is everything, but the point of the trip does not always seem to be the falls. Everyone comes has a relatively quick look at the falls and then they disappear into the many attractions either for food or entertainment. I would expect that it is no different from the American side either. We did not go on the boat ride into the falls for two reason. Firstly, there were thousands of people lined up to go on the boats. It would have taken the whole day to get on the boat. Secondly, I did not fancy getting my camera equipment soaking wet.

Some of these stores sell many different things from beaver hats, t-shirts etc. to water from the falls. They even managed to capture the coloured light into the bottle. This clearly proves how stupid or easily marketed people can be. Also the other thing that amazed me was how much genuine hand made items were made in china. Well enough negativity, here are a few pictures from the falls.


Americana Falls


Niagara  368

Those are people in the yellow!


Niagara  320


Horseshoe Falls


Niagara  298

On the larger version of this you can see one of the Maid of the Mist boats cruising into the falls.