Greetings from Niagara Falls...

11th Feb, 2008

Firstly, the good stuff.

All these pics were taken through the window of our room. We are on the 37th floor and though the pictures make it look like we are bit further away, we are less than 100 metres from the edge. The view is seriously breathtaking, even for a cynical old bugger like me. We are on the Canadian side of the falls. The border runs directly down the middle of the main river and dissects the Horseshoe Falls, Canada on the Northern bank, USA on the Southern bank. About 200 metres before the Horseshoe Falls, the river branches off to the right and comes down to form the American Falls which are solely in the USA.

Both falls, American Falls to the left, Horseshoe Falls to the right.



American Falls



Horseshoe Falls






From the lift lobby on the 37th floor, looking over suburban Niagara Falls




Now for the not so good. This picture of the plane we flew into Buffalo on gives you an idea of the weather. As you can see, snow is flying around all over the place, but it is all windblown, it wasn't actually snowing at the time. When I walked out of the terminal to meet our transport to Niagara, it was the coldest weather I had ever experienced, colder than anything Charlottes Pass had served up in my times there. But, it would get worse.....



From this picture, you can see that the casino is on the next corner.



We had a late lunch after we checked in, so decided to relax in the room, watch the view and have a nap because both of us have found it difficult to sleep, I've had about 4 hours each night. Around 9pm we decided to get dressed and go check out the casino. Unfortunately we just missed the shuttle which loops around Niagara and can drop you at the casino. No big deal, it's only a block away and we could do with the exercise.

Big mistake.

Well, if we thought it was cold at Buffalo, we hadn't felt anything yet. I had a skivvy, a jumper and my thick Swans 'bomber' jacket on and within 20 metres I was frozen solid. The wind and cold was totally insane. We made it to the casino, 150 metres away. My glasses were fogged/iced? over, I had the kind of 'brain freeze' headache you sometimes get when you eat an ice cream. It was madness.

But it didn't end there. I said to Diane we will get the last shuttle back at 2am because I have no intention of walking back in that weather. We agreed, but when we went to get Diane's coat from the coat check, it was closed and she had to go to the other end of the building to the 24hr coat check and, yes, you guessed it, we missed the last shuttle. The walk back was just ridiculous, how do people live in this weather??

We shivered our way back to the hotel and collapsed in bed.

When we awoke this morning and turned the TV on we were greeted with the news that it was currently -17!!!!, the wind chill was -40!!!!, there was a severe weather and wind chill warning and all schools from Buffalo to Toronto were shutdown for the day because it was too cold for children to leave their homes!!!!

Unfortunately, ALL our ski gear, jackets, gloves, balaclavas etc are in a locker at JFK. We left them there, along with one of our suitcases so we didn't need to lug them up here for 2 days. NOT HAPPY, JAN. I thought I had done as much investigative work that was humanly possible in arranging this trip, I just had no idea I would need to prepare for insane cold snaps like this one. I'm sure we'll laugh about it in years to come.

It's almost midday here (Monday) and we are rugging up as much as possible to go down to the edge of the falls. It is still -15 outside. I have no idea how long we will be able to stay outdoors, but we'll never forgive ourselves if we don't attempt to get a closeup view from the falls edge. All the major attractions are closed, as you can see from the pics the river that the Falls flow into is iced over in winter so some don't run anyway, but the 'Cave of the Winds' and 'Behind the Falls' walk is shut for obvious reasons.

Sorry for the novel, more later.

Cheers Bob and Di.