Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Toronto, Niagara and Montreal

Last weekend was a busy one.  Fortunately I had a meeting in Montreal on Monday so I decided to make the most of it.  I flew to Montreal on Friday night and then to Toronto on Saturday morning.  I was so excited to be going to a Prince concert at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night!  I had purchased a VIP ticket, a table seat right next to the stage.  The concert was amazing, it went for almost three hours and Prince played all of his hits, Purple Rain, Kiss, Let's go crazy, 1999, Controversy, Cream, Nothing compares 2 U, I would die 4 U, Sign O the times, Raspberry Beret, Alphabet St and the list goes on. 

On Sunday I took a day trip to Niagara Falls.  It is the low season right now and it was overcast and drizzly, although there weren't many people there so I had great views of the falls.  I didn't realise that the Canadian and US sides of the falls are two separate falls (same water source) and it is true that the Canadian side is more spectacular!  The falls were really noisy and at this time of year more of the water gets diverted to power stations downstream so it would be even louder in summer.

I went up the Skylon tower nearby for a different view and had a bit of a look around the place.  To be honest, apart from the falls the town is a bit dreary.  A casino, lots of tacky tourist activities and the US border.  The facilities were pretty old looking with paint peeling off and hardly any good signage to read. The drive along the river was lovely, especially with brown and gold leaves still on the trees.  We also visited a town called Niagara on the Lake which had some great little shops and a bakery with pies! The day trip was good and I was glad to have visited but I don't think I would make the trip back.


At the top of Niagara Falls

USA side of Niagara Falls

Horseshoe Falls, the Canadian side of Niagara Falls