Niagara Falls Part 2 - 'The Falls'

It was just after sunset by the time we arrived at the best location for viewing ‘The Falls’. (There are actually more than one set of waterfalls along the river.)

Unfortunately it was just too late for my camera to take the best photos. (Darned those freight trains for delaying us by two hours!) While the photos seemed OK in the viewfinder, they did not work out well in practice, which was very disappointing. I took some at different spots in that special viewing area, then some from my hotel window and the window from the hotel’s restaurant on the 10th floor, at which time there were coloured lights playing on the water spilling over two adjacent falls, which alternated between being the same colour as each other, and being different colours. The lights on each waterfall were sometimes just one colour, sometimes a whole rainbow, sometimes three stripes and at other times a moving band of colours. What a show!  

But to actually be looking at the water as it moved towards the huge drop, and then see it drop, sending spray and mist everywhere, was amazing. The vastness and speed and power of the body of water as it rapidly flowed towards the edge, the feeling of the spray on your face and the majesty of the waterfalls, was extraordinary. It is a sight and an experience I shall never forget. And it was right in the very middle of the city!

Even at 8 pm when I saw one of these picturesque falls close up, there were busloads of people coming to view this spectacular sight. There was a boat you could catch that would take you very close to them. But here my taxi driver spoke of a tragedy. A young Chinese girl hopped onto a railing to take a selfie, a huge gust of wind blew and over she went. As I have travelled around Canada I have seen other tourists, mainly Asian, hopping over railings high up over rivers and waterfalls and stand on the edge of the rocks to take selfies. My heart is always in my mouth for them. They seem oblivious to the danger in which they are placing themselves! Those rocks are very slippery. 

The next morning I caught a bus to Toronto to catch the train of which I spoke when writing my posts on Ruthin Castle. I will show you some photos of that lovely-looking city on my next post. 

In the next photos taken through windows, I could not avoid all the reflections from the room. The first one was taken from my room, when both falls were lit up with a bright blue colour, and the other two from the restaurant, when one waterfall was banded pink and red while the other as white and blue, and when the falls were a rainbow. But what a view as I ate my dinner! It was an Italian restaurant, and I was so hungry by then after having so little food on the train then nothing to eat or drink on our two hours of driving. It was delicious!