Thursday 20 August 2009

Niagra - In, Around and Beyond!


This weekend I went to Niagra to see the world famous Horse shoe falls. I had been there before, but from the American side. If the view from the American side is good, then that from the Canadian is purely brilliant (as you can see in the picture above). There are three falls in all: the horse shoe falls, the bridal falls and the Niagra or American falls. The horse shoe falls gets it name because it is shaped like a horse shoe! The bridal falls is located on the American side and is the smallest of the three, though I have absolutely no clue why it is called so. Incidentally, Niagra is called the honeymoon capital of the world! Apparently, a huge number of couples flock here for their honeymoon. I always thought that the honour lay with Paris, cause Eiffel tower is way more romantic. You even get to drink champagne right on top of the tower!

Besides ogling at the falls (and the honeymooning couples) for hours on end, there are quite a few other things you can do at Niagra. There is this extremely popular boat ride called 'maid of the mist'. It takes you right beneath the falls. It takes a lot to wow me but this boat ride sure did. Then you have the 'journey behind the falls'. You get to go in a man made tunnel and see the falls from behind! Another wow moment. And finally just a kilometer away from the falls is Marineland - an amusement park with a lot of sea creatures on exhibit. Here are some pictures.

That boat is the maid of the mist. You get to wear a blue raincoat. The raincoats can be kept as souvenirs.

This was part of the journey behind the falls. Yellow raincoats here! And that is as close to the falls as you can get. Almost impossible to stand there with the strong winds!

That is what the falls look like from behind!

This is the view from my hotel room. I stayed at the Sheraton, 17th floor! Life is beautiful :)

That ride in the background is the sky screamer. Absolutely scary. It takes you to the height of about 30 storeys and drops you down at the speed of gravity!

A beluga whale at marineland. Managed to click him just when he looked up!

And in case you want to see the video of sky screamer, you can see it here!

2 comments:

Two Paise said...

It's called 'Bridal Falls' because that narrow strip of waterfalls is separated from the main American falls by rocks and looks like a bride's veil.

Nice shot of the whale.

Shawn Francis said...

Thanks Two Paise (and thanks wiki)

;) :P