May 24: Long Journey Out

Got up early on a still cold, spitty day to get to the intercity bus depot at Union Station, for today I was heading to Niagara Falls.

A fair number of other travellers were already at the depot.

My bus, run by Megabus, arrived and left on time. We steadily headed southwest from the central city. Clusters of tall buildings kept growing and fading at regular intervals.

As the bus followed the west edge of Lake Ontario, various towns appeared and disappeared between long empty stretches. We passed by Hamilton, Virginia and Jim’s home, and stopped at St Catherines. Finally, after over 1½ hours travel, the bus reached Niagara.

The day was cloudy, still a bit foggy but not wet. The depot I got off from was a few km north of the falls, but near the Niagara River, so I began walking along the riverside road high above the water.

To The Falls

For the first few km, I had the river on one side, and suburban houses and small hotels on the other. As I walked further, though, signs of tourism began appearing.

I got in sight of The Rainbow Bridge, one of the main crossings here between Canada and the US.

And beyond that, I saw, and heard the American Falls. Even from a distance, it’s an impressive sight.

The riverside road was now quite full of families and tour groups. (I forgot that today was Sunday.) As I moved through them, the larger Horseshoe Falls came into view, adding extra mist to the existing fog.

Among the throng of people were the usual vendors and tourist opportunities. There was even a zipline taking people down to river level.

The closer I got to Horseshoe Falls, the louder and more impressive it became. Up close, you truly see the scale of vast volumes of water constantly cascading below. I spent several minutes just gazing at it, as did most other people.

Where’s My Ride?

Beside Horseshoe Falls was Table Rock, the venue where I could book some of the excursions. However, my mind was on where my departing bus would leave from; the booking details weren’t quite clear on the location. A coach park with a similar name was further down the road, so I followed the river further.

After a trudge, I found the park, and lo, there was a Megabus waiting for a pickup. The driver assured me my return bus would depart there too. Nearby was a depot for local shuttle buses, so I took one back to the Falls.

From Under and Within

At Table Rock by lunchtime, the first thing I wanted to see was Journey Behind the Falls. There were already snaking queues to get tickets for the attractions. After I got to the front, I got a ticket for the 2:30 session. Had a bite to eat and looked around while I waited.

2:30 rolled around and I joined the snaking queue going in to Journey Behind the Falls. We first went through a waiting area, with info displays about the history of Niagara. Eventually, the queue moved into another waiting area, where we were given plastic ponchos to wear. In small groups at a time, we were taken down to the tunnels.

These were dug about 130 years ago in the bedrock behind the Horseshoe Falls. One tunnel takes you to an observation deck just next to the base of the falls, so you see and feel the thunderous water crashing beside you.

Two other tunnels take you directly behind the waterfall itself.

Power Station

After taking in the majesty of it all for a while, we headed back to the lifts and put our ponchos in the recycle chutes. The next attraction I wanted to see was the old Niagara Power Station. It was built in 1892 and provided power for over 100 years. It’s now become a huge museum, showing off old technology on a grand scale.

One feature is a Van der Graff generator attached to the ceiling. The operator made it play the themes to Star Wars and Superman as it sparked out.

There are exhibitions of the infrastructure required to keep the place running.

And then there’s The Tunnel. This used to be the outlet for the station’s water after it had spun the generators. A staff member took me 60m underground in a lift, to a long, dark, brick-lined tunnel, 670m long.

I felt like I was in a slightly different world as I walked along it, eventually arriving at the river.

Trek Above

I’d seen and done a lot so far. Trouble was, my departure time was 9:05pm (I can’t remember why; maybe it was a cheaper booking) and I still had time to fill. So I decided to walk to the section of Niagara above the falls. Most of the buildings there are hotels, casinos and restaurants.

had a meal at my first Applebee’s. There wasn’t much for vegetarians, though you could substitute a plant-based patty in your burger.

At that point, the day started getting damp again and rain radar showed a fair amount was coming. I took the funicular down to Table Rock and got a shuttle back to the bus depot.

I still had to wait almost two hours before my bus showed up, but rain was getting worse, my phone was on low battery and there wasn’t much more I wanted to see. When my Megabus did arrive, the driver wouldn’t let anyone board until the official time, despite the light rain.

Long journey back to Toronto, after midnight when I got back to Wilson Hall. I’m learning pretty quickly that the delight in visiting new places can be lessened by the time and effort of getting there.