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Well, this was a signature day. Niagara Falls just has to be seen to be believed! We set off from Toronto for two hours by road to firstly a town called Niagara-on-the-Lake. This is where the Niagara River enters Lake Ontario and it is pretty as a picture. The small business area is festooned with flowers in beds and hanging baskets while the homes are just what you expect to see with green lawns, beautiful gardens and of many individual but elegant designs with many B n Bs (they denote themselves as such by green front doors and window shutters). Absolute picture postcard stuff! 30 minutes later we are at Niagara Falls and quickly ushered to the boat to go to the foot of the falls. More like "Maid of the Heavy Rain" than Maid of the Mist, but worth getting wet for the experience of witnessing the sheer power of the water. There are two significant falls - the American falls and the larger horseshoe Canadian falls and both are simply awesome, with the border between the two countries running down the middle of the feeder Niagara river. There were also hundreds of birds flying around at the bottom of the falls feeding on fish etc which had been brought to the surface by the churning water. Our guide mentioned that up until the mid 1970s the river ledge of the falls was receding at the rate of 3 feet/year but due to some intervention, the recession rate is now approx a foot every few years. We then visited various areas at the top of the falls and another great perspective of just how mighty they are. The current leading to the falls is very powerful and you see this when you stand adjacent to the river ledge (behind the fence of course) and see the flow rate of the plunging water. Simply awesome (I know I said that previously!) As with many places in Canada it appears, the public areas and gardens at the top of the falls are quite beautiful. However thus is offset to some degree by the commercialisation of the area, :-( On the way back to Toronto along the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) we crossed over the man made canal and lock system built for shipping to bypass the falls. We were lucky enough to see one ship on the canal, another in the lower lock, and yet another in a higher lock.
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Robyn " ...offset to some degree by the commercialisation of the area." Very diplomatic.