17 Apr 09

To New York

We woke a 6 to get catch the 8am Lucky Star Bus to NYC when we got there an hour early (ala Greyhound, to ensure your seat) they said that we could catch the 7am so we opted for that and had two seats each so managed to get some sleep on the 4 hour trip. We arrived into the heart of Chinatown at about 11am and called a taxi to get to the Millennium Hilton, immediately next to Ground Zero, in fact our hotel room looked right over the entire site which is quite a moving sight when you get the sense of scale. Of course at the moment it is one massive building site for the construction of the 5 new buildings.
We then headed Uptown to Zabars Deli again to get a few things to take home, mainly some more smoked mozzarella and 1lb of Pastrami! We then headed down to S's favourite comic book stand and again headed back to finish the packing and have a last iced green tea with lemonade. For dinner we opted for a hamburger joint, which the book said was one of the best. The menu includes over 60 burgers (but no fries). We shared a starter of Cajun chicken skewers. S had a main of a burger with American (cheese), Ham, BBQ sauce, M had the Hippo Burger, guacamole, sauteed onions, Swiss, bacon and curried sour cream. We also shared a jacket potato.

We then headed to the Rockefeller Centre to catch sunset at the Top of the Rock which was breathtaking. I would be controversial and say that the view is a bit better from the Rock, there is an amazing view of Central Park but also a very impressive view of the Empire State Building. Having said that, I would still strongly recommend the atmosphere of going up the Empire State. We then were beginning to feel the 6am start and also remembered that we had to be up at 4am in the morning so had to head back to the Hotel.

16 Apr 09

Today we had a burrito breakfast at the posh shopping mall attached to our hotel and decided to go for a land and water tour of Boston to find that the cost was about $15 more than the book said so we decided against it. Instead we decided to head to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Socks. Of all the places we visited, all with several different sports teams I was suprised that very few people wear clothing to show their affiliation as much as they do here, until Boston that is, hundreds of people have the red socks emblem on jackets, jumpers, t-shirts and mostly, baseball hats. The tour was the first thing we have been on that was busy and it was actually completly full!! The stadium had a fab atmosphere even tho it was empty, helped a lot by a fab 76 year old tour guide who had even worse jokes than S (no joke, it turns out it is possible!).
After that we popped a couple blocks down to the Isabella Garner Stuart Museum. This is the sole collection of Isabella and housed in a purpose built gallery. Unfortunately you cannot take any pictures in the museum which is a HUGE shame because the biggest feature of the gallery is an amazing three storey courtyard in the middle of the building which houses some of the collection (mostly Roman, including a mosaic) and stunning plants and flowers. The gallery is very interesting and user friendly as she designed each room so that the look of the different pieces go together rather than going by style, period or artist. Very little is labelled so it is all about just getting the general feel, therefore it doesn't really matter that the most famous pieces were all stolen in the 1990's.
We also stopped in at the museum cafe for some afternoon tea, S was English Breakfast and a Chocolate Gateaux Tort, for M, Earl Grey and Apple Crisp (i.e. Crumble) with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream both of which were delicious.

We then headed back to base for a quick recoup before heading for a seafood resturant called The Barking Crab. We started off a little astray by choosing the wrong bridge but when we found it, it turned out to be a very busy marque with loads of people chatting and laughing and a live music act. We opted for sharing a bucket of crab claws, then for mains S had a crab burger and M the fisherman platter (prawns, scallops, clams and haddock).
We had also ordered a pitcher of the local seasonal beer which we finished at the bar watching the Bruins beat Montreal again.

We then wandered home through the heart of the financial district.

15 Apr 09

20:56 EST

Tax day, all tax returns have to be filled today and therefore all the press seems to be dominated by it, and there are also deals in loads of shops which creates an interesting atmosphere. We were watching CNN and there was a reporter at a TEA party (based on the famous event here in Boston and also stands for Taxed Enough Already) who almost had a full blown fight with a number of protesters which was strange viewing. This also queued a very funny report about 'teabagging action' all over the and comparing the number of protesters to a number of people who turned out to such events as a Motley Crew reunion, Pet Festivals etc and great quotes such as “people were stopped from trying to teabag the treasury department without a permit” and “teabagging on the White House lawn”. The joys of very biased news presenting.

Anyway, enough of the current news and back to our holiday, today was car return day so we set off from the Super 8 and headed to the (bloody windy) beach to see if we could see home (we couldn't) and then headed North off of Cape Cod and towards Boston. Thanks to some brilliant navigation from S and the big dig tunnels which go under the entire city and harbour it was a lot easier than M expected it to be to get to the other side of Boston to drop the car off at the airport.

Our trusty steed

We then got on the T back to the middle of town and found our Marriott Hotel (thanks to priceline) and dropped off our stuff before heading for a wander around town in the beautiful sunshine and getting a Burrito to eat sat of a park bench watching the birds, ducks and squirrels, all of which are very friendly, in particular the mallard that tried to eat S's finger.

We then came back for a quick snooze before a planned evening out, with grand ideas of going to a couple of bars as we are able to have a lie in tomorrow for the last time this holiday. With this in mind we headed back to the same restaurant we went to last time. This time things were slightly different as there was a sports programme being filmed but we still had a very nice meal. Firstly we ordered a pitcher of Harpoon IPA and got ID'd, very flattering, then M had a boisin mushroom burger and S had a double bbq burger (that is 1lb of meat). All the food was very delicious but very filling (esp for S) so we decided to head back to base and have an early night as well as a lie in (mostly as it may be the most comfy bed i have ever been in).

The view from our hotel room of the Boston Skyline

14 Apr 09

Steve has been tasked with writing todays blog entry as he is well and truly in the doghouse, more details will follow...

Today officially started at about 01:20pm due to a rather awful start to the day. We woke up as normal at about 10am and packed up all our stuff and made our way to Mystic where we had planned to have brunch. Upon arrival, S got out of the car, patted his waist and realised that he was missing a rather vital piece of equipment. His money belt. This contained his passport, driving license, debit card and $200 and was still sitting underneath his pillow in the motel room in Hartford, about 1 hour 20mins away.

We jumped back in the car and immediately made out way back the way we came to the motel, where without even asking, the manager passed me the money belt (phew!) minus the $200 (doh!). Unfortunately as we had no way of proving that the money was ever in the belt we had no real case to take to the police, and all the other contents were intact. So a rather sheepish S and a rather angry M made our way (at 1:20pm), via a slightly faster route, back to Mystic with money belt firmly attached to S's waist.

When we finally arrived back at Mystic, we made our way to the the Pizzaria made famous by the film "Mystic Pizza" (well, S had heard of it anyway!), the movie that made Julia Roberts famous. It should be noted at this point that we are making a mental list of the best "meat feast" type pizzas we've had on our trip, hence the reason that we shared a "meatza pizza" (for comparison reasons :) ) and a moussaka pizza. Both of which were excellent, and definitely deserve the reputation gained since the film was released in the late eighties. For those interested in our top 5 meat pizzas, we will compile the list at the end of the holiday.

By the time we had eaten and made our way back to the car it was 4:30pm and so was time to move on to our resting place for the evening. It was a rather ambitious goal even before the mishap earlier in the day so we needed to push on. We took the coastal route into Rhode Island (the USA's smallest state) and took the scenic route through some islands in the bay below Providence RI over some breathtakingly large bridges and passed rather quickly out of Rhode Island and back into Massachusetts and onto the peninsula of Cape Cod. We had planned our route to stay in a motel of the same chain as last night, so we drove about half way along the peninsula to the very very touristy town of West Yarmouth and checked in.

After a short refreshment break we realised that it was rapidly approaching 8pm and so we set out walking along the main road (surrounded by motels and holiday resorts) and came across a rather nice looking restaurant that appeared to be one of the only ones open! S had a chicken soup followed by roast duck in an orange sauce, M had the same soup with a sea food pasta dish. Both were very nice, but the puddings took the biscuit!! S had a chocolate fudge brownie which was hot, very sticky and wonderfully chocolatey and M had a New York cheesecake with strawberries which was rich and delicious! Feeling rather full we embarked on the 30min walk back to the motel where we are sat blogging and reading.

13 Apr 09

22:57 EST

Not a particularly long post today as not really much was done! Most of the day was spent driving and so not very interesting to write about, even though it was a wonderful drive. So today we started with a coffee over the road from the Motel and headed back to the route 100 South towards Brattleboro right at the southern end of Vermont, we took a slightly unplanned route along the Interstate 91 which gave us the perfect opportunity to see the landscape begin to flatten. Along the way we passed about three different summer camps, mostly around lakes (still frozen!).

Brattleboro was a beautiful little town with several pretty churches and lots of posh gift shops. We had lunch at the Riverview Cafe, right next to the, well River, S had the burger and chips and M had the clam chowder, both of which were as good as the view.
We then headed back to the I91 and headed out of Vermont and into Massachusetts and then out again into Connecticut to the town of Hartford. We found a really good value out of town Motel (a chain called Super 8, recommended if you ever come) and then headed in towards town to go to Mark Twain's house, mostly as it was something to do but actually turned out to be quite interesting. The house itself is stunning and the tour was very informative.
We have now had an evening off, M didn't fancy driving into the middle of a city so we opted for take-out delivery and watched some films and played computer games (I like to excuse it as an evening trying to recreate a traditional evening in the lives of the locals)!!

12 Apr 09

19:24 EST

Today, M discovered the cruise control!!

We started with a lazyish start, having both slept really well in the nicest bed and room we have seen for a while and headed into to town to find some breakfast. Lincoln is a one road town and all of the cafes and restaurants were closed (combination of off-season, Sunday and Easter Sunday) so we had to opt for MacDonald's for the first (and hopefully the last). We then headed on the scenic route towards Vermont which was indeed very pretty.

We passed a Wal-Mart Superstar and stopped into get some supplies and chocolates for respective works and a new suitcase after the damage caused during the flight here finally claimed the big case. The store was absolutely huge, as were most of the tellers and a lot of the products themselves including the vegetables.

We stopped for lunch in Montpelier (pronounced Mont Peel yer) which is actually the state capital, with a population the same as Bishops Waltham. It is very pretty with a wild westish feel. We stopped at a very busy dinner that was listed in the guidebook and both had the burger from the specials menu while chatting to a nice older couple who were at the same large table as us.

We then continued onto Waterbury Vermont, home of Ben and Jerry's and went on the factory tour. This started with a film on the founding of the company by Ben and Jerry off the back of a $5 dollar correspondence course and all because an ice cream machine was cheaper than a bagel maker!

The tour then went to the mezzanine above the factory floor, it wasn't actually in opporation today (again, Easter Sunday) but you could see how they make half a million pints a day. The tour then finished in the sample room where we had a (well two in S's case after much goading from the tour guide) of orange and cream which was really quite nice (swirls of orange sorbet and vanilla ice cream not available in the UK), we then hit the shop before heading out into the still falling snow.

We then headed down the very pretty Route 100, stopping once at a very idyllic (but blinking cold) pond to Rutland (not pretty but cheap Motels) and found that again the only available food is chain fastfood so we opted for Pizza Hut.

11 Apr 09

08:04 EDT 01:04 BST

Today's blog is going to be short and sweet I'm afraid. Due to the constraints of being in the back of beyond, we have no wifi and are having to post from a public computer (hence no photo's tonight!). Turns out we do have a little wifi so please find photo's added below.

We got up bright and early this morning and made our way to Logan International Airport to pick the car up. Upon arrival we went through the whole process of booking a car out (including the rather annoying $25 per day under 25 surcharge!) and were given a choice of three "economy" sized cars in the car park outside. We settled on the non-American car of the three, the Toyota Yaris. Now in Europe, you get a Yaris and it's a nice compact run about, which is probably how the Americans view their version except that it's twice as big. Literally!

And so we were on our way (after a small mishap getting out of the airport) with M slowly getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road and also driving an automatic. Initially we headed out to Salem, just up the coast North of Boston, made famous by the Witchtrials of 1612 . We stopped off for a coffee to calm M's nerves and took a wander around a wax-work museum which documented some of the tales of the infamous year.
After quite a short period of time we headed back out, this time inland towards the fabled town of Meredith (any guesses why this was on the list of places to go?) which was about 2-3 hours drive away. We stopped off for lunch half way there at Canterbury Shaker Village, very much off the beaten track, but actually rather touristy and we weren't the only ones who had made the trip. As it turned out the village is no longer inhabited by the Shaker movement, in fact there is only one site left where Shakers still live, but a museum has been made from the still standing buildings. Our first stop was the restaurant as we were fairly famished by this point.
We started with some Shaker style bread (tasted like croissant) and M had the Mac and Cheese and S had the beef pot pie, both billed as being Shaker staples and both delicious. We washed those down with a glass or two of traditional spiced grape juice which was lovely.

The museum itself normally runs tours around and inside the buildings but they don't start till May so we contented ourselves buy wandering among the closed buildings with a few sneaky peeks through the windows.

We then decided to get back on the road and opted for the scenic route (M feeling more confident) and went along the edge to the lake to Meredith, which turns out to be very pretty and upmarket, so we did a quick tour of main street and the shops before heading off to Plymouth in a fruitless search for accommodation for the night, so then we headed up the highway through the White Mountain area to Lincoln, a ski and summer resort with discounted rooms for the off-season. We have the only hotel room in a resort of condominiums for rent and had a really nice chat with the manageress who recommended the Gypsy Cafe in town as a locals favourite, she also recommended the Mezza platta for starter which was superb and S had the chili cheese burger and M the Philadelphia (steak and peppers) sandwich, washed down with a glass of the local IPA (S) and a Margarita (M). We are now going to do a double check to make sure it is open on Easter Sunday, but all being well tomorrow is through the White Mountains, to the Ben and Jerry's factory and along route 100 to Rutland.

10 Apr 09

20:54 EST

Boston in the sunshine - beautiful!!

We started out a bit delayed due to everyone in the house all wanting a shower too but then had breakfast just down the road in Allston, M had the breakfast Burrito and S had hostile hangover buster bagel in a very trendy, very studenty cafe, we then got the T to the centre of town. We then started the freedom trail, which is marked by a red line in the pavement. This takes you past a number of key revolutionary sites,

Massachusetts State House

Old City Hall (now a chain steak house)

Old State House

Faneuil Hall, Market Hall and Meeting Place

Statue of Paul Revere

We deviated from the trail just behind the Fanuiel Hall to watch a troop of three "British" Acrobats (The lead sounded Australian!) perform some amazing feats, culminating the 'sister' standing on the head of one of the 'brothers' head whilst he balanced on a large ball, very impressive. We then walked to the end of one of the warfs (the sea is blue if anyone was wondering) and then headed into the North End area, which was originally Irish but is now Italian and headed for Pizzaria Regina which was highly recommended in the guide book.
We joined the queue (yes queue) outside to wait for a table, meanwhile we got chatting with a Bostonian family in front of us in the queue (with authentic accents) who were very impressed by our itenary, wanted to know why Steve supports St Lois Blues rather than Boston Bruins, and were very impressed that he was a scientist!

We actually managed to by-pass them a get a small table at the back of the resturant which was completely chocker, next to an official decree of thanks from the Coast Guard for the friendship that the resturant extended to its service men and women while they were stationed there post 9/11. We ordered two large pizza's and ended bringing half back with us, absolutly delicious but HUGE.

Because of the huge pizza box we decided to head back home before going to Cambridge, home of Harvard. We walked over the river to Harvard Square when we realised that we were too late to go to the Museums so we had a cup of tea in the Harvard bookstore before deciding to head back into to town for dinner. We went to a place called Jacob Wirth's which is a german based resturant with a massive beer menu, we opted for a pitcher of the local stout, a shared starter of bratwurst with potato, cabbage and sauerkraut. S had a main of jeagerschnitzle with a dough based carb underneath, M had fried local clams with fries and coleslaw but unfortunatly didn't managed all of it. We then headed back to the flat to pack as we are off to pick up the car first thing tomorrow. The plan is to head through Salem, up the coast to Portsmouth and then inland to the Meredith area.

09 Apr 09

21:00 EDT, 02:00 BST

Well we aren't regretting the decision from yesterday. This morning we packed away the remainder of our stuff and left Le Sous-bois for good...good riddance to that bloody caravan!! After the hostel staff booked us a taxi that never arrived we hailed a cab and made our way to the Le Station Centrale d'Autobus and had some breakfast whilst waiting for our Greyhound to leave.

Having heard many things about Greyhound buses (none of them particularly complimentary) we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was about the same amount of legroom as a train or economy plane, so not too bad. Our personal passage through customs was uneventful, but there were several passengers who were questioned a bit more closely which held up the process.

We then made quite quick progress to Burlington, VT. The change in the landscape was almost instantaneous, from the flat as a pancake fields of Canada to the mountainous and rocky scenery of Vermont. There is still snow and ice around and everything is still bare and brown but still stunning.

Burlington is home to The University of Vermont, and we drove right through the heart of the campus which seemed massive, with lots of new or in progress buildings, we also saw some of the infamous fraternity houses. Because of the fact it is a University town and also spring break it was unsurprising that there were a large number of students waiting for the coach which very rapidly became full. After about an hour we were ready to go again to the next stop on Montpelier which M slept through but according to S it looked like a gold rush town. The next stop was White Spring Junction were we had the opportunity for a bit of a leg stretch before the final push through the remainder of VT, New Hampshire and finally Massachusetts.

When we got to the bus station in Boston we decided to hop in a taxi as our hostel is actually a bit out of town and we were not confident about which metro stop it was. The taxi did get stuck in traffic but only cost $20 so not a bad decision. It turns out that our hostel is two converted town houses and we have a fairly spacious room on the third floor. The area is dominated by students (Harvard across the river and U of Boston 5 mins away) so we decided to eat locally and get a fairly early night. We chose a popular TGI Friday's type restaurant and went for two sharing plates whilst watching a very violent game of ice hockey (Boston Bruins V Montreal Canadians, a clash of our holiday titans and also local rivals). We also passed the metro so now know exactly where to go tomorrow in order to pack as much of Boston into the first of our two days here.

p.s. Mez has also found that the bedside lamp is touch activated and wanted me to put this into the blog!

08 Apr 2009

21:20 EDT (was getting it wrong before as we've already gone to daylight saving!) 02:20 BST

Well when we woke up this morning we made a decision. We're leaving Montreal a day early, a decision that was made based on several factors. Firstly, the entire city is like a ghost town. Because of the weather (still snowing and quite cold) nobody is above ground, and apart from the shopping malls there isn't much for a tourist to do down in the underground city. Secondly, our accommodation is starting to get under our skin. It may be that we've been spoiled with our previous two hostels, but we're cold and more than slightly uncomfortable in our little wooden shack. Thirdly, we'd actually like to spend a bit more time in Boston. The more that we've thought about it (admittedly biased from the situation we're in) the more we'd like to move on to our next destination. So the plan for today was to do some more sight seeing and sort out travel and accommodation for Boston.

First thing (well actually at about 11am) we made our way to the Basilica de Notre Dame and paid $5 to enter the church. When we entered there was a concert being played by what we assume was a school/youth string orchestra. It laid a rather nice backdrop to a very beautiful church (S was less than happy to pay to enter a church, but thats a different story :) )

Next we decided to have some lunch, having come across a promising looking Mexican restaurant (strictly not tex-mex the menu said!). We both had a broccoli soup for starter which was excellent and then M had "some white stuff that I think was based on corn topped with chicken and covered with green sauce accompanied by black beans and rice" , S had stuffed chicken. All of which was excellent and about £7 each - can't complain!!

We then carried on down the same street to the Archaeology Museum. This had a temporary exhibition about pre-Colombian Costa Rica which was beautifully presented and very interesting. The permanent exhibitions are all in the basement and consist of the old foundations of previous structures on the site. These extend well beyond the basement of the museum building and you emerge from a building a couple of blocks away from where you started. As it was snowing again we took the opportunity to stop for a coffee before heading to the greyhound station to book our tickets to Boston.

We then headed back home to pack and do some washing before going to a different part of town for t. We decided to try French and went for quite a posh meal in an old townhouse, we both had asparagus soup for starter, S had steak and M had rack of lamb, we shared a cheese platter for pudding.

Our hostel is down an alley leading off of this street

Our caravan

Le Hotel de Ville by moonlight, this is just around the corner from our hostel

7 Apr 09

So just to let you know we are feeling much better about Montreal this evening.

We were rudely awaken this morning by the alarm which M had forgotten to turn off but after a fairly turbulent nights sleep (for M anyway as S had stolen the blankets) we decided to head off to find some breakfast and head to the biodome. It was still pouring with rain, as it had been doing all night and we were still finding it hard to find other living people let alone restaurants until we headed into a nearby office block in the hope of finding the entrance to the underground city of shops and food places. When we entered the office block it was all quite dark but with large groups of people stood around all of the place talking quietly, we soon realised that something was amiss which we think was a power cut so all the office and shop employees were hanging around in the communal spaces waiting for all to return to normal. This situation did not make Montreal any more endearing, it made it more spooky! We finally found the subway station (we have discovered that just because there is a sign saying that it is the metro station, it doesn't necessarily mean that the platforms and station itself are anywhere near) and went to Pie-IX (pronounced Pee Nerf) which is the station stop for the 1976 Olympic plaza. The biodome is actually built within the velodrome that was originally built for the olympics and luckily had an open cafe so we grabbed a panini and a coffee and began to feel a little more human.

We then started on the first of the four ecosystems covered by the site, all of which include plants, animals, fish, birds etc. The first was the tropical rain forest which included the following creatures of interest,

• there were also golden, black and black and white monkeys
• crocodiles
• a terrapin
• an anaconda
• fish
  
• a real bat cave
• lots of birds, including humming birds

All of which we have photo's of, and if you like slightly or very blurry photos of just visible animals, let us know and we will be more than pleased to show you when we get back!!

Next was the pine woodland and included,

• beavers (all were asleep but we had seen them already)
• ducks and birds
• some very large trout

• a pair of very gorgeous linx who were asleep in the tinniest space right at the back of their enclosure.
• and another otter (see the second video at the end of the blog)!
  

Then was the ecosystem of the St Lawrence River (which runs around Montreal) and included the following,

• a rockpool complete with sea urchins (which M avoided the first time and managed some of the second time), starfish, crabs and the like
• Sea gulls, ducks, waders and other water foul like these two
  

• also a lower level where you could see under the water and watch the ducks and other birds dive for food which was fascinating to watch (see the first video at the end of the blog).
  

Then it was the arctic and antarctic,

• again there were several different types of penguin with an underwater section so that you could watch them swimming as well as waddling!
  

We then went to the cafeteria for some lunch and went round the whole thing again!

We finally headed home after a productive tour of the shop and by this time M was beginning to feel a little under the weather so we spent most of the afternoon in our cabin with the light snow falling around us. By 8pm M was beginning to feel much better so we headed out for some food. It turns out that we were headed in the right direction last night but had just given up too early, this time we made it all the way to the Latin Quarter and had a meal which seems to typify Montreal, a French burger! S had a double burger with Gruyer cheese and a dipping sauce for his frittes of dijonaise and M had a goats cheese and bacon burger with a dipping sauce of aioli, and very nice it was too. All washed down with a pint of the local blonde beer and a spot of ice hockey on the telly. The snow is still falling but it hasn't stuck to the roads and pavements (yet).

6 Apr 09

Well following yesterdays quite photo heavy post, todays is going to be a lot more wordy and less visually pleasing. It's been a bit of a rough day, and if we had been writing this two hours ago, the story might have had a less optimistic tone!!

We awoke this morning after our last night at Clarence Castle (great name for a rather nice hostel!) and rather swiftly packed the remainder of our belongings and headed to the train station (via Cora's for breakfast...a hearty full English style for both of us) for the next leg of our journey. Rather helpfully (and British rail companies have a lot to learn!) we checked in our luggage and so were free to amble around the station unencumbered by our steadily increasing suitcase weights! After a short wait we boarded the train and began our journey.

The main thing to note about North American trains is that they haven't learned the meaning of high speed yet. Whereas a 300 mile journey from Newcastle (ish) to London might take 3 hours to 4 hours in the UK, Toronto to Montreal took 5 hours for the same distance. And this was supposed to be a fast train. The journey was pretty uneventful although we both got a bit of cabin fever by the end of it and were getting increasingly annoyed by a pair of girls in front of us who were very loudly giggling and chatting in Quebecian French (therefore incomprehensible).

The weather all day has been very wet and miserable which probably contributed to us being a bit stressed upon arrival in Montreal. We had to walk for about 20 mins to get to the subway station, which then swallowed Mez's ticket. Then when we tried to get off the subway train, nobody would move and so the suitcase became a battering ram! After we finally got out of the subway, we got our bearings and made our way to the hostel. Except that we couldn't find the hostel when we got to the road it is supposed to be on. With the help of a very friendly local, we finally found it and checked in.

You may have heard the two of us talking about this with a bit more enthusiasm before the trip, but our accommodation in Le Sous Bois is what can best be described as a wooden cabin situated within a courtyard down a sidestreet. With a more objective view, we have a dry relatively warm place to stay for our time here.

Feeling more than a little stressed we decided to try and find somewhere to eat. We walked for about 20mins and stumbled across a Vietnamese restaurant where we hastily went inside out of the rain. The food was excellent, we shared some "imperial rolls", a chicken curry, stir fried beef with crispy noodles and grilled pork with rice.

Fully recharged we made out way back to the hostel and are now sat on our airbed writing up the days events and unwinding a little. Lets just hope the reports of bed bugs are exaggerated!!

05 Apr 09

Today was the big one. The main reason for coming to Toronto was the close proximity it holds to one of the greatest natural wonders of the world - Niagara Falls. It was a fairly early start for us (relatively), waking at around 8:15, we got ourselves ready to leave and made our way to the CN tower where we were due to be picked up at 10am by the "Magic Bus", billed as being rather psychedelic. When the bus arrived at 10:20 (a bit late which turned out to be our fault!) we boarded an ordinary coach but the driver more than made up for the lack of colour in the decor.

As our journey began, our driver started by pointing out some of the sites of Toronto, including the Air Canada Centre that we had visited yesterday trying to get Maple Leafs tickets (or Maple Laughs as he called them following their two straight hammerings on Friday and Saturday) and the BMO Stadium which is home of the Toronto Major League Soccer team that currently has a waiting list 14,000 people long to get season tickets!

After about an hours drive we arrived at our first stop on the tour, the Birchwood Estate Vineyard, one of a great many vineyards in the area which is apparently down to the peculiar microclimate around the Niagara Escarpment which runs parallel to the road to the falls. Here we tried a sample of the wines that they produce, but the real star was their speciality wine - Ice Wine. According to the wine expert, Ice Wine is made by leaving the grapes on the vine until they freeze to around -20 degrees centigrade for at least three days running and then hand harvesting and pressing them whilst frozen, getting rid of all of the ice and therefore only leaving the concentrated juice. This produces a very sweet wine that I have to say was rather delicious. We decided to purchase a couple to come home with.


Next stop was the falls itself, where we were given a choice of getting discount tickets to the Skylon tower and the helicopter ride. We immediately signed up for the tower and were taken there straight upon arrival after only a few tantalising glimpses of the falls themselves. After a short queue for the lift, we went up the tower and were greeted by a most spectacular sight of both sides of the falls. As with the Empire State, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

After a brief stay up the tower we headed down and after some problem finding the way down, started down a steep path towards the main road and falls. On the way we caught our first real sight of any wildlife and as our driver later identified for us, we found a Canadian Beaver.


Finally (!!) we got some time at the falls themselves, starting with the American Falls (the straight ones) and then to the more impressive Canadian (or Horseshoe) Falls. The most unexpected thing for both of us was that there was still a huge amount of ice on the river and at the base of the American Falls. The Ice can get up to 10 stories high in winter and from what we saw, that really is believable. For those wondering why we didn't take the "Maid of the Mist" boat ride up to the falls itself, the operators can't take the boat onto the water until all the ice has melted, and so we weren't able to see the falls from the bottom but we still got a good soaking from the mist clouds. Of all of the famous sites we have been to during this trip, this was the one that suprised me the most, all of the rest were impressive and nearly accurately portrayed in pictures, the falls arn't.




After a couple of hours and many photographs we headed back to the coach and went to the whirlpool, this is slightly along the Niagara River gorge, formed by the waterfall, and is a naturally occuring whirlpool formed at the point where the gorge makes a 90 degree turn. We then headed to the helicopter site to pick up one of the tour and which prompted lots of pouting from S who had wanted to go, but was still put off by the price, even though it had $50 off.

Ice floating on the river collecting at the Whirlpool

We then made a stop at the beginning of the gorge before heading to Niagara on the Lake which has been voted as Canada's prettiest town.

End of the Gorge

Originally founded by the British who had left America when it claimed independence it has tried to retain the same feel by strict planning laws (and by the looks of it, astronomical prices), and it is very pretty. We opted for getting a cuppa and a quick wonder up the street past some of the already closed gift and antique shops.

Bakery window display - Niagara-on-the-lake

We then headed back to Toronto, dropped off our bags and headed to the Beerbistro, a resturant recommended in the guidebook as it has a very extensive range of beers and beer based foods. S had an Ontarian Lager and a Wild Hog pizza made with beer dough and i had a Quebecian Trappist style beer with Quark Kwak Mussels (Mussels cooked in a sause of duck bacon, red onion, LOTS of garlic, prunes, Kwak beer and a bit of cream) served with a beer dough bun, all of which was really lovely and quite reasonably priced.

We are now finishing off the packing as it another fairly early start to get the 5hr train to Montreal and yet again i am not ready to leave the city i am in.