Niagara Falls

Some places you go to in the world don't always match up to how you think they should.

Niagara Falls is not in that category, take my word for it, it is spectacular.

Visited in August 07 on a warm but occasionally rainy day. Took a special Grey Line Tour coach which picked us up from our hotel (The Sheraton, in the centre of Toronto) and took us on the 2hr trip along the very busy Queen Elizabeth Way (which is actually named after the Queen Mother, not the current Queen).

Passed a few interesting places although the majority of the trip is uninspiring, Hamilton looked almost neo-punk with its industrial skyline.

The city of Niagara almost seemed to be oblivious to its greatest tourist attraction until you reach the front where hotels and other touristy things predominate.

Apparently the Canadian side is more picturesque than the American side and it certainly was impressive with its flowers, trees and parks.

Had an "all you can eat buffet" at the Sheraton overlooking the falls (all part of the trip).

Went on the Maid Of The Mist with our blue Mackintoshes and this was fantastic, you certainly get wet, in fact you can get very wet.

The rest of the time we spent mooching about taking pictures and looking at the souvenir shops.

On the way back we had a video of the history of Niagara Falls which was extremely factual and I learnt a few things I didn't know.

The floral clock was stopped at, I think we maybe got a bad year because the flowers were not as nice as some years (if you go round the back into the workings of the clock, there are pictures from all the previous clocks back to 1950) but again this was pretty interesting.

We passed through the astonishingly beautiful Niagara On The Lake which must be one of the nicest places to live in the world and ended up at a winery which also had other excellent fresh produce.

Ended up back in Toronto for about 7.30pm.

All in all, a brilliant day out.

A few interesting websites,

http://www.niagaraparks.com/garden/floralclock.php

http://www.niagaraonthelake.com/

http://www.grayline.ca/index.asp

Dalby Forest

Dalby Forest is a pleasant 45min drive from York through Pickering and on to Thornton Le Dale.

Situated on the South East corner of the North York's National Park, Dalby has a little bit of something for everyone.

I last visited the forest with my family on Saturday 27th October on a fairly dry and mild day (there was still a few people only in t-shirts).

It was possibly a year and half since my last visit and I was suitably impressed by the changes made.

Entrance to the forest drive was £7 for the car which isn't bad considering the charges made by the Stately homes to visit their gardens.

Dalby Forest now boasts a courtyard encompassing a small cafe (which seemed to be doing good business) and a bike Hire Centre which are both run by Purple Mountain, there are also a number of craft shops and Offices.

We parked a little further down at the new Dalby Forest Visitor Centre which is very impressive.

It boasts excellent facilities including the Treetops cafe which boasts some pretty nice snacks and meals, it also has a shop and exhibition area.

Went on what I think was the Dalby Beck walk which had fairly easy access and took us in a circle from the courtyard and back again (around 2 and1/2 miles in total).

Excellent day for a walk, very little wind and much of the trees had that stunning autumnal look.

Had a further drive almost to the end of the forest and there is a great deal more scenery and walks to see, will certainly return in the very near future.

Bothwell

Recently visited the town of Bothwell which is near Glasgow/Hamilton in Scotland.

This was a work trip and stayed in the Bothwell Bridge Hotel ,nice enough hotel, the rooms could have possibly done with a bit of refurbishment but the interior was OK if a little gaudy, great breakfast though(all you can eat buffet).

Had a meal at the RIVA Italian restaurant which was extremely good, I had Pollo Scozzese which was chicken supreme stuffed with haggis in a whisky sauce, Tres Bien.

Also had a drink in the nearby Douglas Arms which was friendly enough,if a little quiet (it was a Tuesday night).

What stood out in Bothwell was the massive church which was built in 1397/8 and has been compared to the famous Rosslyn chapel.

Bothwell is home to a number of Old Firm footballers, Gordon Strachan the Celtic Manager also resides there

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Bothwell Church and Annandale Water Services

On the drive back to York, visited what is possibly the nicest services in Britain at Annanadale Water nr Lockerbie (just check out the picture above).

There is supposed to be a castle in Bothwell but never saw it, would have made an effort to find it if I`d known.

Please click on the link below to see more

http://www.bothwell.org/

Barrie

Barrie is a place in Ontario, Canada (about 50 miles North of Toronto) that I visited with my family on a recent trip to Toronto.

Barrie was a place we had seen on the Internet and quite fancied it as a place to live.

So on Thursday 9th August 2007, My wife, my two children and myself found ourselves in the Downtown Toronto Bus Terminal ready to catch the Greyhound to Barrie.

The trip on the 400 (which is an extremely busy road/highway) is quite uneventful, the only slightly interesting places you pass through are Yorkville and Vaughn.

When we first rolled into Barrie, we were a little disappointed (to say the least) as the Barrie Bus Terminal seemed to be in a slightly run down part of town, the taxi drive to pick up the hire car didn`t quell our fears as we drove down a busy road with totally uninteresting features on either side.

We were staying at the Days Inn which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere but was actually very close to everything, in fact Barrie itself was very deceptive, at first it seemed to be a large area but the longer you stayed there the smaller it became, it would probably take you ten minutes to cross from one side of Barrie to the other.

Barrie also became a much nicer place the longer we stayed there, the lake front (check out the spirit catcher) was very impressive with great beach's and enjoyable walks and the Georgian Mall was an excellent shopping experience. There are also some great places to eat like Moose Winooski`s http://http://www.moosewinooskis.com/menu_steaks.php

Also check out Kelseys for more great food http://www.kelseys.ca/en/index.aspx

All in all our stay in Barrie was very pleasant, I don`t think we will ever move there to live but would visit again, although we went in Summer there seems to be a lot of activities available in winter and that would possibly put a different spin on things.

Toronto, The Greatest City In The World

You can take your New York's and your Paris and as for Rome, the place has more Graffiti than a Manchester Comprehensive School, You can forget Tokyo, Sydney, London and even Cairo, the greatest city in the world is officially Toronto (OK, maybe not officially but it should be).
That's a pretty bold statement, I know (seen as I haven`t been to any of the other cities mentioned apart from London(too big) and Paris(very nice, but full of French people).
What has Toronto got to offer you may ask apart from freezing winters and boiling hot summers.
On the tourist side you have the CN Tower,the tallest free standing building in the world (no I don`t know what that means either, surely every building in the world is free standing, if not who's holding these buildings up) and that scared the shit out of me, I don`t like heights, my house has two floors and that's one too many for me, but I have to admit it was an experience watching all those kids jumping about on the glass floor thousands of meters above street level while I cowered away in the corner like a puppy on Bonfire Night.
The Toronto Islands are fantastic, peaceful beaches, glorious parks, an amusement park and you can hire bikes just like the Chuckle Brothers ride £14 a hour.
No cars, plenty of sand, grass and a nudist beach, how hip is that, brilliant.
Then you have the Sky dome now unimaginatively called the Rodgers Centre after a guy called Ted Rodgers (no not Dusty Bins mate). This is a great Baseball stadium where the Toronto Blue Jays play.
The game I watched with my family, the Jays went down 5-4 to the New York Yankees.
What I had to do was have a Hot Dog and a beer at the game although it did cost me about five times what it would have done outside. I was also a bit disappointed I wasn`t asked my age seen as the sign said over 30s only. Nice atmosphere, I suppose it was a bit of a local Derby and there were a lot of Yankee fans there (all extremely well behaved).
Then you have a sprinkling of Museums, old Castles (Casa Loma), great skyscrapers, old architecture (City hall, just take a look at those gargoyles) and new architecture( the new City Hall)

But what stands out from the crowd for me is the diversity of the place, the people who live and work there, the hot dog vendors, the taxi drivers, the shopkeepers, the waiters (and waitresses). You must visit all these great places, Chinatown, Korea Town, Greek Town, Little Italy, Little Portugal, Cabbage Town, the Village and so on, take a open top sight seeing bus and hop on and off all day (well recommended)

Toronto is also so friendly and I have never ever been to a big place like this and felt so safe.