Thursday, April 13, 2006
Travel Log - Day 6 (Niagara Falls, eh?)
Still haven't got Blogger working through our router - so I'm blogging this one through a Citrix client
After spending 5 enjoyable and enlightening days in New York, day 6 saw our first change of location. So far we had given some thanks, gone "down the park" and hung out with the K-Man. Out plan was to then spend a few days near Niagara Falls to fulfil the relaxing and romatic quota of the honeymoon.
The stopover in Niagara Falls was not even going to be about Canada at all - we had originally planned to visit the American side of the Falls, but was advised that the Canadian side was much nicer. I'm hoping to one day do Canada properly (watch a hockey game and check out the hockey hall of fame in Toronto, ski Whistler and ride a skidoo), so we kept this first visit to Nigara Falls.
We thought it might be a little cheaper to catch a train up, instead of flying - and it was. It was also a 9 hour trip, without the crapy movies that flying provides. Still, we kept ourselves entertained by looking out the window and pointing at pretty cool landscapes. The outskirts of New York State are quite nice to look at - and we also saw our first evidence of snow (no falls though).
Travelling to the Canadian side of the Falls also meant that we got an extra stamp on our passports, which sounded pretty cool. It also meant that we had to go through another "border check", which always made me extremely nervous. It's wierd, I know I'm not carrying weapons of mass destruction (only a weapon of mass seduction ... in my PANTS - ha, ha, ha - hilarious), I'm was pretty sure my passport / travel docs were in order - but I still got shit scared. Probably similar to the feeling of worry I have every time I swipe my credit card, just waiting for it to come back with "rejected" (even though it never has).
So after "bribing" the mounties (see afore mentioned pant-weapon) we were taken to our hotel, Sheraton on the Falls (as opposed to Sheraton Fallsview Hotel). When we were checking in, the guy on the counter said that we didn't have a view of the Falls, and we could upgrade to one for "this much" - and typed a figure into his calculator before showing it to me. When I told him we were on our honeymoon he suggested that we get a corner room and again let the calculator negotiate the price with me. Even with the upgrades, each night was cheaper in Niagara Falls than either of our New York hotels so I took the upgrade. Smart move!
The room was huge! Some hotels we stayed in had trouble fitting on all of our bags (as well as fitting in my trouser munitions - ok, last joke) - but this room had girth (*cough*)! The main part of the room was pretty damn big (heaps of room around a king-sized bed) and then there was a seperate couch area with fireplace, small sink / coffee area, large bathroom with jaccuzzi and a balcony.
Our room complete with fake fireplace (I guess the fireplace was real - but the fire was illusional)
The sink and coffee machine we never used
The bathroom with double jacuzzi and television (not pictured). The shower was also pretty cool, with a normal shower head as well as two horizontal jets
I called this part of our room "The Conservatory", and hid the candle stick and lead pipe I brought with us
After checking out the internal features of the room - I checked out the balcony. It was raining, so it wasn't incredibly cozy - but the view was pretty cool. Being close to Christmas, the surrounding park areas had lots of fairy lights covering the trees. The pictures we took don't really do them justice - it was very pretty.
Pretty lights, the yellow ones in the middle are hanging off a relvolving restaurant
More pretty lights, and you can just see Wendy's in the right
Not very clear - but you can just make out the Falls at night
Again, not very clear in this photo, but they shine coloured lights on the Falls during the evening. Very tacky - but looks ok I guess
We then ordered some room service for the next morning, watched a bit of television (there was some politcal crap going on that all news stations were covering - that I had no chance of understanding) and went to bed. The noise from the Falls was definately noticable, but kinda like white noise that didn't bother us.
Great times - really romantic room.
After spending 5 enjoyable and enlightening days in New York, day 6 saw our first change of location. So far we had given some thanks, gone "down the park" and hung out with the K-Man. Out plan was to then spend a few days near Niagara Falls to fulfil the relaxing and romatic quota of the honeymoon.
The stopover in Niagara Falls was not even going to be about Canada at all - we had originally planned to visit the American side of the Falls, but was advised that the Canadian side was much nicer. I'm hoping to one day do Canada properly (watch a hockey game and check out the hockey hall of fame in Toronto, ski Whistler and ride a skidoo), so we kept this first visit to Nigara Falls.
We thought it might be a little cheaper to catch a train up, instead of flying - and it was. It was also a 9 hour trip, without the crapy movies that flying provides. Still, we kept ourselves entertained by looking out the window and pointing at pretty cool landscapes. The outskirts of New York State are quite nice to look at - and we also saw our first evidence of snow (no falls though).
Travelling to the Canadian side of the Falls also meant that we got an extra stamp on our passports, which sounded pretty cool. It also meant that we had to go through another "border check", which always made me extremely nervous. It's wierd, I know I'm not carrying weapons of mass destruction (only a weapon of mass seduction ... in my PANTS - ha, ha, ha - hilarious), I'm was pretty sure my passport / travel docs were in order - but I still got shit scared. Probably similar to the feeling of worry I have every time I swipe my credit card, just waiting for it to come back with "rejected" (even though it never has).
So after "bribing" the mounties (see afore mentioned pant-weapon) we were taken to our hotel, Sheraton on the Falls (as opposed to Sheraton Fallsview Hotel). When we were checking in, the guy on the counter said that we didn't have a view of the Falls, and we could upgrade to one for "this much" - and typed a figure into his calculator before showing it to me. When I told him we were on our honeymoon he suggested that we get a corner room and again let the calculator negotiate the price with me. Even with the upgrades, each night was cheaper in Niagara Falls than either of our New York hotels so I took the upgrade. Smart move!
The room was huge! Some hotels we stayed in had trouble fitting on all of our bags (as well as fitting in my trouser munitions - ok, last joke) - but this room had girth (*cough*)! The main part of the room was pretty damn big (heaps of room around a king-sized bed) and then there was a seperate couch area with fireplace, small sink / coffee area, large bathroom with jaccuzzi and a balcony.
Our room complete with fake fireplace (I guess the fireplace was real - but the fire was illusional)
The sink and coffee machine we never used
The bathroom with double jacuzzi and television (not pictured). The shower was also pretty cool, with a normal shower head as well as two horizontal jets
I called this part of our room "The Conservatory", and hid the candle stick and lead pipe I brought with us
After checking out the internal features of the room - I checked out the balcony. It was raining, so it wasn't incredibly cozy - but the view was pretty cool. Being close to Christmas, the surrounding park areas had lots of fairy lights covering the trees. The pictures we took don't really do them justice - it was very pretty.
Pretty lights, the yellow ones in the middle are hanging off a relvolving restaurant
More pretty lights, and you can just see Wendy's in the right
Not very clear - but you can just make out the Falls at night
Again, not very clear in this photo, but they shine coloured lights on the Falls during the evening. Very tacky - but looks ok I guess
We then ordered some room service for the next morning, watched a bit of television (there was some politcal crap going on that all news stations were covering - that I had no chance of understanding) and went to bed. The noise from the Falls was definately noticable, but kinda like white noise that didn't bother us.
Great times - really romantic room.
# posted by Joel Dixon @ 7:52 PM 
