Today we left Toronto for Niagara Falls and Kane, Pennsylvania. It’s an early start with a booking on the free shuttle at 7.40 to pick the car up from the airport. After some trouble at the airport of finding the car rental kiosks, I have to say Toronto airport has the worst signage I have ever experienced, but lets move on. We have a Chevrolet SUV for the trip, a bit gutless but better than walking the planned 5,000kms. We managed to only circle around the airport once before finding out way out and onto the highway.
The trip to Niagara Falls is only 1.5 hours drive south from Toronto and because we were out of the city early we managed to arrive in Niagara to bet the crowds.
The Canadian side is the best by far, but the whole area is very commercialised, I was so surprised, the main town of Niagara is like a Las Vegas wannabe, but once you get parked up by the falls and take in the amazing site, I just couldn’t believe the natural wonder of it all. It is so beautiful, the air is a bit cold but we are well dressed for it.
Once back at the car we made our way to the border, for us this is the first time we have ever entered the USA in a car so its all pretty new and exciting. The immigration guy is pretty friendly at the booth. He takes our passports after having a good look at us, puts them in a plastic unit that then gets put into a tube system and sent to the second floor of the building next to the row of booths, we are unable to show you photos of this as all use of cameras and phones are prohibited. We ended up waiting a good 20 minutes in the waiting room before called into the “Room” All went well, staff were very friendly, we didn’t even have to fill in any paperwork. It pretty much proved to us that yes they do already have all our details and the cards we fill in in the aircraft are not really needed!!! We paid our $18USD and headed back to the car.
Once we hit the road into Buffalo the environment gets very industrial. There are what seems to be steel smelters and all sorts on the horizon. We are travelling along interstate 324 and come across two identical bridges, called the Grand Island Bridge, they remind me of the Auckland harbour bridge without the clip-ons so I decided to film the crossing on my phone.
We stopped off at Buffalo, NY to have some lunch and look at the only inland display of US Naval ships - Buffalo Naval & Military Park. I decided to stay in the car, but Peter and Mike had a great look around.
By now, it was time to start heading for our B&B for the night in Kane, PA. It’s only a 2.5 hour drive, and the scenery is amazing and not what we expected. Here is a video of our trip.
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Love it
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