Wed 16/May/2012
Was the long day I expected...
Out of bed at 05:20 and left home at 06:40.
Taxi to the station. Train to Manchester airport, flight to Heathrow and then flight to Toronto. Bus to
downtown to Toronto. Coach to Niagara. taxi to hotel!
Sadly Heathrow is so busy we had to keep flying round until we could land – and then had to join a long
queue of planes waiting to take off – which meant I was late arriving at Toronto – and therefore had missed
my bus from Toronto to Niagara (around a 2 hour trip).
Luckily there was another bus at 21:15 Toronto time – and so got to Niagara at 23:05 and to my hotel – and
got in my room around 23:30 (04:30 Thursday morning UK time).
Did I go to bed??? No... went out for around an hour! – so went to bed just after 01:00 (06:00 UK time) – so
a near 25 hour day!

Thu 17/May/2012

Despite having a long day and late night, I was out of bed before 07:00 to start the day. Not surprising there
were few people about when I caught my first view of Niagara Falls – and how superb they look. I spent
several hours viewing them from all locations. Had to go on the Maid of the Mist boat – so I could get
soaking wet (why do I do these things??) and of course had the obligatory photograph with my (new) Leeds
shirt!
In the afternoon I walked around the town centre before deciding to go over to the US side of the falls – and
take in the views from there.
In the evening, I went back to the falls to see them under lights. Again, well worth seeing – but could have
been an improvement if they used just blue, yellow and white lights!!!
Ended the day by visiting the ‘nightlife’ – which is more like Blackpool!!!
Although the falls are superb to see, I have to admit that I couldn’t help but reflect on how much better
Iguazu Falls (on the borders of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay) were when I visited them several years ago
(must upload those pictures when I get back home!)

Fri 18/May/2012

Caught the 07:45 bus from Niagara Falls back to Toronto. Arrived back in downtown Toronto around 09:30
and went to drop my bag off. Obviously the top priority went to visiting the CN Tower.
Slipped my Leeds shirt on again prior to purchasing my ticket – but why, oh why did I buy a ticket that
allowed me to go even higher than the observation deck??? – apparently the equivalent of another 33 floors
– to the Sky Pod.
I asked some poor soul to take a photograph of me with my camera then barked at him to hurry up as I
can’t stand heights! There was a part of me that was sort of proud that I’d got up there (even though I was
trembling!) that at one point I did believe I had the bottle to do the Edge Walk
It’s then that I realised I must be suffering from a lack of oxygen – and needed to get down to ground level
pretty damn quick!
Once I had recovered from this experience I decided to casually walk around the centre of Toronto taking in
the sights for the rest of the day. Reminded me very much of New York – but even smarter.
I have two huge memories of Toronto:
The view from the Sky Pod
and...
discovering that the road running between the CN Tower and the harbour front is called ‘BREMNER
Boulevard’.

Sat 19/May/2012

Started the day earlier than ever – was up just after 04:00 and on my way to the airport by 05:00. It really
was a good thing I allowed plenty of time as it took well over an hour to get through Immigration and
Security etc.
And yes, it has started already! How comes I was one of only two people I saw out of several hundred,
pulled out of the queue to have an additional scan – concentrating on my hands and belt?? It seems the
Customs guys are continuing their vendetta against me
Next stop was Houston (only for 8 hours and to accommodate a change of plane) which allowed me to travel
downtown for the afternoon...
I did read recently where white Americans are now in the minority – and I clearly got that impression on my
bus journey. I think by the time I got downtown, I was surrounded on the bus by multiple ‘Barry White’ look
alikes!

Again Houston is another city with huge buildings – but downtown was almost deserted – whereas outside
the centre, all the stores, eateries etc. were very busy.
Late afternoon I returned to the airport having been unable to find anywhere showing the Champions
League Final, when I stumbled across about 100 passengers all outside one bar watching a TV! So I
managed to see the penalty shoot out – and was well pleased to see those unhappy Bayern faces (I remember
their cheating against us in 1975!).
I continued on my flight – to San Jose in Costa Rica.