Day 245 After travelling down to London yesterday and a relaxing over night stay at the Central Gatwick Travelodge it was time to head to the airport to check in and get our flight to Canada :)
We have never flown with Air Transat before so not 100% certain what to expect! Check-in was a breeze with a very pleasant lady on the check in desk who happily sorted our luggage and then helped us by organising disabled assistance for my niece and uncle.
We had some a nice brekkie in one of the restaurants - I cant remember which one but it was nice and was before security.
We had a bit of trouble getting through security because both my uncle and my niece despite strict instructions from me and my mum had packed liquids randomly in their hand luggage! Took us about 35 mins to get through as we had to have all our bags re-scanned but made it through and over to our gate and waited for our flight.
Due to the 2 disabled passengers we were first to board - I had prebooked our seats so that my uncle could have extra leg room. I was worried the flight would be cramped but it was fine we all had plenty of room included my larger than normal uncle. The only difficulty was during meal times as he struggled getting the tray out of the side rest to eat so I swopped seats with him.
The flight was comfortable and fine and the inflight food delicious - seriously the best flight food I have eaten I was really surprised. We had like a mixed bean salad, sweet and sour chicken with rice and a fudge square for dessert. Drinks were free and plenty of them. The in-flight movies were okay not the most recent releases but enough to watch and keep us entertained.
We arrived in Toronto airport slightly late as we were late taking off, got our luggage and headed to the transport desk where we boarded our prebooked coach to take us to Niagara Falls.
This journey was crazy - there was a tonne of traffic and it took us around 2 1/2 hours to get to Niagara Falls - we wer eon a small minibus which unfortunately did not have toilets eek but it got us there.
Now I had been reading trip advisor reports all the week before going and was dreading our hotel - but I needn't have - we pulled up and there was the Motel 6 looking fine no issues - yes we were off a main road and yes it was a mix of residential and commerical buildings around us but it wasnt a problem!
We checked in and got the lift up to our rooms and they were fine - clean, tidy and basic
(for some reason I only took one photo and it's blurry! typical)
We got went for a quick walk after checking in and sorting our stuff to have a look around - we called in a shop to get some milk for cereal and tea and some pop for me to drink and then we went to the Dairy Queen for a quick bite to eat - amazing value meal, dessert and drink for $6 canadian (thats around £4!)
We then went back to the room to chill as sleep as we were pretty tired after all the travelling :)
Day 246
Mum, me and Lizzie went for a walk out to the falls (my uncle wasnt feeling so good - he is 70 and jetlag is a bitch) so we walked down tot he falls stopping to look at all the crazy touristy tat in the shops. It took us around 45 mins to complete the walk to the falls as we stopped at literally every shop - prices werent outrageous but we didnt really buy anything as we were just looking.
Having been here before I was prepared for the general tackiness but my mum and niece hadnt so they were surprised - as you walk to the falls there is lots of things like wax works, ripley's, horror houses, shows etc trying to get the tourist money. Its quite loud too.
After we walked down to the falls we walked back to the hotel to get my uncle and to go for some food. We went to something called Big Mac's buffet where they served breakfast til 2pm it was okay it wasnt the most amazing food and the server was quite rude but my uncle and niece enjoyed it.
After eating we went back to look in the shops with my uncle. He struggles to walk so it took us a LONNGGGG time. We didnt make it back down to the falls but that was okay as we were planning to do the falls properly and to do the boat trip too the following day.
We spent around 4 hours in the shops then back to the hotel for a nap before popping out in the evening to eat - we ended up in DQ again as it was really close to the hotel and we enjoyed it.
Day 247
Today me and mum wanted to go look in the Hershey shop down at the falls but my uncle and niece wanted to eat so we walked them to the all you can eat place and left them there whilst we went down to explore ourselves :)
We still managed to get a bite to eat - some truly delicious cup cakes
We then walked back and picked the guys up from the restaurant and we popped back to the hotel to chill for an hour before heading back to the falls :)
We got our tickets for the boat ride - it takes you out and around the falls and is a fab experience - you get soaked through although they do provide you with funky ponchos.
We all enjoyed the boat ride and after we got off slightly wet we wandered around near the falls themselves.
I forgot to mention that the entire time we were here it was HOT HOT HOT I'm talking in the 30's hot! It was also the Labor day weekend so mega mega busy.
After walking around the falls and stuff we decided to get a cab back to the hotel. My uncle was tired and his legs swollen from walking - unfortunately there were no taxi ranks to get a cab from so I had the brain wave of walking to the casino where just as I suspected we found some taxis sat outside waiting for fares and we got a ride back to the hotel.
We rested again for a bit before going out for dinner at - yes the Dairy Queen! We had to then go and pack all our stuff as we had an early pick up in the morning to get back to Toronto airport for our flight to Las Vegas :)
All in all we had a fab time in Niagara Falls - we didnt do a huge amount due to having my uncle and niece with us who both have mobility issues and who require frequent breaks - but we did enjoy the falls, exploring the shops and I would love to go back again to do the walk to the USA over the rainbow bridge and also so my mum could see the falls at night which is pretty spectacular.
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