Today, we made a long trip and visited two different places. There were snowy fields and farms at first.
As we neared Lake Ontario, the climate became milder, and we passed lots of vineyards.
Paul and I were both amazed, we had no idea you could grow vines and produce wine here, but there are a lot of them. You can normally have tastings, but they were all closed for the holidays. We didn't mind, we didn't like the last wine tasting we went to, so we are not anxious to attend another.
Our next stop was the charming little town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, on the shores of Lake Ontario. It is stuffed full of beautiful old buildings, many wooden or clapboard ones.
Being something of a tourist trap, many of the old buildings are occupied by smart boutiques or gift shops.
Not all of the buildings are wood
This is the Prince of Wales Hotel, looking very French! We thought it was a bit cold for a drive in a caleche, and so did most other people; however, after lunch the sun came out and we noticed that a lot of people went out in one.
It wasn't all shops, there were streets of delightful, and doubtless very expensive old houses.
Unfortunately, it's really hard to find a pretty house without at least one big tree in front of it, so this isn't a great photograph, taken through the car window as we drove off in a hurry to get to Niagara Falls while it was still light.
We paused to look down on the Niagara river as we drove towards the falls
The river is wide here, that tiny white speck in the river on the right of the photo is a boat.
As we approached Niagara Falls, we could see the clouds of spray from the falls high above the river. Since we were last there (in 1967!) a building has appeared across the road from the falls where you can get great overall views. This is looking down on the Canadian Falls, which are horseshoe shaped.
To the left of them are the American Falls, which are not so spectacular.
The bridge is the road into the United States; the other bank of the river is New York State.
When you descend to the road, you can get really close to the wall of water going over the Canadian Falls
There are islands and rapids in the river, and the water looks greenish-grey and cold and almost solid. You can look right down into the falls through the spray
In the summer you would be able to take the boat, 'Maid of the Mists' right into the spray under the falls, but it stops running in the cold months.
We walked back along the road for a better photograph of the American Falls
You can see by the spray that there was a considerable weight of water going over them, they are themselves quite spectacular, just dwarfed by the Canadian ones.
As we drove back along the Niagara River, we stopped to look at the whirlpool which developed when the river changed its course some thousands of years ago.
It was a long drive back home, and we weren't back until after dark.
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