Roadtrip - Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Kingston, Montreal, Lake Placid, and back

Hello travelers and innen,

Hope you are fine!
From last Thursday to Tuesday evening we have been on our second roadtrip. This time's destination: Canada!
But let's start at the beginning...

Thursday evening we picked up our car, a Toyota SUV. Peter, Nils, David, Hannes and I planned to go to Buffalo first...we drove the whole night, and in the morning we finally arrived. I have to say...well, it's not too spectacular...after having a typical American breakfast (pancakes at McDonald's) we inspected the inner city. You can see it on the pictures below (these are not a few impressions of the city...it's the WHOLE city! ;-) )

After a rough night...

...

monumental

sleepless

well

So we went on to the Niagara Falls, I was so excited! They are between two of the great lakes (Erie and Ontario) and seperate the U.S. from Canada. Acctually they exist of three separate falls: the American Falls, the Bridal Veil Falls, and the Horseshoe Falls, which all of you probably know from pictures. The name is derived from its curving shape with 2,200ft in width. Over 90% of Niagara River's water flows over the Horseshoe Falls, and more than six million cubic feet (168,000 m³) of water falls over the total crest line every minute...incredible facts! First we surveyed the U.S. side of the falls which is a national park. When I first saw the falls I was just thinking...well, I don't think that I was thinking anything except: wow! You can't imagine the power of these waters! I'm afraid that my pictures can't mirror that spectacle realistic, but I just want to give you an impression of how it looked like. One advise of mine: go there, watch it!!!

falling down, down, down

look at that!

like in a fairy tale!overview

After a while took the "Maid of the Mist", that's a boat which drives very closely to the falls...we all got wet, it was cold, but: I could do it all the time! :-) When you are in the "death zone" (that was our name for it, felt like Armageddon there) you can't see anything except water, and you recognize HOW powerful the falls are.

blue-men group

fun fun fun!!!:-)

The Canadian side is very different from the American one: there is one bar, restaurant and motel next to the other, there are ghost trains, shooting galleries, and a giant wheel...in short: lots of neon lamps! After having checked in to the cheapest motel (59$/night and room), we went to see tha falls from this side. You can't go as close as on the other side, but you have a much better overview! In the evening, after two hours of sleep and a beer at the Hardrock-Café, we wanted to watch the falls of night. They are illuminated then, and on Fridays and Saturdays they are shooting fireworks. Very cheesy, but we liked it.

casino royal

beautiful scene...and the falls are nice, too!

fireworks-mode

colors

black and white

New day, new things to see: we went to Toronto, the biggest city in Canada. It's really worth seeing, the mixture of old buildings and ultramodern glass and steel constructions create a special atmosphere. On our way through the city, we passed the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Argonauts. There was a match that evening, and the tickets were very cheap, so we watched a Canadian Major Football League match. The stadium wasn't full, so there were "just" 30,000 people. We had so much fun, but the Argonauts seemed to be...well...let's say not too good. They lost 46:16...

go Argos...go! well...they didn't...she was begging to take a picture with us

In the evening we went out to a nice club, but all of them close at 2-3a.m. In the motel then we heard music from the neighbour's room, so we visited them, a bunch of people from Canada, totally drunk! It was so funny, we were allowed to take beer for free, and we spent 3 hours over there.
The next day we walked through Toronto, and the finally up to the CN-Tower. It was the highest building in the world for over 30 years until 2007...1,815.39 ft, wow! On one spot the floor consists of glass and aou can walk on it...the first step was so scary, I seem to be more the down-to-earth-guy! ;-)

did some sports as well

CN-tower

silly shaped buildingglassfront......glassfloorhow bright it's shining

That night we didn't want to drive too long ("just" 3 more hours), and we spent it in a motel in Kingston, which is situated on the half distance from Toronto to Montreal...I would like to tell you something about this place, but...acctually there IS nothing!

cranes

After enjoying the luxury of 6 hours of sleep we kept on driving...the farther we got, the more french everything was...signs didn't say "stop" anymore but "arrêt", and the good old "hey, how are you" was replaced by a simple "bonjour". This time's motel was situated in the inner city, of Montreal which is...uhm...magnifique!!! ;-) A lot of small restaurants, cafés and pubs (in one of them we had Bison burger => the best invention since the cow!), and in the middle of it there is a hill: le mont royal. Up there you can see nearly the whole city, and there were a lot of nice places to relax and hang out. That evening wasn't too exciting, we went to a bar (you didn't expect that, right?) for a pitcher of Canadian beer, but afterwards we had to take a nap. The next day was the last one of our trip...we watched the Olympic stadium and the biodome, and then we sett off to the U.S. again. After having passed the boarder, the first thing we saw: a McDonald's....good bless America!

much to seetop of Mont royal

fingersOlympic stadiuminsideshit......happens!

This day's tour led us through the Adirondeck national park and to Lake placid, the two-time sight of the Winter-Olympics (1932 and 1980)...two Olympic cities on one day, not too bad! :-) One resident of the town told us, that it was the most beautiful time of the year when we arrived there: Indian summer.

nature (across the street ;-) )

Finally back in NYC, we had to give back our car at 10 p.m., we arrived there at 10:01 p.m.

last coffee

All in all I have to say: it was an amazing roadtrip!!!

Max