Niagara Falls

Last stop in Canada before leaving for London, UK was Niagara Falls just down from Toronto on the boarder of the US.

It was pretty crazy, the actual Niagara Falls township was completely run down with mostly boarded up shops and was so quiet like it was suppose to have a tumble weed blowing down the street. The main noise heard was creepy Christmas music being blasted on the microphone boxes attached to all the lamp posts that followed you as you walked down the street.

Then up by the falls it felt like what I imagine Las Vegas to be like, tonnes of neon flashing lights, huge hotels and casinos, and shops like wax museums, ripleys believe or not and guiness world records.

The actual falls were amazingly huge!! And it was choice to look across the water into America. The river leading into the falls was so big it looked like the ocean.

There was also a smaller but still huge fall just down the river looking over at the US side with an extended viewing platform

This was the bridge across the border with the smaller fall next to it, the mist coming off Niagara made everything quite blurry...and my hair quite crazy haha

Ottawa

Making our way from Quebec City down to Toronto, we stopped at Ottawa for two night which is a city about half way. We stayed in a hostel that was a jail from 1862 till 1972, it was choice but very creepy. We went for the jail tour on the last night so I wouldn't be too freaked out staying there - which I'm glad cause we were told the carpark next door was a mass burial ground for prison's who died or were killed. We were taken to the floor that was kept in its original jail condition as well as death row and the gallows where they would perform the hangings.

 
All the stairs still had the anti-suicide cages across them and the staircase had the holes to see who was approaching you

The gallow trap door

 

Out sightseeing we found another awesome Mexican restaurant (totally addicted at the moment) and I've just put this pic up cause Brendon looks so damn cute!!



We went on a very dry tour of the Royal Canadian Mint that creates the gold and silver collector coins, we were sucked in because part of the tour was getting to hold a very heavy peice of gold worth $700,000

Look at me strain-smiling...

We also checked out Parliament Hill and discovered the Parliament Cats that are a bunch of stray's who live up there and are feed daily by a volunteer - so sweet..

 

While walking through the park to Rideau Falls we also came across this manky fox, which reminded me of the Crack Fox on The Mighty Boosh!!



Quebec City

We ended up spending quite a few days in Quebec City even though it was the coldest place we were planning to visit on the east coast, just because we loved it so much. We got a hotel right in the old town on the upper level - it was divided into upper and lower by a steep cliff side that had a little cable car to get between the two

Our street - rue Saint-Louis

 

The whole old town was still surrounded by the fortification walls, our street was a main road in with one of the five entrances at the end of it

 

At the edge of the cliff was the giant Fairmont Hotel, and a large balcony (rue de la Terrasse-Dufferin) overlooking the lower old town and the Saint Lawerence River





In the lower old town is their oldest market square, and the Notre Dame des Victoires

 

The oldest area in Quebec City, rue du Petit Champlain

 

The old battlefield - Plains of Abraham, which felt very creepy all covered in snow for some reason

 

We also took a day trip out to the Montmorency Falls, they are apparently 1.5x higher than Niagara Falls but just nowhere near as wide. The line across the top was a massive bridge you could cross over. They looked awesome half frozen..

Another bridge to get around the falls

 

One of the buildings in the city, Palais Montcalm, had turned their front courtyard into an iceskating rink for the winter and had music playing for anyone to come skate









Montreal

With two weeks left in Canada before heading to the UK, we decided to have an explore around the East Coast of Canada - first stop was Montreal. It was a beautiful city, with lots of old buildings incorporated with very styley new buildings and plenty of art.

We stayed in an old place right in the city, Auberge Bishop

First day we hiked up Mont Royal to get a look over the city

 

Second day we wandered through the streets of Old Town Montreal and down to the old ports, Lachine Canal

 

 

In the main square was the Basilique Notre-Dame-de-Montreal, we happened to be there right on midday so got to hear the bells from the tower

 

Art around Old Town Montreal

 



Our last day we spent around the city, we found some fun old buildings that had been developed but still had the original walls

Cathedrale Marie-Reine-du Monde, right in the city

Before jumping on the bus for a three hour trip to Quebec City we stopped into 3 Amigos for the best Mexican feast we have ever had

Vancouver Botanical Gardens