Niagara Falls (Ontario, Canada)

The journey begins.

The van is prepared. We bought a first round of food, got some sheets, blankets and towels from Nancy, the water tank is full and all crash pads are stowed away in the van.

First stop: Niagara Falls. The Canadian side.

I don't know why and what, but at some point in my life I must have done something that put me on a blacklist of Interpol. Whenever I cross a boarder with boarder controls, I get the extended questioning. I have been searched by the boarder police in several different countries, no matter if I crossed the boarder by foot, train, car, or airplane. So when we reached the Canadian boarder with a rather colorful van, we were somewhat nervous what would happen. The officer was very friendly. He asked us a few standard questions, filled out some paper, handed it over to us and told us to drive to the office building, where we should answer a few more specific questions and then get our entry stamps. So we drove to the building. We were greeted by 5 officers, who asked us to get out of the van and to hand over our passports. One of them stayed with us in front of the car and talked about soccer, Munich, and his upcoming vacation in Germany, while the other four pretty much disassembled the van. They were very polite and very thorough. The whole search took roughly 15 minutes. By then, they had looked into every single bag and sock. They found nothing. And we were allowed to enter Canada. 🤷

We arrived at the falls in the early evening, parked the van and went to the cliff. There were many tourists, but wherever we stopped, we had a clear view of the falls. There is simply nothing in the way, which is both a curse and blessing, as I could take many pictures, which lead to me taking many pictures...

After sunset, we cooked and ate. A fox came by and stayed with us for a while, before heading towards the casino. "Ein Fuchs muss tun, was ein Fuchs tun muss."

The next morning we got up very early and watched the sunrise above the Niagara Falls. That was definitely worth setting an alarm. Only few people were there so early and the changing colors of the water and the spray in the first rays of sunlight looked gorgeous.

So far, we had seen much and only spent 15$ for the parking, so we figured a few bucks for the Behind The Falls Tour would be fine. Not sure if it was worth the money, but feeling the power and hearing the roar of the falls in the tunnel was impressive.

All in all it is a weird place. On the one hand there are these beautiful natural water falls and on the other hand you'll find casinos and a full sized amusement park that stays open until midnight. You can zipline into the canyon, learn about power generation by the Niagara Falls Power Plant and ride on a 1.5 mile long Go-Kart track in the moonlight before playing action minigolf in a dinosaur park. All in a single day. 😐Read more