Ocean-to-Ocean, Part 4

We start in New York, having just disembarked the QM2 and taken a ferry across the river to Pier 11/Wall Street, so what now?  The last time I stayed here there were two additional skyscrapers and all the taxis were yellow Chevrolet Caprices. We all know what happened to the twin-towers and, like in every other major city, taxis are now hailed via an app rather than by sticking your arm out and yelling “taxi”.

Despite living in a city myself, I had never used an “Uber” so the process was somewhat new to me, but also very straightforward. Just open the app (which already knows where you are), enter your destination and select which size of taxi you’d like. It then gives a price and tells you how far away your ride is, the name of the driver and the licence plate of the car.  In my case it was a Toyota minivan which was two minutes away and I was able to plot its progress on a map. Sure enough, it stopped right in front of me and I was greeted by the driver, a Georgian who spoke very little English, but managed to convey that he once transported Wayne Rooney’s personal trainer, a photo of whom he proudly showed me on his phone.

I was quite impressed with the Uber service, less so with the story about Wayne Rooney’s trainer. Arriving at my hotel long before the advertised check-in time, I was expecting them to store my luggage and tell me to come back later, but remarkably they informed me that I had been upgraded (this was to become a recurring theme) and the room was ready for me. The upgrade was to an identical room to the one I had booked, but on the “HHonors” level, higher up on the 24^th floor, which was odd as my HHonors status had expired some years previously. Regardless, it was a perfectly good room by New York standards.

Freshened-up, I had the afternoon to do some exploring and was keen to walk the length of the High-Line, which is a public greenway built on a former elevated railway – essentially, it’s a footpath with trees, benches and “art” installations running for about 1.5 miles along a disused viaduct above the Manhattan streets. It was a very pleasant and surprisingly peaceful way to spend an hour or so before descending back down to the bustling streets of Chelsea for some ground-level exploration. More details can be found here: https://www.thehighline.org

Not tempted by the multiple vendors of Khlav Kalash (no bowl, stick!), which could be found on every street corner, I returned to the hotel for a bite to eat and an early night in advance of yet another early start the following morning.

Thursday was to give me a new experience in the lower 48 – a long-distance train. It was scheduled to depart Moynihan Train hall, adjacent to Penn Station (which I’d recce’d the previous day) at 07h15 but Amtrak had suggested checking-in no later than one hour in advance. The “Maple Leaf” service bound for Toronto would take ten hours to reach my destination, the Ontario side of Niagara Falls. My e-ticket, purchased several months previously, needed to be swapped for a paper one, but this was done without any fuss in the booking office. Most of the remainder of the hour was spent in a queue, before we were led down an elevator to the train where various Amtrak employees were shouting things which were mostly incomprehensible. I, along with a handful of other English people who had become acquainted while queueing, made our way to the correct carriage still dragging our luggage behind us. The expected baggage car & attendant was nowhere to be seen so we boarded the train, manhandling our own bags up the steps and onto the overhead racks, which were surprisingly large.

Two observations about trains in the US; firstly, they don’t make any attempt to build the station platforms the same height as the carriage floor, so you have to stand on a step-stool that has been placed on the ground then climb up a couple more steps to get in. Secondly, despite having the same 4’ 8½” track gauge as us, their loading gauge is larger, resulting in a much more spacious and comfortable carriage interior than on UK trains.

The journey through upstate New York was surprisingly scenic, as I had expected it to be very industrial. Following the Hudson River for most of the way, it passed through some attractive New England towns once we had escaped the spawling suburbs of NYC. Choosing a seat on the left-hand side of the train turned out to be a good decision.

My notion of American trains trundling along at snail’s pace, honking their horn every time they pass a tree was also incorrect. Not the honking bit, they still do that, but for a good part of the journey I clocked it at between 80 and 110 mph. Only once we got into the northern part of the state did it really slow down and make frequent long stops.

Eventually we made it to Niagara Falls NY station on the US side of the Niagara River, the last stop before crossing the border. After a brief delay and an announcement that anyone not wishing to travel to Canada should get off now, the doors closed and we made the very short journey over the bridge to Niagara Falls ON station on the Canadian side, where everyone had to leave the train, along with their luggage, and pass through a very cursory immigration and customs check.

Those who were continuing towards Toronto then got back onto the train while the rest exited the station where all the local taxi drivers had congregated in expectation of a good supply of customers. A short ride later I arrived at my hotel where, again, I had unexpectedly been upgraded to a Junior Suite on the level 29 HHonors floor. Very curious, but it did have a spectacular view.

For those who haven’t been, Niagara has two waterfalls – the American Falls and the Horseshoe (otherwise known as Canadian) Falls.  I had been to the American side many years ago but the Canadian side has much better views and more attractions, albeit somewhat spoiled by a huge casino and some extremely tacky amusements. With only 1½ days there, I had to be a little bit selective about which attractions to visit so chose Behind the Falls, the Old Power Station and the Whitewater Walk.

Horseshoe falls in the foreground, American falls in the spray at the back

The Behind the Falls self-guided tour was quite fun. Unbeknown to many, there are a series of tunnels dug into the rock behind the Horseshoe Falls, allowing you to stand behind the raging water and see it drop down in front of you. Similarly, the hydro-electric power station originally had an intake at the top of the falls, which directed water through the turbines and discharged it 180ft lower down through a very large man-made tunnel to the base of the waterfall – since the decommissioning of the power station, the intake has been closed and the tunnels have been opened to the public, with an elevator taking you down from the turbine hall to the start of the outflow, from where you can walk the rest of the way, emerging into the daylight & spray at the end.

After two nights and a morning in Niagara it was time to make my way by Flixbus to Toronto, the financial capital of Canada.  Despite an overly complicated door access system I made it into my rented apartment which was very nice and within walking distance of the Downtown area.  Firstly, a quick trip to the Amazon locker around the corner to collect the travel kettle that I’d ordered while at-sea (they are banned on cruise ships so I couldn’t bring one with me) and then a walk into town for something to eat.

The following day, I took a boat tour of the waterfront area and around some of the islands close-by. One interesting fact I learned is that the entire outer floor of the CN Tower viewing platform is actually made of glass but some years ago, in an attempt to stop those with vertigo from clogging up the centre of the observation deck, where they felt safer, a small ring of carpet was stuck on top of the glass to make them believe that they could venture further out while still standing on terra firma.

For the second and last morning, I did a bit of shopping and wandered the streets for a while to get a feel for the place (I actually quite liked it) then a 1PM checkout and another Uber ride to Pearson Airport where my rent-a-car should be awaiting collection. As it was all pre-booked & pre-paid the process was very brief and I was handed the key to a white 2025 Toyota RAV4, which would do the job nicely. Not too big, not too small, with 4WD and a bit of ground clearance for occasional excursions off the tarmac. After a few minutes of faffing around with the entertainment system the Waze app on my phone successfully connected via CarPlay to the big screen on the dashboard and I was confident of being able to reach my next destination without getting too lost.

The drive to my next hotel in Barrie was short and uneventful but I did notice that the instrument panel was displaying miles, gallons and MPH, which seemed a little odd. Anyway, while stuck in traffic on the 401 freeway I fiddled around with the settings to get it back to metric and thought nothing of it until the check-in lady at the hotel asked for my license plate number.  Reading it off the keyfob… “Pennsylvania, MVP 8800”.  They’d given me an American car – strange, but never mind.

Next week, I meet a couple of very gracious Canadian Puffins and start heading west.
 

© Snotsicle 2025