Tuesday 6th June – The return to Canada

In a change of plan, we decided to head to our friends’ place in Toronto a day earlier than originally scheduled.  And why not?  We were close enough to make the journey comfortably in a day and we’d get to spend an extra evening with them.

We started off by heading two hours east into Buffalo, New York State having passed through Pennsylvania very briefly for a very important lunch time pit-stop – sandwich number 8!  Being back in New York meant that we were in the same state as we stayed in on our very first night on the road in the RV, full circle.  As I drove, Simon did some research and identified a specialist restaurant for exactly what we were looking for – Beef on Weck at Charlie the Butcher’s Kitchen.   

US sandwich number 8 - Beef on weck

Here, they carve the beef in front of you for the sandwich.  Weck is the name of the roll, which here has salt crystals and fennel on top, stacked high with beef with a pickle on the side.  The other necessary ingredient is horse radish.  This was supplied on the table and I probably slapped it on a little too thickly meaning that my eyes were watering after several mouthfuls.  But that was my fault and the rest of the flavours were delicious, so I gave the sandwich a good score of 8/10.

Onwards towards the border and Niagara Falls.  We have been lucky enough to view the falls from the Canadian side in August 2015 when we were over here for Ben and Charmaine’s wedding.  So, today was an opportunity to view the landmark from the US side!  We drove the RV over to Goat Island which is right in the middle of the Niagara river.  Here the calm waters of Lake Erie start to bubble and foam as they converge at the head of the Falls:

The 'steam' must be where the main falls are....

Getting closer...

One of the tourist boats, The maid of the mist, heading into the spray

An unexpected find - a piece of the cable used by Nik Wallenda during his successful 1500 ft, 26 minute walk across the falls on 15th June 2012, becoming the first to do this right over the top of the horseshoe falls

View towards the Rainbow Bridge - our crossing point into Canada

It was a pretty grey and dismal day but the air around here is always full of the spray from the falls in any case, so it’s always raining by the Falls! We are bringing Simon’s parents to experience the Falls this weekend on the Canada side, so we didn’t hang around for long in the hope that the weather then will be more suitable for tourists!

Crossing the rainbow bridge, flags indicating the US and Canadian sides respectively

Plus, we had no idea how long the process of crossing the border into Canada might take and we wanted to reach Toronto by 6pm. We crossed the Rainbow Bridge (above) and followed the signs directing RV drivers to pull over into bays.  Oh dear, we have to get out and go to speak to the border guards again. But, this turned out to leap-frog us ahead of all of the people sat outside in their cars and was the easiest crossing yet! We pulled out within a few minutes of arriving, fresh Canada stamps in our passports.

The journey into Toronto was slow due to rush hour traffic and rain but we still managed to make it to the Franklins’ for 630pm.  So, parking?  We managed to find a spot large enough for the RV on their one-way street, but Char had to go online to get us a temporary parking permit and they spoke to a couple of their neighbours as we didn’t want to get them in trouble.  You know how people are about parking around their neighbourhood sometimes!  

You wouldn't mind this parked outside your house would you?!

The original plan had been to go out for dinner but we all agreed that a night in with a few drinks and a Thai takeaway sounded just the ticket. After a good catch-up and plans for the next few days discussed we let Ben and Char get to bed – they’ve still got three days to work this week.

A brief explanation of our relationship with Ben and Charmaine - Ben is one of Simon's best friends from the same neighbourhood in Southend, so they've known each other for about thirty years. Ben and Char used to work for the same company - Ben in London, Char in Toronto - so this is how they met.  They married in August 2015 after years of a long-distance relationship, followed by living together in London and then returning to live together in Toronto. Simon was Best Man at the wedding.