This weekend was a holiday weekend and I'd heard from someone at work that there were bike trains to Niagara. I planned a trip for the holiday weekend waiting for clear weather, and planned on taking Friday before the holiday off to take the train.

There is a seasonal train to Niagara from Jul-Sept on weekends for $16 one way. It also has bike carriages for weekend trips.

Train times are a bit strange. I'd hoped to take the Friday morning train but there is only one train at 6.30pm. This doesnt make any sense unless you want to stay over for the weekend.

The Saturday train leaves Union Station at 9am, arriving at Exhibition Station close to my home at 9.05. There is only one train so I had to make sure I didnt sleep in Saturday morning and miss the trip I'd been planning for so long.

The regular Lakeshore line train also passed thru and had lots of early morning crowds for the weekends afternoon Caribana Parade.

Our Niagara train was supposed to have two bike carriages. Seeing people waiting on the platform with bikes they didnt announce where the bike carriages were located. I remember the bike carriages in Denmark where entire trains were retrofitted to carry bikes but this was more modest.

Heading out of Toronto we passed by my building which is right by the train tracks. Also curious to see were the train yards at Islington which I didnt know was there. Trains are running by my building all the time at higher than normal frequency so they must be going back and forth from the yard.

I thought it would be scenic but pretty much the entire ride was industrial. There were metal recycling or demolished concrete depots all along the track. Hamilton was expectedly very industrial with the largest steel yards in Canada.

Until we got towards St Catharine's things didnt pick up. There were lots of fruit farms lining the train tracks as this is Ontario's fruit basket. There was also a passing view of the Welland Canal I planned on coming back to bike along today.

On arrival at Niagara I was surprised quite how busy the train was as I had managed to find one of the quieter carriages. There were also many guides waiting at the station for the trains arrival to hand out free biking or tourist maps. Some people were planning a long stay and hauling luggage with them.

The station is right at a bridge across to the USA north from the falls. I planned on biking north and coming back to the falls to complete the loop this afternoon.

Just north of the bridge is a large Buddhist Temple most people dont know about unless they drive this far north of the falls. I remember coming here when it first opened about 5 years ago.

They have guided tours but I remember there isnt really much to see on the higher levels and I'd been to so many amazing Temples already living and travelling in Asia before.

The bike path and road follows the Niagara River heading north and facing the USA on the opposite side. There were tourist attractions such as the Aerial Car and Helicopter Rides.

Further up is the Queenston Bridge. This is the halfway mark on the way to Niagara-on-the-Lake where I was heading. It's attached to a power station but they tried to make it more scenic and blending it in with its surroundings by lining it with flower beds.

A little distance up was the Floral Clock. The path is not clearly marked, ends and keeps switching to opposite sides of the road without proper signage, leaving you in traffic half the time trying to cross to get back onto the path.

Further north were grander homes, some of which were for sale. There were also many fruit stands in front of some of the farm properties.

The leg to Niagara-on-the-Lake was 25km, longer than I expected and the heat was building up. The entire leg is deserted with just parks and no shops or restaurants. I was glad I had some snacks with me.

I was looking forward to a rest at NOTL and getting some ice cream to cool down and for some energy.