Collected our hire car in boston and hit highway 90 all the way to buffalo then on to niagra in erie county which is where we were staying for 2 nights to take in the falls and surrounding sights. Took about 7 hours to get there and when we eventually found our hostel we dumped our bags and took off in search of the falls themselves. About a 15 min walk took us to the niagra falls state park. You cannot even begin to describe the feeling when you first walk down and see the power of the water going over the falls the noise and mist it produces are unbelievable and its the noise and the mist that let you know you are walking in the right direction to see the falls. There are two falls the american ones and then the canadian ones which are the actual niagra falls seen in the photo attached to this blog. Both are spectacular to see but the sheer size of the niagra falls blows you away there are 675 000 gallons of water go down the falls every second!! You have to see it to believe it!

Walking around the state park we noticed everything was closed all the restaurants, visitors centres and attractions were all closed up however as it was 6pm we assumed it had all just closed up for the night so following the advice in our niagra attractions leaflet we took a walk to "little Italy" a supposed strip of italian restaurants bringing "a taste of the continent to middle america". We walked up the entire length of the street and there were no restaurants, no take aways, in fact there were no people it was like a ghost town!!! We ended up having to get our dinner in McDonalds because after walking around for over an hour we couldnt find somewhere that sold food!!

Day 2 and we did the maid of the mist boat tour which on arriving at the park was the only attraction open to the public!! The boat takes you right under the falls causing you to get totally soaked but they do give you a rather attractive blue poncho to stave of most of the spray!! With nothing else to do in niagra as it was all closed we jumped in the car and spent the afternoon driving round the area and had dinner in a restaurant in buffalo town which had a little more life about it!

Our conclusion about why niagra was so spooky and quiet is that we were maybe a couple of weeks before the tourist season starts and the park was still setting up for visitors so therefore not fully functional when we arrived. As for "little italy" that is a question we are happy to leave in erie county for now!!