New England and Canada Autumn Holiday - part one

Arriving in the USA early afternoon we took a taxi, which was very easy as we did not pre-book our transfer, as we understood that this wouldn’t pose a problem. The taxi driver was very good, but said he would have difficulty getting to our hotel the Affinia 50, as the traffic was horrendous due to the United Nations holding a conference in New York.

We were dropped off near the hotel. It was a pleasant afternoon, so once we had been checked in by the friendly staff, we went for a wander around. We bought tickets for the hop-on hop-off tour for the following day which took us to Time Square, along Broadway, the Empire State Building, Greenwich Village and through China town. At one point we left the bus and went to the top of the Empire State building. The weather was sunny with a cold wind but we managed to take loads of photos.

The next day we went to Staten Island by the free ferry. As you approach the island they warn you that you must leave the boat. Practically everyone who disembarked walked to the other side of the jetty and went on to the return ferry! We took a lot of photographs of the Statue of Liberty as we passed by and more of the New York skyline.

We collected our hire car and drove out of the city the next morning in the pouring rain, feeling we had been very lucky with the weather. Our destination was Niagara Falls, on the Canadian side. This meant crossing the border, which wasn’t a problem. Our hotel overlooked the falls so we went to top floor and took photographs before going down the funicular to the edge of the falls. It was very busy as we expected, but very dramatic as the dark clouds were hanging very low, threatening thunder.

Next stop was Toronto. We stayed outside the city and drove into the centre and parked without too much trouble. The hotel had said we could park at the local station and go in by train, but the car park didn’t have any spaces.

We went on a hop-on hop-off tour of Toronto. They use the old style London buses; in fact some of them still show the London place names and the original bus number. We didn’t realise at the time that the weather was unusually cold for October, but this was the case for the rest of our stay.

We visited the underground shopping malls, as people don’t want to be outside in the very cold winter time. We also went on a boat trip round the harbour which was interesting and makes you feel you are out in the countryside at one point.

We then drove to Ottawa for one night. It was a place full of impressive buildings, especially the Parliament Buildings and very compact. We parked the car in what we thought was the hotel car park, but unfortunately the directions weren’t very clear and for a while we ‘lost’ the car. The hotel was more than helpful, chasing around the city for anyone who could allow access to the ‘wrong’ car park which was used by office staff as this was a Saturday, and it was closed.

After our few days in Canada we went back into the USA, to the Saranac Lake area in New York State. The leaves were in their autumnal colours here and the lake reflected images of the trees. When the sun was shining on the leaves this was especially beautiful. We were recommended to go to a couple of local restaurants, one of them serving Mexican food. It had a great atmosphere and the people were very friendly.

Our next stop was at North Conway in New Hampshire. Our hotel was in Settlers Green Outlet Village. We visited the Mount Washington Cog Railway, although the trains went up the mountain they disappeared into the clouds.

We went to Kennebunkport in Maine and stayed in very old fashioned hotel. We took several walks and were told the George Bush senior had a place on the coast. The town was a nice little place and well looked after with hanging baskets and a square full of flowers which complemented the autumn colours of the trees.