CANADA

St. Peters Church, Montreal -----this ois a beautiful place, but with lot of stairs, so I didnt go all the way:)



Montreal Downtown--St. Catherine St...lovely place to roam around, and good chances of finding a good deal also:)



Eaton Square, Toronto.......Since that day MJ died, so one of his fan was drawingthis obituary on the entrance..picture and few lines.



Ottawa Downtown ....on Canada day..it was so lively there..everybody enjoying and having fun celebrating it.



The vibrant n lively Clifton Hill/Street @ Niagara Falls.........this street looks like a theme park, what with all those fancy rides, restaurant and shops.



Clifton Hill/Street contd....



The beautiful and magnificent Niagara Falls -----you can see the row of tourists on american side in yellow raincoats.

Another marvellous view of the falls, with the maid of the mist boat right in the middle. The maid of the mist boat is the most popular ride there, which takes you right in the centre of the falls and this experience of being there for few minutes is simply mindblowing.




Niagara Falls, Canada

END OF MY TRIP TO CANADA..niagra falls and Montreal

I saw many things in Ottawa..like Museum of Civilastion...its a beautiful place to see and there in Imax all the time documentaries are shown, My BIL very much wanted me to see one, but unfortunately english show didnt coincide with our plan. Actually there french is more common, even in Zurich, many office bearer say that here first it is German, then French, then Italian and then if needed some Spanish, but no English, why should they know and speak English.....Isnt it surprising for us Indians who think that English is the language of the world:).
And then we went for Parliament tour, imagin me, being an Indian havent ever been to Indian parliament.....here evrything is commercialised, why dont we do the same in India..but frankly these tours are free and their Library is most amazing and beautiful, but they dont allow to take photographs. Roofs there have the pictures of different things, sometimes countries symbols or agricultural.We were shown house of commons and all that.
We saw Governor house from outside..tours are run for that also.
Rideau Falls is like a mini Niagra and a mall is also named Rideau Centre. Over the river , there is a road, and whenever a boat with a higher clearance crosses that part, the whoe road is shifted and a passage is made for that and till such time, traffic is stopped on both the sides.
On Canada day..we went to downtown and it was a sight to be seen...never before I have seen so many people at one place and most of them in red and white the color of Canadian flag, with tattoes everywhere of either maple leaf or flag.
Then we went to Montreal and I fell in love with this place..this is in Canada, but with totally a french ambiance....first we went to St. Joseph church modelled on Sacrecoeur of Paris, then notre dame(same as in Paris)..St. Catherine is the most popular street here with restaurants from all over the world, we had our Lebanese lunch at Basha..it was good. Harbour place is like downtown brimming with people enjoying cafe's and skectching. Here I saw some very small narrow lanes, bylanes all full of jwellery shops
Out of the three places ..Zurich, Seattle and Ottawa...Zurich is the most beautiful place, but it is very very expensive, one can get a coffee for 1-2 $ max. in Canada and US, but here it costs 5-6$. Canada offers beautiful scenery and good food for us Indians and reasonable merchandise.In Niagra souvenirs were very reasonably priced.US also has everything but differs place to place.

NIAGRA FALLS & TORONTO

Niagra Falls is one of the most wonderful places I have seen. The place has been totally developed from a tourist point of view with all the possible attractions and facilities. One gets all possible forms of souvenirs in the varied shops and at a very reasonable price, then Clifton hill..the main street is complete with all the amusement rides, shows, giant wheel and its a really fun place .
We took the ferry..MAID OF THE MIST..it takes you so near to the falls..and is really an experience in itself..one feels so humble to see the stature of the fall and the pressure of water..awesome!!! The nature is so powerful that we are all so tiny creatures there. We took JOURNEY BEHIND THE FALLS.....here we venture into a tunnel at the base of the falls and there are a few view points, from where we can see the falls and water at their origin.
While returning we stayed at Toronto...took a ride through the city, saw the Harbour .......now-a-days here its summer for the people here and they thoroughly enjoy the sun,in all the cities one can see the people outside enjoying various things and there are always fun fetes running in downtown, whereas yours truely:)..habitual of living in 40 degree temp. finds it quite hot sometime and cant walk or stay in the sun for a long period....isnt it very contradictory?
My sis took me to all the shops where she has been shopping for years and to all the restaurants where she likes to eat:). We took a fresh Afghani bread from a Afghani shop..there I saw that on the TV the serial had Indian actors like..Sachin sharma etc...but the language I couldnt understand. We had Lunch at Brar's..it was an Indian Buffet and the variety was mind boggling with all type of sweets, soup, vegetables and idli dosa also with north Indian fare. Then we had a thali once at Rajdhani and it was the most delicious one.

We saw Swaminarayan Temple...constructed on the style of Akshardhaam except that it is white...it is a huge place, and since we went there at the time of Aarti..there were many people.......they have a dress code..anybody wearing a dress exposing knee downwards has to wrap a sarong.

We went t0o EATON SQUARE..it is one of the biggest mall in this area with all the branded shops..it was like a zoo over there with so much of crowd...never saw here any other mall bustling with the people.
Then we saw one locality where most of the inhabitants were chinese and then we went to Gerard Street..its a mini India over there..we saw a roadside Chat corner , people eating Bhutta.....and 60,s Hindi movie songs are still the most popular ones in most of the restaurants and shops. There one can find any Indian thing at a most reasonable price..be it jewellery, food, clothes or vegetables or anything else......


THOUSAND ISLANDS----Here we took a cruise while going..its for an hour and they take you through the great lakes, showing you many islands and Golden castle from outside---its the most scenic cruise one can take.
I am going to put some pictures once I reach back Zurich