Downtown of London, Ontario

Today I toured the downtown area of London (Ontario) and snapped some pictures. The downtown used to the center spot of Londoners during the 70s. Nowadays it is deserted and appears to be run down due to the openings of massive box stores in the sub-urban area. This is somehow similar to Tesco/Jusco/Carrefour/Giant phenomena in Malaysia.

VIA Rail Canada station at London. You can take a 2-hour train ride to Toronto along the busy Quebec-Windsor corridor.

Downtown street view.
There are many churches in the downtown. And you can see a guy is reading in the mainstreet too. I found Canadian Londoners like to read a lot, what a big contrast compared to home..=D

A nice building in downtown.
Street view two. Starbucks! They are everywhere, aren't they? ;-) But in Ontario, Canada has its rivals which is Tim Hortons. Tims serve good coffee (I like the cappucino particularly). Speaking about Tim Hortons, recently there is a Timbit-gate story which I will like to tell. The story goes like this: A cashier working in one of Tim's outlet gave away one Timbit (some doughnut balls) to a customer with a crying baby for free. Because of that, she was fired by the manager! This issue has caused much controversy and of course, general public sympathize the cashier and the incident has really tarnished Tim Hortons' PR image badly. The cashier eventually got her job back, but at another Tim outlet. Even since then, many Canadians would joke to the cashier: "I want a free Timbit" when they buy their coffee... ;-)

Street view 3.
Street view 4.
London Life main office. A major insurance company in Canada.
A nice church.
Another one.
A statue in Victoria Park, downtown.
Statue at Victoria Park entrance.
Some street basketball carnival on-going in downtown, which is a typical event in the summer.

Butterfly Conservatory, Niagara Falls

我的尼加拉之旅中也游览了附近的蝴蝶公园。在此上载了一些沾花惹草的照片。

公园外观。
剑形郁金香。

金黄郁金香。


小花。

红花会。

蝴蝶。

萤光蝶。

虎斑蝶。

采花粉。


长得像人眼的蝴蝶。

这个更厉害，七眼怪蝶。

群蝶大会。


巨大的花时钟，很像赛柏再也公园里的大时钟。这些都是Niagara Parks - School of Horticulture的杰作，念三年才可毕业当园丁。(原来在加拿大当专业的园丁得念三年书，恐怖...)

Niagara-on-the-Lake

除了去尼加拉瀑布外，我们也游览了一个叫Niagara-on-the-Lake的小镇，并在这里享用午餐。特地来这里是因为这儿才有食物，瀑布那只有快餐。我说过我导师很有品味了吧？^_^

这里确实别具风味，比起尼加拉市区的繁华、熙熙攘攘，这儿有的是懒洋洋的欧洲风。

小镇外观。

大街。
商店。邮局。


历史悠久的酒店旅馆，还有马车等待客人。



想试试被摸屁股吗？


悠闲的小镇风光。

街头的大钟楼。

Niagara Falls

上个星期去了Niagara Falls两次，一次和导师去加拿大的IEEE会议，一次和莫尔。四字评语：非常壮观，到安大略旅游必到之地。

站在瀑布前的我。

和伟大电机大师Nikola Tesla合照，导师强力推崇此人，特地过境美国就为一睹他风采。(因为这老人家是他同乡，兼有亲戚关系，所以导师对他赞不绝口。汗一个...-.-") 美国为Tesla立碑是因为他为尼加拉的水坝发电贡献良多。
从美国看过去。加拿大那边都是旅馆、赌场。这座桥就是彩虹桥。

这个是Whirlpool，尼加拉河转弯的地方。

眺望彩虹桥，真的看到彩虹耶。

眺望尼加拉瀑布。
马蹄瀑布远景。

绿色建筑物是美国建的看台，因为从美方看不到好景色，所以搭建了这个观景台。

Maid of the Mist。坐船到瀑布前一游。尼加拉景点之一，值得推荐。

穿上雨衣，准备要上船了。
船来了。
船只行驶到瀑布前，非常非常冷。因为水的冲力，也造成很大风。


离开瀑布，到达市区的摩天轮游乐园。

科学怪人啃汉堡。


Isaac Brock 将军的铜像，加拿大保皇派。加拿大人为他立碑是因为他打退了美国人。

最后这张不是瀑布，是Welland Canal的一部份。尼加拉河水流太急，船不能行驶。因此加拿大人建了这人造运河，绕过尼加拉河，贯通Lake Erie和Lake Ontario。图中是船锁，负责把船只像电梯一样从高水位、低水位运来运去。整条运河共有八个类似的船锁，因为这两个大湖的水位差有壹佰米高。运河及船锁已有150年历史，实在令人惊叹当时工程师的巧思。