Originally Printed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Niagara Falls: Canadian side overflows with kitsch kitsch
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Stories by Dennis Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS, Canada — Niagara Falls spills 750,000 gallons of water per second down a 167-foot drop in a roar that began when glaciers melted 10,000 years ago.
Tourists come by the millions, stare into the white mist, and marvel at one of the wonders of the world. Then they have wonders of their own: What to do next?
As Nick Ramunno, who oversees a hall full of wax rock stars there for the staring at, puts it: “You need something else besides the Falls. You can only look at the Falls so long.”
That’s when it’s time to climb Clifton Hill.
There is no compromising with Clifton Hill. Either you recoil in horror at the noise, lights, crowds, smells, outsize waffle cones and howling fright houses or you give yourself over to the Great Spirit of Kitsch that has pervaded since the days hotel owners shanghaied each other’s guests at the train station and shook them down for trips to the bottom of the Falls. (Read more…)