Excuse me while I catch up on posting some photos and stories since I’ve got back to the UK…ready for some time travel?
The Man in Seat 61 calls it “The greatest train in Canada and one of the world’s greatest train journeys” (http://seat61.com/Canada.htm#Canadian) and after spending the 5 days to traverse from West to East, Vancouver to Toronto, I can’t fault that description. A great way to get a grasp of Canada, of the vastness of the countryside, dotted with occasional towns, farms and industry. Late snow fall in spring ensured picturesque scenary galore, though also flooding misery for locals. Endless freight trains rolled by, over 100 cars long, containers stacked double decker fashion. Freight takes priority, so we often had to stop whilst these mamoth cargo loads rolled by.
There’s not a lot to do on a train… except stare out of the window at the amazing endless views, read a book (a train-based murder mystery of course) and chat to your fellow passengers. So that’s not so bad then. There’s a bar (G&T for me) and an observation area (called the Park car I think, too much G&T to remember properly) where the train has an upstairs seating area for photo opportunities and general staring around. I paid a bit extra and got a bed and meals included (which is frankly basic necessities in my book) and it all felt a bit special.
End result, I arrived in Toronto fresh as a daisy. Though it took a day for me to get used to the bed not moving around at night.