All Aboard?!

Mom and I woke up to a rainy Thursday morning in Toronto and headed to the train station for our trip to Vancouver. I hadn't slept terribly well (too excited?) and the cab arrived faster than a Toronto cab has ever arrived, so the departure was a bit spastic. Regardless, everything I needed made it with me and Phoebe looked calm enough to make it until Sarah's first visit.

Mom and I were very early for our departure time, so I got the required train station photo and we grabbed out complimentary continentals and paper.

After an hour, we were called for boarding and headed for the platform. There is something about the sight of a steel locamotive that will get you very excited about starting your adventure.

Let me just say, I was fully expecting a train compartment room to be small - what with the fold down bunkbeds and tuck away chairs, but this was extremely cozy! Fortunately, I had checked my larger Vancouver bag and there was just enough room for our two travel on suitcases and our two selves. These are not rooms designed for the large, mobility impaired, or elderly (more on that to follow!). It was also one of the rare actual water closets one can find, with a cute little all purpose sink and mirror out in the main area. But, as mom and I are efficient little packers, it worked just fine for us and no one sustained serious injury.

Once the trip was underway, we sat for a bit and watched the more industrial areas of Toronto pass by our cabin window. It seemed like a good time to check out the rest of our cars and see what was what. My first discovery was the door to our communal shower, with the best signage for a shower ever. I am both saddened and impressed with myself that I didn't burst into passionate song both times I was in there :)

We then walked through the dining car, which was a lovely retro 50s train dining room with full linens, light sconces, and etched glass decor. Next we walked through the "games" room (Scrabble anyone?), scoped out the coffee/snack station, and headed straight for the dome car. We snagged a couple of seats quite quickly, then took in the fact that we were in the midst of a tour group, chalk-a-block full of southern seniors. Some were perfectly lovely. Some were perfectly loud (imagine a whose-more-southern-than-who food debate). Some were perfectly dim (Q: "Well, what is that?" A: A silo). Having said that, I have always wanted to be in a dome car, and it was just fab. Great views from either side, lovely sunsets and sunrises when you can catch them (4:30 am people!), and surprisingly easy to get a pair of seats in. The only other car that was slightly different, was the very last car on the train. It was the "park" car and had a rounded end with seats around the perimeter. It also had a dome car as part of it and a sunken lounge where they used to sell liquor out of sight from the outside of the train. Quite lovely, but a bit of a treck and very limited seating.

As for food? I guiltily admitted to my mother that one thing I was particularly looking forward to was having 3 square meals a day. That is way more than I should be allowed to eat again. Certainly not for 3 days in a row! But yumm-o that was some good food. Particularly tasty were the delightful little amuse buche that came around periodically with free champagne :) Some meals were better than others, but none were bad and several were delicious. We were also very fortunate to find meal friends in Caroline and Marcel. Caroline is a librarian at a medical university just outside of London, England and Marcel is in financial services in Switzerland. Both lovely people, easy to chat with, entertaining, and some of the few not with the seniors tour. I think we all felt fairly happy to have found one another! We also elected to eat during the third setting, which ment we ate dinner at 9pm and had only one or two other tables with us. It also meant that during the busier dinner times, we had the dome car quite to ourselves.

Sleeping was a bit of a challenge. The first night I thought I was so tired it wouldn't be a problem at all. It can be very tiring doing nothing! I clambered up to the top bunk without too much of a spectacle and the bed was actually quite comfortable. The experience did however, lead to a train game of trying to determine which partner in each of the elderly couples was also trying to get into this bunk. There simply wasn't a good choice... The only trouble at my end was the crazy noises train make when you're suddenly listening to the tracks. At one point I woke up, just because it was suddenly completely quiet. The other nights were a bit more successful for sleeping and I managed to time the sunrise right for the third day.

Most of the time was spent sitting in the dome car, drinking coffee, and enjoying the great Canadian landscape go by. What an amazingly diverse country! We moved from Toronto, into the Canadian Shield, through the prairies with their changing vegetation, colours, and contours, and into the Rockies, at times craggy and snow capped, at times dusty and desert like. Simply phenomenal. I have a tonne of pictures, but none (shot from a speeding train) can really capture the diversity or largeness of it all. Fab.