WanderlustandWhimSea

I love trains and the Canada’s Via Rail offered an opportunity to travel across Canada via train. I especially love European trains and decided to see what the Canadian experience was all about. The Via Rail is quite different than the popular and expensive Rocky Mountaineer that does the Canadian Rockies but I thought this would give me a taste of overnight train travel. I do have the Rocky Mountaineer on my travel to do list, but this trip was just tying up the 95 day Pacific trip. The journey from Vancouver to Toronto is over 2,000 miles and takes 4 1/2 days.

Great location at the Fairmont Waterfront and had free fresh oysters curtesy of The Edit promotion from Chase.

This is my seat during the day and at night it converts to a berth with a heavy curtain. The night berth was surprisingly comfortable and private. The shower and bathroom was across the hall. I was a bit nervous with not having a private bathroom but it actually worked out fine and I had no issues. I slept quite well as the train runs like a bat out of hell at night and the motion of the train rocks you to sleep.

Meet Tatzu, a Japanese Buddist Monk who had the upper berth. He was a lovely young man and liked to speak with me in English for the language practice. We had a few interesting philosophical discussions.

The views from the train were amazing as we followed the Fraser river for much of the first few days.

The best views of the mountains was from the Dome Cars. During the trip we were fortunate enough to see, Moose, Black Bear, and Mountain Goats.

It was mesmerizing to watch the mountains as dusk turned to night in the Dome Car.

The red engine is pulling a cargo train. That is probably the only negative from the trip. Cargo trains are given priority on the rails and the Via Rail train would have to pull over onto a siding to wait, sometimes hours, for the Cargo trains to go by. This makes the schedule a bit unpredictable unlike the trains in Switzerland where you notoriously can set your watch to the schedule. So if you want an experience then Via Rail may be for you, but if you’re looking for transportation there are other more efficient methods.

I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the food. The food was not the microwave sandwiches of Amtrak. The dining car is lovely with linen table cloths and several courses at each meal. Fresh salads, homemade soups and rolls and entrees such as Beef Tenderloin and Lamb. And the desserts, oh my what a treat with offerings such as carrot cheese cake, berry crumble etc.

I thought most of the snow would be in the Canadian Rockies, but in early May, Ontario’s thousands of lakes were still frozen over and it snowed quite heavily on the last day on the train. The Via Rail runs all year, sometime I would like to do the trip in the winter. The train makes a few stops where you can get out and stretch your legs or visit the local towns like in Jasper where it stopped for 90 minutes and the town shops were adjacent to the rail station.

So after 95 days my journey is over, for now. As always there were lessons learned, and I need to work on my walking and endurance as my back gets better. I’m working on plans for my next trip as I do laundry and settle in to life in Ponte Vedra. I’ll see you next from Switzerland and more train travels in August with my new friends from Texas. Cheers!