The Canadian - a transcontinental journey

Last thoughts on Ottawa

After a couple of days in Ottawa it was time to move onto Toronto again for the Canadian and our trip across Canada to Vancouver. We did have to make a pit stop to our last lodgings in Toronto as Karen had left her Samsung buds - luckily, we had an email to let us know they were there.

We've really enjoyed Ottawa, a really understated city. It was great to see Joan and Lorraine and we really appreciated them coming to see us. The afternoon walk with Ed from Guruwalks had been good. We read up on the Rideaux canal afterwards and saw the cruising boats people used are general motor boats not the canal boats we see at home (an like everything this side of the Pond, its bigger. A canal in Canada is as wide as a river in the UK. We also heard from a couple on the train that in winter some of the locks are drained low to create an outdoor ice pathway in the city, several miles long. They said they had really enjoyed skating on it and I gave the impression it sounded like fun with stalls etc on rout

All aboard the Canadian

Boarding the train was quite easy in Toronto although the lounge was much busier than the one in Halifax. Chatting to others they advised this train was fully booked and after this train a much shorter train with less carriages is used until the spring.

Once on board we quickly settled into our cabin before exploring the skyline and park cars. The journey across Canada was amazing. The train was set up well, the food really good, lots of friendly people and the scenery just amazing seeing the changes as we went across Canada. A bucket list item ticked off.

Time Flies by when you're sitting on a train

We both had horrible colds on this part of the trip so didn't socialise with other passengers as much as we could have done but the conversations with other people really make the journey. There were people from across the world; mainly Canadians and Americans but then Europeans, Asians and Australians. There was also a full range of passengers; single people, couples, families and groups. These were made up by bucket listers like ourselves, a couple of train spotters as well as some very wealthy travellers. It was amazing seeing and feeling the friendships build across all these groups as the journey went. It was great to share stories of travel experiences both planned and completed with so many different people and also to pick their brains when we had countries in common.

The time flew by and the regular meals helped to keep structure to the days. The food was all freshly cooked and we had a choice of three main courses for each meal and always a massive dessert. Luckily. I think there were no scales on the train!

Bingo!

The scenery was the real star of the journey and what makes the journey a bucket list. The variation from coast and lakes then to the prairies and onto the Rockies is amazing.

With the food, scenery and conversations there isn't time to get bored but just in case... the the train staff hold activities such as wine and beer tasting, a folk sing singer, board games and bingo.

Final Thoughts

We loved our train journey, all the different parts made it a great trip with some brilliant memories. We would recommend it as a great way to see Canada.

A regular comment we have been hearing is how wet and windy Vancouver is going to be so we may have to reconsider some of our plans, especially the cycling along the harbour front or one or two travellers may be lost. We have been lucky with the weather so far but apparently we are hitting an atmospheric river front, just in time for our friend Liz who is joining us from the UK for a couple of weeks.