The Canadian

Well, we're back. 

I'm going to split this up into separate posts, there is so much to show you and highlights from each city we visited.

Okay, so the biggest highlight of our trip was The Canadian - the train from Vancouver to Toronto.

We left Sunday night around 8:00pm and arrived Thursday afternoon around 3:00pm.

I was worried I would get cabin fever so I armed myself with tons of music, playlists, podcasts, books and my iPad.

No need.

Every morning we set the alarm and got up early and had breakfast. The meals were our favourite part - the food was really good. There was a chef on this train so nothing is simply re-heated. Plus, you can stuff your face as you watch the scenery - so cool.

Oh - and the offered fresh decaf - not instant. Thank. You.

After breakfast we usually went up to the bubble car.

 

We spent the mornings here watching the scenery, maybe a bit of reading. 

 

Then back to the dining car for lunch. Sometimes we went back to our room and watched more scenery in private or slept if we were tired.

The cabins were super comfy. The bunks and pillows were nice and soft. There were reading lights and pockets for your glasses and book. Oh - and they put chocolates on our pillows every night - super cute.

I had issues sleeping the first night - it felt like I was trying to sleep through an earthquake. Everything moving, the wheels of the train squealing on the tracks, tons of turns and random things in the room rattling. It didn't help that someone set off an alarm in our car in the middle of the night.

After that I think I just got used to the motion.

So we woke up the first morning in Kamloops and went through the Rockies. Gorgeous of course, but we've seen the Rockies so it wasn't anything new for us.

What blew me away was northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

I get really tired of defending Saskatchewan actually. Seriously - you can't tell me this isn't pretty country...... 

We lost a bunch of time before we hit Edmonton and they figured they could make up the time through the prairies. We ended up going 140km/hr at one point - a little unnerving when you are trying to sip your hot coffee after lunch.

I thought the freight trains were amazing. We overheard a woman say that she counted 147 cars on one of them. We almost always had to stop and wait for them to pass so that's why we lost 6 hours on the trip overall.

  

Manitoba was gorgeous too. Again - stop bashing the prairies!!!

 

On Thursday morning we rolled into Cottage Country in Ontario - we saw some pretty amazing cabins with - my favourite - private garages for boats, attached to the cabin.

We rolled into Toronto around 3:00pm and what a great way to arrive! We were super stoked to see the city but really sad to leave the train.