It’s not that traversing Canada by rail from Halifax to Vancouver was on our bucket list the way New Zealand and the Galapagos are, but that it seemed to be doable, a fun way to celebrate our 40th anniversary. And, transportation throwbacks that we are, we like train travel.
The Rocky Mountaineer is a privately owned company specializing in train travel and tours in Western Canada. They also offer a 17-day coast-to-coast vacations which combine four nights on the Canadian national passenger rail service, VIA Rail, with hotel stays and bus tours. This is what we wanted to do.
We started with two nights in Halifax, Nova Scotia (we want to go back), exploring the Bay of Fundy, home to the highest tides in the world, and the surrounding area. (Note: Canadians have a different view of the War of 1812 than we do.) The Halifax harbor has played an important role during both World Wars and is home to the Canadian Atlantic Fleet. The victims of the Titanic were brought here for identification and burial, if unidentified. Major tourist draws are the lobster dinners, Bay of Fundy, and Annapolis Valley, an agricultural region. On our day in Halifax, as our tour guide explained it, we walked on the ocean floor.
In my naivete, I thought we’d be meeting a couple dozen of our soon-to-be best friends at the VIA Rail Station in Halifax. Wouldn’t there be a lot of brave souls setting off on a coast-to-coast adventure just like we were? As it quickly became apparent, no. There were but two others, a couple from Adelaide, Australia, Ray and Pam Rawlings. We soon developed our rhythm of bidding strangers hello and then good-bye as we traveled on.
The train cars pulled out of Halifax on the way to Montreal and we began our journey with a day and night on the train. We had a cabin with a bench seat which converted to an upper and lower berth and our own complete bathroom. Tiny, but ours with very hot water in the shower which we couldn’t figure out how to turn off. It finally just gave up the ghost and quit. Whew!
Keep in mind there are three things you can’t do on a moving train: walk straight, sleep well, or apply eye liner. There’s an art to walking on a train, a rhythm developed when cruising through the sleeper cars, balancing between the cabin walls and the train windows. Meeting someone means one of you is yielding by slipping back around your corner and waiting for the other to pass. Between the cars, heavy metal doors must be pushed open. Sleeping is on again/off again depending on whether the train is traveling or stopping/starting/stopping/backing up. Safest thing to say is no one slept well the first night. As to eye liner, I’m not the steadiest applier in my own bathroom!
Beautiful Montreal is in Quebec, the French region of Canada, and harbors an Old World quality and graciousness. Everyone is seemingly bilingual, which would appear to be the best way to get along. Determined to bring as few extra pounds home with me as possible, I packed my workout clothes. It was in the hotel gym that I ran into a French language treadmill. Not only that, but the weight was in kilograms and the distance in kilometers! I kept trying to convert things in my head and finally just gave up and timed myself. I found the English one the next day.
If it appealed to tourists, we did it. From the city tour and views of the Basilica de Notre-Dame de Montreal to seeing the Olympic Stadium and the city vista from a high point, we were there. We explored the multi-level underground city, full of shops and eateries. When we finally emerged topside, I had to find my map in order to get back to the hotel.
After two days in Montreal, we took the commuter train to Toronto. This would be our base before starting across to the other side of Canada.
LINKS:
Rocky Mountaineer
VIA Rail:
http://www.viarail.ca/en/main
Bay of Fundy:
http://www.bayoffundytourism.com/