As promised - the train pix for the spotters

Freight Locos

Seating prior to bunk conversion. Train is very solid and over-engineered

Top Bunk hides behind this panel

Bunks set up by Nathalie, our superstar car attendant, including hand drawn welcome message

Details of our car

The ‘Park’ rear observation car at start of six-hour delay due to freight derailment

The Engines that pulled us the whole way

Me looking out of window. A common pose this last month

Jo loving the camera

Sunset at Capreol

Inside one of the four dome cars on the first night

Dining Car set up for lunch

Two views out of rear window. Single track most of the way. Lots of waiting in sidings. Freights are soooo long—200 cars anyone?

Sunset at Winnipeg

Acid Rain Trees

Window Detail

Grain Elevator in Manitoba

Garage in Manitoba

More freight; this time for low tunnels ;)

Dome interior

Stormclouds

Sunset over the prairies. I opened the barn-door for this shot

Jasper at 02:00am, running ten hours late

Dawn in the Rockies


Rockies in early light

Big lake west of Kamloops

Train disappears into tunnel

Not a model. Two tracks pass over each other several times on the last stretch from Kamloops

Roseberry Topping in the Rockies!

Falls on river

San Francisco has great light

We've come a long way baby

So it's Monday and that means we're in San Francisco. So many cities now it's become a bit of a blur, other than the fact all the places we've been to have been so different and aren't really blurred at all. Vancouver, (reached last Monday after the epic near-four day trip on The Canadian train across four time zones and millions of trees) is my favourite place so far. Mountains in the distance, a park bigger than New York's Central Park, great bars that play proper music (instead of safe music) and serve cocktails named after Peaches (the singer). Being on the Pacific side, the Oriental and Asian influences are clear to see and it makes for a great mix. People are friendly, open, helpful and have an endearing tick where they say "orsahhhm" at the end of sentences that made me smile. We hired bikes and rode round the park, where the Lions Gate suspension bridge (Douglas Coupland fans should know of this bridge) swoops over past piles of Sulphur at the docks to the north shore. The park's trees, which are second growth, are huge but the stumps of the *original* growth have to be seen to be beleived.

Was sad to leave VA BC- but our rail-pass doesn't last forever, so after a few days there, it was south to Seattle on a strange squashed-looking tilting Amtrak train running the 'Cascades' route. After a glitch at customs (the 'bozo' at JFK had issued us a six month visa on a three month green-card leading their computer to reject all plans to get back into the U.S. Luckily this time, the guy at the desk was pretty civil about it, and the fact all seats are pre-booked meant being last through the 'border' after re-doing the whole shebang didn't mean we had crap seats. Train took four hours and was a bit bumpy. The 'tilt' is of Spanish design and an absence of wheels (two per carriage rather than eight) meant it kept going into a speed-wobble for about half the journey. Jugga-jugga. Ugh. It's a funny train - look it up. The carriages are about half the height of the engine so they've put these crazy 'wings' onto the end carriages to kinda smooth the aesthetic. Like an 80s spoiler on a Cosworth Sierra.

Seattle is a great city too. We met up with an online friend of Jo's who recomended some nice places to go and see/eat (if you're there the tour of the 'Underground City' is fun, as is the SciFi museum. Bit of a whistle-stop visit but I suppose one gets a flavour and there's always a chance we can come back and explore these places further. We took a return ferry out into the bay and watched seagulls hovering the same speed as the ship, begging for treats, and had some local microbeers (as the non-corporate beers seem to be called). Ship was pretty much the same as a cross-channel ferry - busy and well used by people who need it to get around this very coastal area, which kinda looks like the west highlands and islands in a mist. I had a very sad deja-vu moment whilst on the sea-front; I recognised the double-deck freeway that follows the shore, only to be reminded that this in fact must be because the Seattle racing circuit in Gran Turismo 2 is in fact quite accurate. Is computer game deju vu sad? Discuss...

The trip from Seattle to San Francisco was on the Amtrak 'Coastal Starlight' train, (Did Andew Lloyd Weber ever climb aboard?), and our first overnight so far in "coach" class (no upgrade and an experiment in the concept of cheapness. Total Freeness actually). Reclining seats and no meals thrown in seemed like a good idea, but this huge double decker train, heading all the way to L.A. was a bit difficult to sleep on (no blankets and fierce aircon), and the food choices a little limited. It still had a pretty cool observation car though, and I have some amazing pictures of some of the awe inspiring valleys it tip-toed along the edge of at sunset in Oregon. The scale of the geography here is just phenominal. So that gets us to here. It's sunny but with a cool breeze, far too hilly (are grids such a good idea?) Thank god the second hand guide book we picked in the very cool bookshop in Seattle has a topograhic map. You can avoid the hills. We have a few days and might get a camper to drive out to Sacramento or Yosemite, before the trip back to NY via Chicago. What a trip!

Postcards from Montreal

Sunset in the Latin Quarter

The Green Green Glass of home (our crazy modern hotel)

Elevator Detail

Revenge of the Country Life ButterPeople

Metropolitain a Paris dans Montreal; Entrance to the neverworld of the underground city

Beaver up on the Mont

Waterbottle

Building in the Old Town

Postcards from Toronto

View from Ceara's Condo

Ceara and Jo after frozen Margheritas

Piddling about next to Toroto College of design

Entrance to Laide bar; Good vodka and (Shh) Indoor Smokes

Toronto skyline at night from Ceara's Solarium

J’arriveé dans la Québec

Time for a nice cinnamon whirl and tea (in a proper mug) at the
ubiquituous Tim Horton's coffee shop before our train from Montréal
to Québec city this morning. Most places do tea but some better than
others. It's a boiling water thing and only us brits are fussy about
the 100° thing. Train was the VIA One service which meant ample
seating room - only three seats abreast in the corridor, yet another
hyper-ingenius foldaway tray and lovely views across the Quebecian
provence on the sunniest day since being in Toronto. The possibility
of pay-per-use wifi on the carriage brought a smile to both myself
and The Writer as it will be something that will be great to have on
the big three day/three night trip across to Vancouver starting on
Thursday for y'know, looking stuff up, getting some of the pix I've
taken since the last postcard entry online.

I'm kinda sleepy. We got here around four and have once again easily
secured a lovely room at the last minute using the increasingly
preferred 'Arrive, go to Tourist Info Office and see what they have'
method of finding accomodation. This Hotel - The Hotel du Terasse
Dufferin is a mere stone's throw from the big Châteaux within the old
walled city and has a great view over the river, being on the forth
floor and on a big hill. It has actual rooms and is more like a mini
apartment but is only costing us $139 Can (about £70) a night. We
have a hunch the local restaurant Français might be a little pricey
if last nights' foray into Montréal Old Town is anything to go by
(Where we tactically had salad and the cheese plate) so having a
kitchenette may prove useful for brekkies and coffee. The Writer is
sulking with a book in the other room as all efforts to get 'free'
internet here have failed meaning the quest for the elusive
'87' (whatever THAT means) has been curtailled for a wee while. Train
loving Gwilliams' will be pleased to know I took my locomotive
pictures today. All the stations so far until Quebec have been a bit
like airports in that you leave via some stairs and never actually
walk the length of the platform to see the engine that pulled. Todays
engine looked kinda angular. Like a blue doorstop. Pix to follow I
promise.

So - the plan is to mooch about here for tonight and tomorrow wherein
we set off rudely early on wednesday morning to return to To in time
for the 9 o'clock off on The Canadian train that takes us through the
prairies, the rockies and over to the west coast. We spent a long
time at the station in Montreal on Saturday realising that even with
our rail passes that getting a private room and making a stop in
picturesque Jasper probably would Actually Break The Bank so we've
reeled things in a little, going for bunks and shared bathroom
without the stop on the way. We do still get the meals and access to
the very splendid observation cars (the sort that peep out above the
rest of the train with 50's style batman windows) though so I'm
getting quite excited about the ride. The guidebook warns of german/
sun-lounger style shenanigans in the acquiring of such well appointed
seating so I hope to be able to give as good as I get and get up
really really early at least one day to get a good view of dawn over
the rockies.

Edit: This took a while to get sent (despite many amusing attempts to
find free WiFi in Quebec. One of which involved Jo getting thrown out
of a museum. Or that's what she thought - it was really just normal
closing time.
On train back to Monteal as I type and then on to Toronto on First
class. I really can't speak more highly about the Canadian VIA
trains. Clean, friendly, efficient, wide, "Enjoy your tea - keep your
cup - I'll be around later to give you a free refill...". How splendid!

More pix to come. FTPing from a train, How cool is that???