Today we left Nova Scotia. Gary and Kim drove us down to Halifax railway station. Here we checked in our luggage and one hurdle was immediately overcome when we discovered it was being booked straight through to Toronto. Bill had visions of waiting for it to come off the train at Montreal and missing our connection. We said our goodbyes to Gary and Kim who had been our hosts for a week and we waited to board. We walked to the train and found our carriage and within it our cabin, small but comfortable with an en suite. We booked lunch and remained in the cabin until the train pulled out on time at 13:00. We then walked through the train for what seemed an eternity, for the train was so long we got to the restaurant car and had lunch. After lunch we sat in the lounge for a while because it had wi fi then walked to the rear of the train past our cabin to an observation coach. It was a fantastic sight going through forests over rivers etc. The train stopped at Moncton so we alighted to have a photo taken next to the train. We then boarded the train and went straight back to the observation coach. Not only for the wonderful views but it was so comfortable with beverages available. We then took the long hike to the restaurant car for dinner then back to the observation car to witness a magnificent sunset. We then returned to our cabin and the seats had been turned in bunk beds. We put our clocks back as we were entering another time zone and turned in. We both had a comfortable sleep notwithstanding.
Thursday 13th July 2017
Woke up and took our hike to the restaurant car for breakfast then back to the observation car for the remainder of the journey. The visibility was still good despite being more overcast than it had been. After we'd crossed over the mile and half long Victoria bridge into Montreal we returned to our cabin collected our overnight luggage and prepared to alight the train. Again
Bill had trepidations about wandering around Montreal station looking for the Toronto train but it was simply across the platform. However we did have to go up onto the main concourse to wait while the train was being prepared. We were allowed to board and found our seats. The train pulled out on time and we noticed the landscape was farmland rather than the forests we saw on the previous train. After just over five hours we arrived in Toronto. We found our way to the baggage reclaim and whilst Bill was waiting for the cases his cousin, Gail, came and made herself known to Val which was pretty good bearing in mind they'd never met before. Having collected the cases we had one more train journey to complete on a GO train. We thought it would be something like the London underground but far from it, the GO train is a massive great double decker train, the same as is used in The Netherlands. We travelled on this to Pickering station where we were picked up by Reiza, Gail's husband and taken to their house. In total we spent about twenty seven hours on a train and enjoyed it very much. Yes we could have flown but this way we saw more of Canada and it made it more of an adventure.
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