13Aug11: The Canadian: Day 1 (Rail Day 1)

The second leg of our journey was aboard the Canadian, which took us all the way across Canada, from Toronto, Ontario to Vancouver, B.C. In Vancouver we were to get on the bus segment of Amtrak's the Cascades to Portland, Oregon, after about a one and three-quarters hour layover.

When the Canadian was finally at the platform the first thing VIA did was load about 150 YMCA kids into the coaches. Then they started loading the sleeper cars. We finally pulled out of the station around 11 pm, about an hour late. On this train we had a double bedroom. This accommodation has two single beds, one over the other. The upper berth slides up into the ceiling when not in use and the lower one folds up into the wall, leaving room for two reclining chairs. The upper berth has about 30 inches between the mattress and the ceiling, so you can barely sit upright. Since the beds go across the width of the car you can see out the window from the upper bed. You are looking down at the ground, but at least you can see something and tell if it is day or night. There is also a private toilet for the room in a small, very small, compartment off the main room. The shower at one end of the car and is shared by everyone in the car. I didn't find this to be a problem since I generally get up around 5 am and there was no competition for the shower at that time. Later risers often had to wait for a turn in the shower.  Our travel companions Marc and Phyllis had the adjoining double bedroom.  Carol had requested this so that during the day the car attendant could open the wall between the two rooms, giving the four of us one big room allowing us to chat or play cards and enjoy the scenery together.. But when we boarded we discovered there had been a bit of miscommunication about the adjoining rooms and discovered the beds were down and the wall was folded away so the four of us were essentially sleeping in one room.  While we found this amusing it was not at all what we had intended.  The car attendant fixed this while we went to the observation car for complimentary champagne. We took our champagne up into the dome of the observation car to try and see the aurora borealis, which was supposed to come that far south that night. Unfortunately between the full moon and the light pollution from Toronto we didn't see a thing and eventually went to bed.  When we returned to our rooms each couple had a private room for the night as intended.