The Great Train Ride

So you may or may not know that Yvonne (a friend & labmate at the ROM) and I took the train from Toronto to Halifax when I moved home. I figured it was a good choice, given that the sale fare was only $10 more than a flight, it was more environmentally friendly, I could bring more luggage (especially since Yvonne was along for the ride), I was in no great hurry and a nice long train ride would probably help me decompress a bit after a couple very stressful months.

Me and my friend Bill at Union Station. Bill was kind enough to drive Yvonne and I to the train station and somehow managed to fit all the luggage AND the three of us into his little car! I was very impressed. (Photo by Yvonne Verkuil.)

The luggage check-in staff were extremely friendly and helpful (imagine my shock after all those years of flying!). The train ride itself from Toronto to Montreal was very pleasant, Yvonne brought along a lovely lunch for the two of us and we had lots of snacks. Seemed like it should be a very nice trip home.

Arriving in Montreal

We changed trains in Montreal around supper time and had about 45 minutes to find some food that Yvonne could eat, given her allergies. At the end of the meal, I somehow managed to throw away her coffee. This is when things started going not so well (foodwise) on the trip. A few minutes later we on the train platform being told that we could only take one carry-on each onto the train (which was NOT the information that was available on the internet). This caused quite a dilemma since I had packed quite strategically so that all valuables (including laptop, hard drives, DVD player, cameras, etc...remember I was moving), fragile items, sleeping gear for the train and snacks were easily available and/or safely packed. I had only minutes to decide what HAD to go on with me and what could survive the cargo car, in the process I left all the snacks in the bags that had become checked luggage. Doesn't really sound like a big deal, since there is a dining car, snack bar and snack carts on the train, right? However, you have to book your dinner in the dining car BEFORE you board (again, info NOT on the internet when I booked). OK, well there's still the snack bar that has frozen dinners, soup, etc., except they kept running out of things that were anywhere close to edible. I had a slightly edible frozen pasta dinner, but poor Yvonne's frozen dinner had gone off. The only options left for her were soup and a not so tasty hot dog. Well, at least I found a bit of dark chocolate in my bag which we consumed quite happily with some red wine (to help forget supper). I also placated myself with the idea that the snack bar had breakfast sandwiches, and really, how bad could those be? I didn't manage to find out, because they were out of them by the time I went to get one. Having had little sleep, crashed blood sugar levels and as yet no coffee I was not the happiest camper on the train. The helpful lady at the snack booth told me that they had toast and coffee in the dining car. Turns out they had a wonderful continental breakfast, which was very filling and I enjoyed it very much, but alas, Yvonne was stuck with just toast and coffee. Our final meal on the train, lunch, was not very memorable - so much so that I cannot recall it. In fact, we may have entirely given up by that point and just eaten chips from the vending machine in the Moncton train station (this was the biggest train station between Montreal and Halifax, but lacked food vendors, only junk food machines).

Aside from the food issues, the train ride itself was quite nice. We chatted with some other passengers (fittingly from Nova Scotia and the Netherlands - Yvonne is Dutch), did a bit of reading, took some photos, wandered the train, watched the scenery and lounged about. We also discovered a rather tasty Nova Scotian wine from the Jost vineyards (who knew!).

Reading

Our library

Taking photos in the lounge

Taking photos of loungers

Lounging about

The scenery whizzing by...we saw a lot of trees between Montreal and Halifax.

We arrived in Halifax on time, 28 hours after leaving Toronto, and were very much looking forward to dinner at Swiss Chalet - bland but completely edible!