Once upon a time in Canada - getting to the other side

The other thing that seemed odd about the whole train journey then, and still does now, is the feel for how many of us were on the train. The train itself is very long, and had an extra set of carriages added half way through, but for the number of carriages and the number of sleeper units in each carriage, to me there seemed not many people on the train. Ok there were various categories of sleeper class from recliners right up to allegedly luxurious cabins, I say allegedly as I was told this as against saw. And the train was divided into sections with its catering provision and observation cars also separately allocated and located to those sections. But that said there never seemed to be an occasion when our restaurant car was full or nearly full, and that also went for the lounges and observation cars. So unless many were hiding in their cabins I suspect the train was not that full, possibly another impact of the long standing delays and then also a financial impact on the company.

But we went on regardless and some of us felt guilty that this all detracted from the main purpose of the train, to show off these extraordinary landscapes. But you go with what you have and do your best to live in the moment, especially as it is extremely unlikely you will be coming this way again. After the plains we eventually got to the approach to the Rockies. Again I looked forward to seeing things I had not seen before but longed to. Sadly the delay meant that the main part of the Rockies would be passed through during the dark, but at least I saw the rugged eastern side and the more cultivated western side. Looking back that part of this train journey was meant to be from VIA’s point of view, as well as my expectation, the highlight, and it just did not feel like that. This was in part due to the insulating effect of looking out through windows with no sense of the feel, smell, reality of the outside. In other words seeing it through the windows felt very little different to seeing on the TV. I was there but it almost did not feel like it. Maybe it was my expectations, long built up, exceeded my experiences, or rather lack of interaction with that mountain world, on the train. There was also that ‘getting towards the end of a holiday’ feel that always seeps into my thoughts. But we eventually crawled into Vancouver station and I think we all looked forward to putting the chaos and uncertainty behind us and getting on to whatever each of us had planned to do next. So off the train we rush, the staff guessed it would be in at 9pm but by then such guesses seemed irrelevant as there had been so many so frequently needing to be re-guessed, that we just wanted to get in and off the train. Which of course just added to that sense of discomfort in that we, or rather I for sure, had got so entangled in the fun we had had as a distraction to the chaos, that I did not want it to be over. But once stopped in the station and our reluctant goodbyes said, we went our separate ways, though those of us needing to reclaim our checked in luggage found that it did get all frantic by the reclaim carrousel when it took a fair amount of time for them to get our luggage unloaded, then a bit of an ill-natured pushing and shoving for taxis, and we really were away, released into night-time Vancouver. 

Another unknown city, another magical mystery tour through the brightly lit streets to an unknown hotel. The taxi pulled into the drop-off bay recessed into the ground floor of a hotel and I thought, “this looks good.” But he then he reversed back out onto the road and down a few yards to outside the building next door. There was a drab looking doorway with small canopy above sandwiched between a small decrepit smokers shop, all window security grills and shelves of bits of stuff against an advert smattered front window on one side and a night time bar in a semi basement down some steps on the other. Out on the pavement, fare paid, a struggle through the non automatic door, a lot of drunken sounding shouting coming from the bar, and a short flight of steps to get the heavy cases and me up before going the short distance to the reception desk. I was allocated a room on the third floor, second floor to us British, and baulked at getting my cases there as the place had no lift. Thankfully they offered to take them up for me and I settled in the room, just an ordinary small room with double bed, en-suite bathroom and a couple of high cubby holes/shelves with a hanging rail beneath. As I was to stay here for 9 nights I was not impressed as, although I was not looking for luxury, I was looking for comfort and a space I could ‘live’ in for that time. The room I had enjoyed in Montreal would have been ideal. In the next room to mine the TV was on loud in some non-English language but, it being nearly 11pm by now I just did the necessary and slumped into bed only to be awaken at around 4/5am by the said loud TV. For all I knew it could have been on all night, so I was even less impressed by the place. OK it was two star, and I have no idea why I accepted this suggestion, but a decent night’s sleep is a bit fundamental, especially when you are going to stay in the place for over a week and sleeping on the train for three nights had not been restful. So after having a shower and dressing it was down to reception, explaining the problem with the room next door and they had a think, checked who was checking out from which room and then offered me a similar room on the floor below. If it had not already been prepaid I would probably tried to move to another hotel, but decided to stick with it and it worked out ok in terms of the room and no noisy neighbours. So a fresh day, an explore to find a place for a gentle breakfast, which was successful as I stumbled upon and café and bakery that turned out to be ideal, and I was set, eventually, to explore and enjoy Vancouver.