Today we are scheduled to go and ride the Narrow Gauge Railway from Silverton to Durango. We have breakfast at the hotel and set off on a coach at 08:30. The coach will take us to Silverton, we will then ride the railway from Silverton to Durango and the coach will pick us up in Durango and take us to our hotel. It is a warm sunny day when we set off. The first stop is at a small boom town from the Gold and Silver prospecting days called Ouray. It is known for its hot springs and is sometimes called "Little Switzerland". We stop for a coffee and we also visit an authentic Western Saloon. We set off again and start to climb up through the mountains, there are some terrifying drops on the side ... read more

Today we have a full day tour of the Rocky Mountains We awake early and have breakfast at 07:30. The coach picks us up at around 08:30 and we are heading for the Rocky mountain National Park. Pur first stop is Boulder which appears to be a University campus town. We see pleny of "Prairie Dogs" along the way, which appear to be a cross between a stoat and a mongoose. We head for Estes Park, which is at the gateway to the National Park. We stop at the Stanley Hotel, which was the basis for Stephen King’s “The Shining”. The film was actually made in a hotel in California (Much to the annoyance of Stephen King). Although the bar in the Stanley Hotel does look very much like the one featured in the film. We ... read more

We get up at around 08:00 (Diane a little earlier). I had intended to try to go up the Willis Tower (ex Sears Tower) this morning, but it is raining and I do not have the enthusiasm. I decide to have breakfast with Di and do a little shopping, and laze around before meeting in reception at 12:00 to check up and head to the station – same procedure as the last couple of times so we are all getting drilled in the procedure. After a short stop in the lounge we head to catch the train to Denver. The sleeper is similar to that which we took from New York to Washington. We settle in and pass the time by reading and I catch up on my blog, we have some wine from the dining ... read more

Today we have a free morning before we head off for Chicago. We eat breakfast at the Dubliner. We have a wander around Washington, heading first to Capitol Hill so that I can take some pictures of the Capitol Building, from there we head to some shops around Union Station and do some window shopping. (The other thing that we have noticed in Washington is how many people are formally dressed. I would guess that a lot of the people that we see around could be political representatives? – I am used to seeing the vast majority of Americans dress informally, but here suit and tie seems to be the “order of the day” for men, and “power dressing” for women) We meet up with the rest of the group at 14:45 and walk across to ... read more

Another early start, we are meeting up with the group at 07:30. We again breakfast in our room, and make out way down to reception to join the rest of the group. A coach takes us to Penn Station and the red caps (Rail Station Porters) take our luggage to the train The train to Washington leaves at 09:00 and takes 3 ½ hours. We arrive at Union Station Washington, and after a short delay we manage to unite coach, luggage and passengers. We are then taken on a tour of Washington that takes approximately 3 hours – we visit numerous memorials and monuments, and are pretty soon “memoriamed out”. Washington is completely different from New York – for starters there are no high-rise buildings. There is a statute that no building can be higher than ... read more