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DAY 6: Sunday 18th April 2010 - JASPER / TRAIN (by Darryl)
Gee this train travel is great, its very relaxing - I could stare out the window all day (and I have), the scenery is spectacular along this leg of the trip. I’ve taken so many photos of rugged mountains capped with snow, fir trees, iced over lakes, boulder rivers etc that would keep a calendar company going for a few centuries! They’ll probably look all the same when I look at them later but nevermind.
I’m typing this on the train as the boys sleep, and Sarah reads her book, but back to the start:
This morning we decided to feed up large and have a big breakfast at the Hotel restaurant - to keep us going for most of the day. Buffet for the boys and a Mountain brekkie for us consisted mostly of sausages, bacon, eggs, French toast, fruit, coffee, more coffee, spicy potato cubes etc and we all left with full bellies. Dirk the Aussie waiter (from Cairns) was good to talk to and we chatted a lot, he almost seemed sad to see us go.
The Marmot Lodge free shuttle dropped us back
at the VIA train station and we were able to check in our luggage and spend a couple of hours having a last look around the Jasper shops. A local Native arts & crafts shop had some cool stuff - carvings in totem style ($975!!) and Birch Bark Bitings (subtle symmetrical patterns in bark and framed). Fruity ice blocks all round and we were soon boarding the train.
The mountainous landscape beyond Jasper just keeps going, and we started to see some more wildlife:
A group of Elk deer, a Black Bear!! (well there were lots of shrieks from the Aussie travel agents on board when the word got out that there was a bear, and I only just got a glimpse of its arse end!) I also spotted about 3 animals playing in some still water which may have been Beavers or Otters? Oh, and a few more Crows for good measure.
I think the route we are on is the Yellowhead pass - through the Canadian Rockies.
In the observation / bubble car with the boys I got chatting to Andrea from Auckland NZ - our first Kiwi!
She has been here for 6 months on
a travel holiday Visa, and has been working in Vancouver, Edmonton and Jasper. Apparently it got down to -54 degrees (allowing for wind chill) in Jasper mid winter. We swapped stories so far and had a good yarn.
We thought we might complete the whole train journey experience by splashing out on dinner in the Dining Car, which turned out to be a fancy 3 course dinner in the very nice first class section. We blew the daily budget but it was worth it, and we had eaten pretty cheaply for a few days so will even out. The head waiter took a shining to the boys and provided the nights entertainment - teaching them some tricks (cut the pickle, heres the tickle) and giving Lachie the bill - which he couldn’t pay so he had to do the dishes!
After dinner, and resetting watches back one hour to BC / Pacific time I set up the laptop with a movie for the boys to settle them in for the night. We then reclined a block of 4 seats, made up beds and tucked them in for the night.
The train arrived at Kamloops station around 10:30pm where
I hopped off briefly for some fresh air, and departed again at 12 midnight. It sounds like we will be in Vancouver early tomorrow at about 8:30am.
The train staff are all really friendly and seem to go out of their way to look after you, it’s a delight and the manners and attitude are to be admired.
DAY 7: Monday 19th April 2010 - TRAIN / VANCOUVER
Sarah and I woke at about 6am after a slightly unsettled sleep, changing places lots of times through the night to try and get comfortable on the reclined train seats, but still much better than trying to sleep on a plane. At least we got around 6 hours of sleep compared to about 40 minutes on the flight over here.
The boys were all still out to it, so Sarah and I picked up a hot coffee from the ‘takeout’ and watched the sunrise from the observation carriage as the train kept chugging along.
The scenery had changed dramatically from yesterday, and now we were watching lush green fields, farmlets, sawmills and timber processing plants, small towns, churches, and the big muddy old Fraser River. The morning seemed to disappear
quickly and after digging the boys in the ribs and packing up all our things we were soon into Vancouver station by about 9am.
A taxi ride to our Hotel (Robsonstrasse) on Robson Street and we were settled in, showered , changed, and out for a walk at lunchtime to check out the new surrounds. Kelsy and I were ready first so decided to split and track down some (quote: Kelsey) “chocolate and a toy”. Not far down the street and we were onto a Pizza place at $1.60 for a large slice and $1.30 for a drink (I had Root Beer - but not sure if I like it). I got chatting to an old retired Polish guy who arrived in Toronto in the late 1940s, worked in mines, sawing timber, and later had a fishing boat near Vancouver trawling for Salmon. He also gave me a roadmap of BC/Yukon & Alaska.
Off again and we were successful in the chocolate stakes (Dairy Milk + Peanut Butter cups) but concluded that there are no toy stores in Vancouver!
We walked around part of the waterfront where there are some fancy apartment buildings and obviously a lot of
money. Vancouver is a very beautiful city, with lots of trees (in blossom) gardens, lawns, new buildings, artworks, and water features etc. A stark contrast to Edmonton, but busier and possibly not as friendly? The climate here is pretty mild - its definitely tee shirt and jeans time, with a light jacket at times if the breeze gets up. I’m having to push the air con to get the room temp down.
Still plenty of homeless people around here, often asking for money on the street - I saw one today outside a booze store and thought that was handy. The Vancouver hobos are probably a bit better off than their counterparts in Edmonton with much warmer climate, and one was kipping down for the night in a shop doorway with his shopping trolleys of belongings and a big thick mattress and duvet, lying tucked up in bed and chugging away furiously on smokes.
It looks like our hotel is on the fashion label shopping street so the shops there are not my scene, however a second family stroll out tonight on a different direction took us down another side street with more interesting shops, and I picked
up a local fly tying book for 6 bucks.
Don’t forget the tax! Most things are priced excluding taxes, which can catch you out when spending a bit more.
The mission now is to buy a car, (then I’ll finish sorting out the travel blog- I promise) so we spent some time on the net today looking at different models of mini vans, and listing some nearby ones to look at tomorrow. I also downloaded a squillion photos tonight, and shudder at the thought of sorting through them (may have to get hard and use the delete key a lot more, I don’t think we need a hundred photos of a snowy mountain!) Callum is also shutter bugging away at a similar rate, which is good to get different shots, and more pics of us.
Well, we are into our second week in Canada tomorrow, and things couldn’t get much better. This is fricken brilliant.
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Vancouver in sight
That photo is of the infamous patalullo bridge. I hate that rickety old narrow bridge.