On the train again…

Not that I’m obsessing or anything, but it’s so nice to have WiFi access again… and I’m even on a train!  More on this later!

Yesterday was Toronto day, although we didn’t really take advantage of being in the “big city”.   After resting, we headed out to meet Carol (from the Canadian Garden Council) for dinner.  She’s the person who first informed me that I had won the prize, and she’s been my contact for everything and anything… she’s fabulous!  We laughed a lot and she shared some of the funniest stories I’ve heard in a while.  I’m so glad we were able to get together.  I found out that the prize I won isn’t going to be offered again – the new one is a more scaled down version.  Yay 2014 prize!!

Carol and I

We wandered back to the hotel after dinner, and that’s about the extent of our Toronto experience.

The Flatiron Building – across from restaurant. I love this building!

This morning we were up bright and early-ish for the next leg of the journey.

Outside Union Station

What can I say about the Toronto to Montreal leg?  They wanted to feed us… constantly.  We had snacks, meals, constant beverages, and then they brought out either individual cheese plates or ham/cheese sandwiches – we said a resounding “no!” at that point.  The staff was, as has consistently been the case, amazing.  Such good service, and always so friendly and respectful.  I don’t think I’m going to be able to travel if it’s not first class anymore… I like it!

I remember the word for “flour” from school

After that journey, we started on the next leg – Montreal to Halifax.  This is another sleeper car journey.  Remember how I said the previous sleeper car was tiny?  Nope… it was palatial.  This one is still like playing house in a dollhouse, but now we’re in the doll’s dollhouse!  This is a newer train – bought from Europe.  These cars were originally going to be used as Chunnel cars, but for some reason they weren’t, and Canada got a good deal on the purchase of them.  At dinner we sat with two men who work for ViaRail and we learned an awful lot – it was educational and entertaining!

Moving around the bunks when they were set up was… um… entertaining – yeah, I’ll go with entertaining.  Peals of laughter (some of it slightly hysterical) could be heard from our cabin as we attempted to get comfortable.  The laughter was a little subdued this morning as space frustration set in.  We are, however, in overall good spirits – we just have the addition of a few new bruises and bumps on the head.

We’ll be arriving in Halifax this evening.  In my head I had it wrong and thought we were on this train for two nights.  Even though we slept well, a full size room is going to be heaven!  Helen, one the senior gardeners from the Halifax Garden is going to come pick us up from the train station.  People have been so nice!  We do the tour of the garden tomorrow (Tuesday). Looking forward to it!

Going over a bridge – Montreal