WEDNESDAY, MAY 22nd:

Again we got up quite early as our suitcases had to be outside the rooms by 8am. Another filling breakfast set us up for the day, though back in the room couldn't quite understand why the cost of the buffet breakfast had risen considerably in the space of 24 hours. On closer examination log the bill, I realized that they had put the bill the other member of the group who shared our table on our bill! That was soon rectified, but the easiest means: Ian being paged then him paying us the fifteen dollars!

     The coach for our morning excursion arrived with driver, Rick, another friendly and humorous member of the Brewster coach firm staff! Our journey again took us south-east of Jasper and we made our first stop at Maligne Canyon, a place where the Maligne River has eroded the rocks and has formed over time a deep gorge with a spectacular waterfall. We were able to walk a little way down and even see a nest of black swifts in a niche in the rock face above the falls. 

      Again the magnificent scenery of Jasper National Park surrounded us at every turn. Soon were were at Medicine Lake, an intriguing stretch of water which rises and falls at different times of the year. Rick told us that when he was last here two weeks ago the lake was barely a trickle, but now it certainly deserves the generic title of being a lake. Throughout the year at different seasons it is drained by a series of underground tunnels and caves; indeed it empties though lake-bed sink holes into the world's largest system of limestone caves. The ebbs and flows of the lakes seemed strange behaviour to the First Nation people who believed spirits were responsible, hence the name they gave to it. Along the way we did see elk and through the trees a moose, but no bears! 

    Maligne Lake is about 14 miles long and was first seen by European eyes by an intrepid lady called Mary Schaffer in 1908. It was just very pleasant to find a quiet spot with a bench, far from the madding crowd, and drink in the spectacular sight of mountain, lake, clouds, forests. 

     On the way back to Jasper we stopped at Jasper Park Lodge, quite a luxurious establishment with regards to its central buildings; indeed its gigantic lounge reminds me of the lounge at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, California. Most of us in the group returned to Jasper in the coach; others elected to stay at the Lodge and either walk the 5km back to town or return on the shuttle bus.

      Back in town it was really a case of killing time until the departure of the train at 5.30pm. So there was time to have lunch as dinner on the train would not be until several hours away. We ate at Smitty's. The young waiter turned out to be the son of the lady at the till. She was originally from Hong Kong and said that her son had studied in the UK  for two years. It turned out that he had been a student at the University of Leicester. Afterwards we wandered a little around town and in a shop dedicated to Native Arts I bought a packet of Christmas cards with a lovely painting of a First Native family looking over the snow to a village.

       Our rendez-vous back at the coach was 4pm to pick up our hand luggage. The news was that the train was running about  two hours late, so there was not much else to  do than to wait at the station. Though it was quite windy it was warm enough to sit outside. I chatted with a young German from Dresden who has just finished two years study in Victoria, British Columbia and is travelling across Canada before flying back to Germany in mid-June. We also saw again the New Zealand couple from Christchurch whom we met in the cafeteria at the glacier.

       Eventually our train came in soon after the Rocky Mountaineer  and though the train staff worked hard we didn't pull out of Jasper Station until just after 8pm, some two and a half hours late. In the eventuality we were not called into dinner until 9.45pm, again to an excellent meal of rack of lamb. Two ladies from New York State were our table companions for the meal and shared some of their travel stories.

        By then it was bedtime and time to return to our cabin where the beds were all made up and it was good to get into them. I was soon asleep only to be awakened about 2.45am as we clanked into Edmonton Station, some three and three quarter hours late.

THURSDAY, MAY 23rd:

Another good night's sleep on a rocking train. What a contrast in scenery from yesterday as we awoke in the Canadian Prairies, the land flat as far as the eye could see. I was surprised by the amount of water there was with small lakes and ponds in abundance. We are now in central Canada and in the part that is the wheat basket of the country. Our route took us through Saskatoon where we stopped for a short while and were able to get out of the train and wander up and down the platform. However, before arriving there, we walked right down to the back of the train to the rear observation coach. There a lady was talking incessantly, hardly  drawing a breath, to a quiet New Zealand man from the Bay of Islands. Thankfully she left and we had the opportunity to chat with him.

    We travelled then south east from Saskatoon through a region that, looking on the map had interesting names - Handel, Mozart, Leipzig, Esterhazy, Nokomis, Kandahar, Punnichy. The guidebook told us that towns along the railroad hereabouts were names in alphabetical order along the line, hence Xena, Young, Zelma, Allen, Bradwell, Clavet follow each other. We stopped briefly at Melville. In this part of the Prairies there were farm buildings in the red and white Dutch style that I had see before in the American Mid-West.  Fields, forests, rivers continued to populate the landscape as we travelled towards and then into Manitoba. At dinner we were seated again with the two ladies, mother and daughter-in-law from New York State and we learned more about them Thelma Pelych is 87 years old and just retired as the City Treasurer for Cornell, NY. She served in that office for forty four years and only twice in that time did anyone else stand against her. They have just named the municipal building after her. Quite a lady!

   And so our train journey continues as the sun begins to set. We are still about four hours behind schedule, but who worries. We have nowhere to be tonight other than our beds and after tonight we still have another night on the train before we reach our destination, Toronto. We are told that the scheduled two hour stop in Winnipeg, the first place I arrived on the North American continent in 1980, will be reduced to about forty five minutes. It is there where we will have a complete change of crew. In the end we pulled into Winnipeg Union Station at 10.45pm and there was time to get out and stretch our legs in the imposing rotunda that forms the station concourse. Unfortunately the free wi-fi connection within the station had gone down earlier in the evening.

FRIDAY, MAY 24th:

Another good night's sleep on the train and I didn't wake up till almost 7.30am. We had crossed from Manitoba into Ontario during the night and the fields and plains of the Prairies had been replaced by forests and lakes which have a beauty of their own and stretch for hundreds of miles, or so it seems. Life on the train continues as normal!  There is a good shower at the end of each coach and each sleeping cabin has a toilet and sink. However, seeing that I've decided not to shave and see what I look like with a beard (the previous one was during university years!) it all doesn't very long first thing in the morning! It is fascinating to sit, occasionally in the dome car, but more usually in the 'activity car' and watch this spectacular scenery pass by. It is VERY relaxing! There is always someone to chat with, usually from our own tour group but at other times with fellow travellers from other countries. After lunch today we walked down through about fifteen carriages to the park car at the very back, from where one could look out at the rails and scenery behind us. On the way to the back I chatted and joked with the New Zealand couple from Christchurch whom we'd me at the cafeteria at the Columbia Icefields and was pleased to tell them that England beat New Zealand in the First Test. They said they  were not surprised!

    The weather remained pleasant throughout the day: blue skies and sunshine. At the station stops it was quite adequate to go out on the platform in a short-sleeved shirt.

    Towards the end of the afternoon a couple of musicians sang and played their guitars in the dome car: a brother and sister from Edmonton, who had a Portuguese surname as their family originated from Goa. 

   Our railway journey today had taken us out east from Winnipeg and across western Ontario through Sioux Lookout, Longlac, Hornepayne, Oba.

    After another excellent dinner there was good conversation in the lounge before night fell and we entered our third successive night on the train on our coast to coast travels.

SATURDAY, MAY 25th:

 Not as sound a sleep as in previous nights on the train, so I got up soon after 6.00am. We had travelled south through Ontario during the night hours and on pulling up the blinds in the cabin the trees, maple in particular, were in full leaf. We had come through Sudbury in the middle of the night and skirted the edge of Georgian Bay, the large inlet from Lake Huron, and along the eastern bank of Lake Simcoe, then proceeding south west into Toronto. We had regained some of the time during the night and pulled into Union Station only one and a half hours late. We said our goodbyes to Thelma Pelych and her daughter in law Sue, whose husband had driven up from New York State and met them at the station. Our hotel, the Fairmont Royal York, could not have been nearer - it is literally across the street from the station, so no bus transport was needed! Opened  in 1929 as one of the chain of hotels across the country, it was built by the railway company, and is plush indeed. Royalty and other VIPs have stayed here down the years. 

     With us being later into Toronto, the planned coach excursion around the city was delayed until the afternoon. My friends Richard and Joan Boehme very kindly came into the city on a two hour bus ride from Peterborough, Ontario and so I waited in the hotel for them, rather than going with the group. I first met them in 1989 when they had come on exchange to Formby in the Crosby Circuit and my colleague Geoff Barnard went to Canada. in more recent years we have kept in touch via Skype. For an hour or so after they arrived at 1.40pm we sat in the hotel foyer talking and then went for a cup of coffee in one of the hotel's restaurants. Later in the afternoon I went up to the room and Robert and the group had arrived back from their tour of the city. So Robert joined us and we walked to the impressive Brookfield Place shopping complex a block or so away and took up the recommendation of Peter, our group leader, to eat at Marche, a fascinating eatery where you are given a swipe card on entry and from whichever of the many counters you choose your food from, the card is swiped and you pay as you leave. Richard and Joan kindly treated us and we enjoyed good conversation. Incidentally, I realized from her accent that the girl on the desk at the entrance was Russian so we had a brief conversation in Russian! All too soon it was time for Richard and Joan to take the subway to travel to the bus station for their return journey to Peterborough and so we said our farewells, with Robert and I walking back through Brookfield Place to the hotel and catching up with the world via BBC World News on the television in the room. Then it was a case of going out to Tim Horton's the coffee shop chain, for free wifi, rather than pay $15 at the hotel for 24 hours.