caravanman
Engineer
Toronto to Orlando…
I started this trip with a ride across Canada on “The Canadian”, a train that travels from Toronto to Vancouver, taking almost 4 days. While I rode the train, my son was enjoying himself in the Toronto youth hostel… I found out later that he was enjoying himself more than I would have liked, but that is how 17 year olds behave once Dad is out of sight!
Anyway, I only had one day in Vancouver, and it was raining all day. I was staying at the Hi hostel, and found it to be fine. I took the light rail from Union station to the hostel, and also used it to move around the city.
The following day I took the light rail out to the airport, and flew back to Toronto, and so back to the Toronto hostel again.
The next few days were spent sightseeing, and I decided to make our next stop Buffalo, N.Y. to see Niagara Falls.
Booked the Hostel in Buffalo, and Greyhound bus tickets from Toronto, abandoning the train for this section, a matter of timing convenience.
We left Toronto on Saturday 14th May, and arrived at the U.S. border, sadly there was rain and mist, so our view from the rainbow bridge was almost zero.
Passengers have to troop off the bus and carry luggage through the immigration point, it was a slow process, especially for us, as they thought there was a problem with my son’s passport and esta application. After getting excited and “making a call”, they decided we could visit the USA after all. These border guys have a hard job to do, but sometimes giving people a little authority seems to rob them of their humanity. Maybe we bus passengers are at the bottom of the food chain…
So we arrived in Buffalo bus station, and I realised that I didn’t have a note of the hostel address! I asked a cab driver if he knew, but he didn’t. We managed to find a phone book, and the cab driver said it was only a few blocks away, and the street it was on was for trams only, no cars, so we walked, in the light rain.
Main street Buffalo is quiet on Saturday night, and has a “running on empty” feel… hardly anyone about. Located the hostel, not too impressed with this one, but it was cheap! Bought a few provisions for our stay, and after a feed of pasta and sauce, the hostel dwellers easiest to cook meal, we retired. Well, I did, Aidan stayed up doing 17 year old’s stuff with other night owls… Everyone in our room was amazed to be woken at 3am by really loud music blasting out, it was stunning! Never found out where the party was, the street outside was deserted.
Next day we took the local bus up to the falls, just a couple of $ each. Sadly, it was raining very hard, and neither of us had suitable rain gear. Adding to our woes, the views were pretty minimal. We managed to get a couple of photos to prove we were there, but the great spectacle was shrouded in cloud. My first ever visit to a “Hard Rock Café” for lunch sealed our visit, then it was back to the bus stop for the early return trip.
We were due to leave Buffalo the following morning, and so I thought I might just go down to the Amtrak station to collect the tickets in advance, mornings with Aidan always being a last minute dragging his feet awakening! However, the station was closed, and seemed closed all weekend… not sure how one would obtain a ticket for travel on a Sunday from Buffalo, no agent, no machine, no info… gotta love that Amtrak customer orientation!
Next morning we managed to get ourselves up at 6am and got to the station in good time. We collected our tickets from the surly agent, and coaxed a few cold drinks from the machines. The train arrived on time, an Empire Service from Niagara, and we obtained a pair of seats each. Aidan dozed for some of the trip, and I just watched the world go by, between downpours of rain. There were a couple of rain leaks from the roof, fortunately not above our seats! A misty day again with limited views. Arrived into New York pretty much on time, and after a couple of doughnuts at the station, we bought our tickets for the local train out to Newark, to our cheap airport hotel. We stay in New York for a couple of days, then visit Washington, and then on down to Orlando, where I am today, typing this under blue sky and very hot sunshine… I will write the N. Y. to Orlando section shortly.
Ed
Edit for part two:
Fare from Newark airport is $12.50 each way to NY Penn, so a $25 per person per day surcharge starts to make the cheaper airport hotels seem less good value for visiting New York city as a tourist, still cheaper than hotels downtown, and nice to have a private room rather than just a hostel bed!
Aidan and I have been to NY a couple of times before, but this time the wet weather followed us there. Weather in the US has been very harsh this spring, with lots of storms, floods, and tornados too. I guess a little rain is bearable, I just wish I was not wearing sandals… We decided to just treat NY as a staging post this visit, we went downtown to have a look around, but spent most time sheltering from the rain! Amtrak fares seem to have risen beyond reason, I could not find a sensible train fare from N. Y. to Washington D.C… So once again we booked on Greyhound. The Port Authority bus building is quite a rabbit warren, split over several floors, but is located in a convenient downtown location. We ended up with a “Peter Pan” greyhound express ticket each, never heard of that service before. On the day of our departure we arrived at the bus station in good time, to find that we had in fact got reserved seats. The non stop service departed on time, and the cost was $25 each. There was a woman seated behind me who had a little dog in a bag… it’s a funny old world!
After the Buffalo fiasco, I had made sure I had written down all the info I needed to get to the Washington Hi hostel, and it was easy to follow the website directions to the metro and hostel.
Good place, free breakfasts, nice staff, wifi, large lockers, and after a quick trip to the supermarket, we took a late evening walk down to see the White House. Our dorm was a unisex one, a rather odd experience, and the first time I had experienced that, I think it was the last few beds that were available in the hostel.
Next day, we took a bus ride to Georgetown, managed to drop my sunglasses into the Potomac river… for once it was not raining and in fact was a hot sunny day! Nice views of the Capitol, from near Union Station, itself an impressive place.
Leaving from Washington Union Station next day, I managed to be first in the line up to go through the gate, I am learning to be assertive! Armed with a couple of foot long Subway sandwiches, and several cans of illicit beer, we boarded our 3PM Silver Star service to Orlando, finding ourselves assigned coach seats by Rodney, our coach assistant.
Rodney was a very good employee, kind to passengers, and diligent in carrying out his duties.
The ride south was fine, and about 7PM something weird happened, I became 5 hours younger. If I had been in the UK, I would have turned 59 at midnight UK time, here aboard the train I had to wait another 5 hours. I managed to swig a few beers to celebrate, and the following morning I woke up older, but no wiser!
The train was pretty much on time or early, and we arrived into Orlando on time.
As we stepped down from the train, I felt at last that my sandals were the correct footwear, boy it was hot! We got a shuttle bus to our cheap hotel on International Drive, which is also known as little England, for the amount of brits on holiday here… the local drug store sells English brand foods, just in case we need a familiar tin of beans!
And so my 59th birthday was celebrated in a café eating a full English breakfast for $3.99, with as much tea as you can drink…
Next is a self drive to Miami, and a flight to Las Vegas… then another 4 weeks before we head home… Hope to get some more rail miles in, but the prices are a bit steep, methinks…
I will update again soon, and add some more pics too…
Ed
SOME PICS HERE!
I started this trip with a ride across Canada on “The Canadian”, a train that travels from Toronto to Vancouver, taking almost 4 days. While I rode the train, my son was enjoying himself in the Toronto youth hostel… I found out later that he was enjoying himself more than I would have liked, but that is how 17 year olds behave once Dad is out of sight!
Anyway, I only had one day in Vancouver, and it was raining all day. I was staying at the Hi hostel, and found it to be fine. I took the light rail from Union station to the hostel, and also used it to move around the city.
The following day I took the light rail out to the airport, and flew back to Toronto, and so back to the Toronto hostel again.
The next few days were spent sightseeing, and I decided to make our next stop Buffalo, N.Y. to see Niagara Falls.
Booked the Hostel in Buffalo, and Greyhound bus tickets from Toronto, abandoning the train for this section, a matter of timing convenience.
We left Toronto on Saturday 14th May, and arrived at the U.S. border, sadly there was rain and mist, so our view from the rainbow bridge was almost zero.
Passengers have to troop off the bus and carry luggage through the immigration point, it was a slow process, especially for us, as they thought there was a problem with my son’s passport and esta application. After getting excited and “making a call”, they decided we could visit the USA after all. These border guys have a hard job to do, but sometimes giving people a little authority seems to rob them of their humanity. Maybe we bus passengers are at the bottom of the food chain…
So we arrived in Buffalo bus station, and I realised that I didn’t have a note of the hostel address! I asked a cab driver if he knew, but he didn’t. We managed to find a phone book, and the cab driver said it was only a few blocks away, and the street it was on was for trams only, no cars, so we walked, in the light rain.
Main street Buffalo is quiet on Saturday night, and has a “running on empty” feel… hardly anyone about. Located the hostel, not too impressed with this one, but it was cheap! Bought a few provisions for our stay, and after a feed of pasta and sauce, the hostel dwellers easiest to cook meal, we retired. Well, I did, Aidan stayed up doing 17 year old’s stuff with other night owls… Everyone in our room was amazed to be woken at 3am by really loud music blasting out, it was stunning! Never found out where the party was, the street outside was deserted.
Next day we took the local bus up to the falls, just a couple of $ each. Sadly, it was raining very hard, and neither of us had suitable rain gear. Adding to our woes, the views were pretty minimal. We managed to get a couple of photos to prove we were there, but the great spectacle was shrouded in cloud. My first ever visit to a “Hard Rock Café” for lunch sealed our visit, then it was back to the bus stop for the early return trip.
We were due to leave Buffalo the following morning, and so I thought I might just go down to the Amtrak station to collect the tickets in advance, mornings with Aidan always being a last minute dragging his feet awakening! However, the station was closed, and seemed closed all weekend… not sure how one would obtain a ticket for travel on a Sunday from Buffalo, no agent, no machine, no info… gotta love that Amtrak customer orientation!
Next morning we managed to get ourselves up at 6am and got to the station in good time. We collected our tickets from the surly agent, and coaxed a few cold drinks from the machines. The train arrived on time, an Empire Service from Niagara, and we obtained a pair of seats each. Aidan dozed for some of the trip, and I just watched the world go by, between downpours of rain. There were a couple of rain leaks from the roof, fortunately not above our seats! A misty day again with limited views. Arrived into New York pretty much on time, and after a couple of doughnuts at the station, we bought our tickets for the local train out to Newark, to our cheap airport hotel. We stay in New York for a couple of days, then visit Washington, and then on down to Orlando, where I am today, typing this under blue sky and very hot sunshine… I will write the N. Y. to Orlando section shortly.
Ed
Edit for part two:
Fare from Newark airport is $12.50 each way to NY Penn, so a $25 per person per day surcharge starts to make the cheaper airport hotels seem less good value for visiting New York city as a tourist, still cheaper than hotels downtown, and nice to have a private room rather than just a hostel bed!
Aidan and I have been to NY a couple of times before, but this time the wet weather followed us there. Weather in the US has been very harsh this spring, with lots of storms, floods, and tornados too. I guess a little rain is bearable, I just wish I was not wearing sandals… We decided to just treat NY as a staging post this visit, we went downtown to have a look around, but spent most time sheltering from the rain! Amtrak fares seem to have risen beyond reason, I could not find a sensible train fare from N. Y. to Washington D.C… So once again we booked on Greyhound. The Port Authority bus building is quite a rabbit warren, split over several floors, but is located in a convenient downtown location. We ended up with a “Peter Pan” greyhound express ticket each, never heard of that service before. On the day of our departure we arrived at the bus station in good time, to find that we had in fact got reserved seats. The non stop service departed on time, and the cost was $25 each. There was a woman seated behind me who had a little dog in a bag… it’s a funny old world!
After the Buffalo fiasco, I had made sure I had written down all the info I needed to get to the Washington Hi hostel, and it was easy to follow the website directions to the metro and hostel.
Good place, free breakfasts, nice staff, wifi, large lockers, and after a quick trip to the supermarket, we took a late evening walk down to see the White House. Our dorm was a unisex one, a rather odd experience, and the first time I had experienced that, I think it was the last few beds that were available in the hostel.
Next day, we took a bus ride to Georgetown, managed to drop my sunglasses into the Potomac river… for once it was not raining and in fact was a hot sunny day! Nice views of the Capitol, from near Union Station, itself an impressive place.
Leaving from Washington Union Station next day, I managed to be first in the line up to go through the gate, I am learning to be assertive! Armed with a couple of foot long Subway sandwiches, and several cans of illicit beer, we boarded our 3PM Silver Star service to Orlando, finding ourselves assigned coach seats by Rodney, our coach assistant.
Rodney was a very good employee, kind to passengers, and diligent in carrying out his duties.
The ride south was fine, and about 7PM something weird happened, I became 5 hours younger. If I had been in the UK, I would have turned 59 at midnight UK time, here aboard the train I had to wait another 5 hours. I managed to swig a few beers to celebrate, and the following morning I woke up older, but no wiser!
The train was pretty much on time or early, and we arrived into Orlando on time.
As we stepped down from the train, I felt at last that my sandals were the correct footwear, boy it was hot! We got a shuttle bus to our cheap hotel on International Drive, which is also known as little England, for the amount of brits on holiday here… the local drug store sells English brand foods, just in case we need a familiar tin of beans!
And so my 59th birthday was celebrated in a café eating a full English breakfast for $3.99, with as much tea as you can drink…
Next is a self drive to Miami, and a flight to Las Vegas… then another 4 weeks before we head home… Hope to get some more rail miles in, but the prices are a bit steep, methinks…
I will update again soon, and add some more pics too…
Ed
SOME PICS HERE!
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