Thursday May 4 Ontario to Winnipeg, MB
We awoke to a snowy northwest Ontario as our Canadian #1 continued across the woodlands. After a shower, it was time to head to the diner for breakfast. An omelet with Fred & Alex from Parry Sound who had boarded the train yesterday afternoon. We had several stops for freights which is why the timetable has plenty of padding in the schedule. A major stop overnight was at Homepayne, Ontario for another crew change.
Went up to the Skyline car to enjoy the scenery as Bobby had more trivia information about Ontario. The sun was now shining and added to the glittering lakes. We are running about an hour behind schedule and thus, our stop at Sioux Lookout took place while we were having lunch. This small town was once a major Indian gathering point and was used to monitor Sioux tribes coming north to challenge native Canadian tribes. The small station looks like it belonged in the Alps with its chalet architecture. We joined Lowell & Lynn from Queensland Australia for lunch & a VIA Burger. An interesting conversation as they had boarded the Quantum in Australia several weeks ago.
More Canadian National freights forced us into sidings as the afternoon progressed. The scenery was changing away from snow and into the lakes region around Manitoba. We explored some of the manor cars near our Burton Manor and found most to have a few openings in the bedroom area. Each manor car has 4 cabins for 1, with a single toilet in the room, 6 cabins for 2 like our room with two beds and separate bathroom, 3 berths with upper and lower beds at night and two facing chairs during the day. There is a curtain that gives some privacy at night. There are 2 regular bathrooms at the end of the car for those passengers. The shower, as mentioned, is midway down the hall. Those in Economy Class have their own chair during the day and night. They can get access to food in their own Skyline dome car for a price. Food is similar to café car food on Amtrak. This car is exclusively for Economy Class and there are 2 bathrooms in each coach car.
We had an excellent cod dinner for our evening meal around 5. Potatoes, green beans and key lime pie were also part of the fare. Service was excellent and efficient in moving a full complement of passengers each day. Table cloths, flowers and real cutlery are classy.
We arrived in Winnipeg about 7:30pm and would have two hours to explore the city. It was a nice brisk evening so I headed out the door and into the central city. Winnipeg is the capital of Manitoba with 750,000 people, sixth largest city in Canada. I first headed to the famous Fort Garry Hotel, built by the Grand Trunk Pacific Rwy. in 1913. A 13-story luxury hotel just a block from the Union Station. Had a brief tour by the social host and then took some photos of the large buildings downtown. Walked up the street to some famous squares where statues of World War 1 soldiers and memorials were located. Later went to the other side of the station and out toward the Museum for Human Rights with its unique architecture, statue of Mahatma Gandi and beautiful parks. Several plaques commemorating the Indian survivors of the Residential Schools horror story and the thousands of indigenous children who disappeared. Canada has now set aside large $$ for First Nations peoples. Walked to the large bridge Esplanade Riel that connects the inner city to a suburban land. Thousands of people in the parks and walking the city. Returned to Union Station in time to line up for boarding, which took way too long. Back on board at 9:30 pm.
As all service crews change here, we had a new room attendant, Louise; and a new Skyline car attendant in Meg. The dining car also had new faces. All VIA Canadian crews are based in Winnipeg; thus they only serve 2 + days on board. It was now 10pm and time to call it a day.
Friday May 5. Manitoba, Saskatchewan to Edmonton AB
We are now traveling across the prairies of Saskatchewan, a big change in scenery from the last two days. Fields of wheat, grain elevators and lots of small farm towns.
We had breakfast with Paul & Mary from Scotland. Omelets, hash browns, rolls and cereals were available. We talked of my Scottish roots and their travels to Canada. We arrived in Saskatoon, SK around 9:30. We had an hour layover here due to more crew changes so I explored the train and station during our wait. Good exercise.
We left Saskatoon on time at 10:30 and moved to the Skyline Car where Meg was serving drinks and giving some histories of Saskatchewan. She grew up in the area and had some interesting stories of her early life there. More elevators and private rail cars as we moved closer to Alberta Province. Lunch was with a couple from Boston. Great chicken soup, turkey wraps, apple cobbler and ice cream. Our visits to the Boston area were discussed and cruise we took last fall from Boston Harbor.
We could see uplands starting to form on the horizon, the terrain looking similar to the sand hills of Montana. But we also saw smoke forming in the background with ominous events about to unfold. We had supper with a Toronto couple. He worked for CN, she spoke Portuguese to a couple riding in our car. Filet of sole, mashed potatoes, salads and a scrumptious strawberry short cake followed.
By 8 pm we were on the outskirts of Edmonton, Alberta and the conductor announced that many people were being evacuated from areas west and north of Edmonton due to prairie fires that were out of control. We had nearly 4 hours layover in the large CN Walker Yards for maintenance and crew changes, but the station was not near the city, so there was virtually no where to roam except around the train station. We continued to get announcements about the fires, but were told we were safe in Edmonton so everyone went to bed not knowing how the next day would turn out. We were scheduled to arrive in Jasper BC for a nice layover and town exploring between 6:30 and 9:30 am on Saturday before spending the remainder of the day traveling through the Canadian Rockies before reaching Vancouver on Sunday am. Good night.
Saturday May 6. Train Cancelled, Fly to Vancouver
We awoke to find our train had not moved overnight. The scheduled breakfast was continental with fruit cups, pastries, muffin, toast, milk, cranberry juice. We enjoyed our conversation with Bonnie & Charlie from London, Ontario and discussions ensued about our fate for the day. VIA supervisors told manor car attendants to take down information about passengers and Louise mentioned that we might want to arrange hotels for Saturday in Vancouver since our train was going to terminate in Edmonton and we would be flown from EDM to VAN later in the day. The smoke from the fires was still far off but the sky looked ominous. VIA spent most of the day arranging a charter flight with Air Canada and getting buses to take several hundred people to the airport that was on the south end of the city. I called our Hampton Inn in Vancouver and explained our situation. They were able to accommodate us and kept us in the same room as our Sunday reservation. We were not happy about flying or missing the Canadian Rockies part of our train trip. Some passengers who were detraining in Jasper and Kamloops were going to be bused over 6 hours to their destinations despite the threat of smoke and fires. Those who refused to fly also had that option.
We finally left our train room around 5pm with our load of luggage including the checked bags in the baggage car. It was quite an adventure to get our bags into the lower compartment of the buses. Reminded me of my Gathering bus transfers in California last October. The bus ride took an hour and on arrival at the airport, there was considerable confusion between VIA and Air Canada officials. After finally clearing security and walking a long distance to our gate, we boarded the Airbus 247 at 7:30pm and had seats in the rear of the plane. The trip took just over an hour and we then had a walk to our baggage claim area. Bags acquired, I heard the VIA agent tell passengers that if they need hotel accommodations the railroad had vouchers to get to a hotel near the airport. ?Sandman hotel?. I told the agent that we were told by our car attendant to make arrangements with our own hotel if possible and that we could not cancel at this late date. He said he was sorry, but he was not authorized to pay for any other hotels. So we were stuck with arranging a cab to our hotel downtown $45 and pay for our extra night in Vancouver. $211 US. After standing in line a while, we grabbed a cab and made it to our hotel around 9:30 pm. The front desk was friendly and we went to our hotel room with a nice view of the sports stadium. We were pretty hungry so went across the street to Boston Pizza & Grill. It was 11pm and kitchen was closing, but they fixed some sandwiches for us. Food was good and sports bar was full of hockey and soccer fans and some NBA basketball. We were very tired so around midnight went back to the hotel for some rest. We had an extra day in Vancouver tomorrow, but now sleep was in order.
