Up Over in Ottawa: We're here!

but first, a bit about our train trip: What fun we had! Two double cabins, a viewing and lounge car (the "Skyline"), a dining car and staff who really seemed to love their job (many had been working on the trains for 10 or 20 years and more). http://www.viarail.ca/en/trains/rockies-and-pacific/toronto-vancouver-canadian
As one of the porters said to us as we chatted to her while she made the beds and shut them away, it's like a barbie camper van. How true! So neat, with a hook or spot for just about everything.

The food was terrific, like airline food but much much better. There's something so appealing (to me at least!) about sitting down, having a very short menu placed in front of you, and then 3 courses being brought out in fairly quick succession. So little decision making or work required on the part of the traveller! There were 3 sittings for lunch and dinner, and it was a little strange having dinner at the early sitting at 5.30 pm when we'd only just turned our clocks forward an hour!! (Canada has 6 of the world's 24 time zones.)

We went through at least 3 time zones, which gives you an idea of how huge the country is. So huge that you can go to sleep at night and wake up to much the same landscape! It really suited a long train trip like this one - and if the landscape had changed, that was ok because you had all day to see it anyway. We left the Rockies in the evening, and woke to the prairies of Saskatchewan. Other people may say it's boring, but personally I was glad to see some horizontal sight lines. Must be the mallee girl in me, but I love to see the horizon stretch out around me, and the sky looming so large.

Like this:

and this:

Manitoba later that day, and more prairies, forests and water (rivers). Small or smallish towns every now and again, they must travel long distances all the time.

The final day we hit Ontario, and with it more trees, rocks (again) and countless lakes and rivers. It was almost a day and a half later that we arrived in Toronto, to be met by a friend of John's for a quick bite to eat before the train to Ottawa. The Canadian had arrived quite late, so we had missed our planned connection. VIA kindly upgraded us on the next available train, so we enjoyed the 4 hour trip to Ottawa in Business class (very nice evening meal at 4.30 pm followed by a nightcap of Grand Marnier at 6!). The train provides free wifi and there were some business travellers, but the carriage wasn't that full, and included another 6 or so passengers like us from the Canadian.

There's no doubt that it runs at a loss, but I'm not sure by how much. It's like the last 20 years of budget cutting we experienced in Australia haven't happened here.

So, after a pleasant trip through some very picturesque countryside (and running along Lake Ontario, the "smallest" of the Great Lakes for the early part), we arrived in Ottawa: