One of the journeys I have always wanted to do, is the Rocky Mountain Explorer train. However, that is ridiculously expensive, on par with say The Orient Express, but what an experience it would be. Nevertheless, I am at the start of The Rockies and having made the decision not to fly or drive, I’m taking the train. Fortunately there is one called ‘The Canadian’ operated by Via Rail which runs across the country from Vancouver to Toronto in just over 4 days.

Passenger trains take second place to freight trains, often held at signals or waiting in sidings, maybe up to an hour or more, while the huge freight trains trundle past. They can be up to 4km long and weigh 18,000 tons so easy to see why. That’s not really an issue in The Rockies as the scenery is simply picture postcard breathtaking. It’s not uncommon for The Canadian to arrive at stations up to 12 hours late or more, depending on weather conditions.

I booked my train journey in two legs. The first would be Vancouver to Edmonton taking one and a half days. Then about a week or so later, Edmonton to Toronto taking just over 3 days. The train was set to depart Pacific Central station at midday. I checked out of my hotel, walked one block to the skytrain and after four stops I arrived at Main Street, yards from the station.

There was a sense of excitement and anticipation in the air as people checked in. The scenery on this journey is perhaps amongst the best in the world and is on a lot of peoples bucket list. Some passengers were going all the way to Toronto, others like me, were getting off somewhere along the way. Checking in was a very smooth and efficient process, better than checking in at most airports. At check in they ask if you would like first or second sitting for dinner and give you coloured vouchers accordingly. I went for second sitting and was handed a green voucher. My bag was processed and transferred to the luggage car. Fortunately I had remember to put a wash kit in my hand luggage but they do provide amenity shower kits with towels better than in most hotels.

I had booked a sleeper plus ticket which cost about £330. Very reasonable when you compare alternative transport options and timescales. It meant that I had lounge access at the station with complimentary drinks and snacks and priority boarding.

On the train I had a upper berth seat, access to the panorama cars, the park car, the dining car with a la carte meals included as well as free hot and cold soft drinks throughout. Alcohol was extra but reasonably priced.

My seat was 3ft wide and converted into a bed in the evening. Although they say it is 5’ 10” long, I was actually able to stretch out flat and am 6’ 2”. There are cabins for 2, 3, or 4 people but they are more expensive and there are prestige cabins but they really are expensive. With only 3 people including myself in this part of the carriage, we were able to spread out in the evening. The next day, one of the 2 berth cabins was available so I managed to sit in there for a few hours just to lord it up.

Unlike the trains back home, people actually talk to one another. I guess having journeys in days, rather than minutes or hours makes the difference. There are people of different ages and backgrounds using the train for different purposes, business, pleasure, holiday, something they have always wanted to do, or have flown across the country to get the train back, the list goes on.

When the dinner announcement is made people disappear to the dining car. There’s a hand sanitiser to use at the entrance and then you are shown to your table. There are about 16 tables each seating four people and you could be sat with different people at each meal service.

This is a really nice way to engage with the other passengers and exchange stories. There were people from Canada, England, Netherlands, Germany, USA, Asia and elsewhere. Many of the people I spoke with over meals were amazed by my travels but all seemed to want to discuss Brexit. Yawn. They really feed you very well on board and there is no chance of going hungry. I think I ate more on the train than I did when I was in Vancouver! The quality of the food was very impressive too and always 3 or 4 main course choices. After each meal you are asked whether you would like first or second sitting for the next meal and again, handed a coloured voucher accordingly.

You are not confined to your seat or cabin while on the train. The panorama cars are definitely worth spending time in as you get to see the majesty of The Rockies. Perhaps the only issue is, the windows become slightly dirtier as the journey goes on but not too much. There are no windscreen wipers to keep the windows clear, but it would be nice if at various stations they were wiped down. How often do you get a chance to see views like this.

One of the nicest cars on the train is the park car. This is the last car on the train and is more of a plush lounge. The view from the rear of the train is unique and nice to look back down the rail tracks.

It has a panorama section too, a bar with snacks plus free tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Just the job to keep the cold out. In the evening there is sometimes a resident musician performing for a couple of hours and movies on show too, or just a place to relax with a drink and exchange stories.

When it came to sleeping, the sleeping car manager, David, had made up all the beds ready. We didn’t have to do anything and it was a really nice luxury experience. The train was very smooth, mostly, so managed to get some decent sleep. At no point was it too cold, uncomfortable, noisy or too shaky. Remarkable when you consider the age of the train.

After a good nights sleep and a very filling breakfast, we stopped in Jasper and were able to get off the train. This is a very picturesque town.

But getting off the train I was hit by the cold instantly. Although I had a coat, hat, gloves and thermals, my face was exposed and there was a bizarre sensation of the moisture in my nose and my nose hairs freezing. Not too surprising when it was -26 degrees centigrade with added windchill. I wondered round for about 10 minutes in the biting cold, taking a few pictures but this was too cold, even for me. I found a tourist souvenir shop and bought myself a scarf. An essential piece of kit here helping prevent frostbite.

Back on board the train and a few hours later, we arrived at my destination of Edmonton. I had booked a hotel here for a couple of nights before I was to catch the bus to Calgary where I would meet up with friends I met in Australia 10 years ago on my first Walkabout. Or as am here in Canada, my first Walkaboot 😉

One of the great things about travelling, is the people from all walks of life that you meet along the way. A few months ago I was travelling around India on an organised tour with Dragoman and met a couple from Vancouver who were also on part of the tour with me. We got along very well and knowing I was going to visit Canada in the not too distant future, we stayed in touch. I wasn’t sure of the exact dates when I would be in Vancouver but once I knew, I sent Andrew and Jennifer an email to see if they would be around when I would be. Thankfully they were and we met up for a reminiscent Indian meal in a really nice Indian Restaurant downtown. What’s nice with good friends is that you can carry on conversations from some time ago as if it were yesterday, especially about glass coffins and the remains to be seen… 🙂

I explained my dilemma about how I was going to travel across Canada. Whether to travel by plane, train or automobile? The weather forecast for the next couple of weeks didn’t look like there would be much new snow where I would be going, but it would be down to -30 with added windchill. On top off the cold weather, I have the issue of driving an automatic in proper winter conditions without snow tyres and having to park outside overnight without keeping the car heated until I got to Calgary. Also a major distraction and attraction would be the beautiful Canadian Rockies and wanting to stop every 10 minutes to take a picture. It became pretty obvious that driving is not really the safest option at this time of year. Andrew and Jennifer concurred and being locals I heeded their advice. In summer, absolutely no issue driving, but in these real extreme winter conditions, that’s another story.

Bus tours weren’t available until April and were quite expensive too and so was accommodation in Vancouver. So that really left me with two options. Catch the train to Edmonton followed by a local bus to Calgary, or fly direct to Calgary. There was hardly any difference in the price, about £400 each. The train takes 2 days but with all the scenery and meals included or a flight for about 3 hours, squeezed into an economy seat. The preferred solution was pretty obvious, catch the train. So that night I logged on to the VIA Rail website searched for discounts and booked my passage. Exciting stuff. It’s something I have always wanted to do so it would have been a shame to miss it this time around. The train didn’t leave until Tuesday and this was Saturday so I had a couple of days to kill.

Knowing the temperature was going to be cold, I went shopping for some arctic gear and bought a Northface down jacket and some thermals for quite reasonable prices. I’ve got all these back home but I simply did not have room to bring them with me. Especially that since July I have not really been below 30 degrees centigrade. At least I’ll have spares…

A big tourist attraction in Vancouver is the Capilano Park with its suspension bridge. There’s a free shuttle from the downtown area which runs every 30mins, so I hopped on that and enjoyed the short ride over to North Vancouver. It was just under $50CAD to go in which includes access to all of the attractions and they did not disappoint. The bridge is 140m and 70m high but very wobbly. Apparently it can take the weight of 1000 people at a time but even so, when people were walking across it caused the bridge to undulate quite badly.

The views from the bridge down the gorge are amazing.

Once over the other side, there is a treetop walk which reminded me of the Ewok village on Endor in Return of the Jedi. Perhaps this is where the inspiration came from. It was quite high up and narrow, so a one way system is in force. Apparently they were very careful when putting this walkway up not to damage or to fix anything direct to the trees themselves. If and when the time comes to remove the treetop path, there would be no sign that it was ever there.

There was also a Raptor house which have birds of prey displays in summer, but being February this part was closed.

I had to cross the suspension bridge again to get to the other side to do the clifftop walk. Once again crossing the bridge was a great wobbly experience with wonderful views. At the other side, there was an old lady with a walking stick. She was about 8 feet onto the bridge and already holding on for grim life. She wasn’t going to be able to go across, so I asked if she was ok and managed to help her back on to solid ground.

The clifftop walk was really nice. More solid that either the suspension bridge or the treetop walk, but it was narrower and in places the floor was a grate so your could see the forest floor 70m below. It could be a bit nerve racking if you have a fear of heights, but it felt solid enough so I was ok.

After that, I caught the free shuttle buss back to downtown and found somewhere for dinner and went back to the hotel. A nice as the hotel was, I had perhaps the worst night sleep I’ve had in a long time, maybe I am still adjusting to Canadian time but that pretty much wrote off the next day.

It was actually a relief to leave Asia behind. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely place with so many things on offer but having being there since August, I was ready for a change. A change in both food and climate. The flight to Canada was split into two sections, first Bangkok to Hong Kong with a 5 hour layover and then Hong Kong to Vancouver. Hong Kong airport is actually quite nice but it seems to be more of a luxury / designer brand shopping centre than anything else. Lucky me, I managed to get an upgrade too which was really welcomed, especially for the overnight flight from Hong Kong.

I was a little disoriented getting off the plane in Vancouver in the afternoon as despite my best efforts of trying to sleep, I was still on Thai time which would be about 6 in the morning. It was grey, cold and drizzling and the temperature hovering around freezing. It’s a long time since I’ve felt cold like that and it went straight through me. Navigating the airport was easy enough and so was immigration. It was pretty much all automated but I am disappointed not to have received a Canadian stamp in my passport.

Getting from the airport to downtown Waterfront was easy on the driverless Skytrain, similar to the DLR in London. I bought a Compass card for $6CAD, put $20 CAD on it and it works just like an Oyster card. About 20 minutes later I had arrived at the last stop, Waterfront. I put my backpack on and began the 10 minute walk to my hotel which I had booked for a few nights. It was dark by now and I wasn’t entirely sure of the direction but I recognised a few street names and slowly checked them off as I went, so at least I knew I was heading in the right direction. When I travel like this, I always try and book somewhere comfortable for a few days when I arrive, to settle in, acclimatise and suss out the area etc. Then when I have an idea of the lay of the land, I can choose whether to stay in that area or move on. The hotel I had booked was the Pinnacle Harbourfront Hotel, with views over Burrard Inlet where the sea planes operate from. After checking in, I was pretty tired so had a little wonder around the immediate area to find some dinner (or breakfast) and then went to bed. I woke up about 10.00hrs the next morning and to my delight, the weather had cleared up from the previous day and it was clear skies and sunny.

One of the things I really like to do when visiting a new city is to go on those hop on/hop off bus tours. They take you to all the sights, have a running commentary plus the tickets are usually valid for 24 – 48 hours, often with a couple of routes on offer and with busses running every hour or so. I bought the ‘Park Route’ tour for $36CAD which picked me up from directly outside my hotel and it went to Stanley Park, English Bay, Granville Island Market, China Town and Gastown amongst others. One circuit took about 2hrs to complete and the driver was very good and knowledgeable, recommending places to eat etc.

I got off in Stanley Park and braved the bitter cold for an hour before the next bus came around. It’s a 405 hectare public park so it’s completely free to go in and explore.

I know I have been in Canada less than a day but I am already impressed. It so clean, especially compared to Asia. The views are fantastic and the people I have met so far have been nothing but warm, friendly and helpful. It has a sort of ‘Lego town’ friendliness to it.

In the evening I wondered down to Gastown, Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhood. It’s called Gastown as back in 1867, Jack “Gassy Jack” Deighton opened the first tavern here and he loved to talk, apparently for hours, hence his nickname. At least it was nothing to do with farting. One of the famous landmarks here is the steam powered clock. Many tourists flock here to see and hear to clock chime at 15 minute intervals.

Gastown was about a 10 minute walk away and is quite a nice area with lots of pubs and restaurants. There is a large locally brewed craft beer culture here in Vancouver which is nice and I say it’s always good to immerse yourself in the local culture. Needless to say I had a few pints of decent beer at the Steamworks Brewery and not tasteless, gassy lager which I had been drinking in Asia… 🙂

Yesterday I had a walk around the harbour front, watching the seaplanes take off and land and was something I was going to do today. Unfortunately when I opened the curtains, the weather had changed from the clear crisp skies to grey, cloudy and snowing. Never mind am sure there will be another opportunity.

I also changed hotels to Le Soleil and I must say the suite is even nicer than the Pinnacle but it does not offer sea views though. I have spent most of today looking at options on how to get across Canada, whether I’ll get the opportunity to head up to Whistler which is one of the worlds best skiing and snowboarding resorts, or begin heading eastwards to the Rockies towards Banff and Calgary. Some tours are ridiculously expensive, in the thousands of pounds. So I might look at hiring a car instead.

However, I am a little apprehensive as they are all automatics. I have never driven an automatic car. I have never driven an automatic car in the snow (we’re talking proper Canadian winter snow for about four or five months of the year at -20, not a piddly 3cm that lasts a week back home), nor I have ever driven an automatic car in proper snow on the wrong side of the road before… Although it’s mandatory to have snow or winter tyres fitted between October and April, some people say that a lot of rental cars do not come with winter tyres. So we shall see what happens…