The Canadian: Ontario

Even though the Canadian departed at 1000, I allocated time margin, just in case. This turned out to be wise because they were doing weekend subway work. Time was taken up waiting at an underground station, then when the train came, it stopped short of Union Station and we had to change to a bus.

But I got there with enough time to spare. I checked in my luggage at the concierge desk. As I was sitting in the waiting room, an official came and asked all the sleeper and cabin passengers to accompany him to the reception room.

Sleeper and cabin passengers get this pre-departure perk. There were coffee, drinks and snacks gratis.

I thought about how to organise the posts for the 4 days on the Canadian. When you are on a train for over 96 hours, the day loses some meaning. I've decided to organise by province. And if you're wondering, one doesn't get stops of more than a couple of hours in stations on the way. For example if you want to see the Rockies you'll have to disembark, do your touring, then rejoin a later service, which runs twice a week in each direction.

This was my seat by day, which would be turned into a bunk at night. The lack of space was the reason I had to check in my suitcase and have onboard only what I needed for the 4 days and nights on the train.

The plastic bag contained towels and toiletries for morning ablutions and showers. It was replaced daily. The two daypacks are mine. The leaflet had a map of the route and brief descriptions of the places we would go through.

One notable shortcoming of the Canadian service is the shortage of sufficient power points to charge phones.The ones that were accessible were in the toilets, the dining car and the observation car. This isn't surprising as the carriages are from another era (I think the 90s). You probably wouldn't need the voice service but map and Internet access are nice. I had an e-sim so I had reception almost everywhere except in the wilds of Ontario and BC.

One choice they gave us on checking in at reception was which meal session we wanted to be in. There were two dining cars and first/second sessions for each meal so that everybody could be served in the limited car capacities. I opted for the early session because I was still jet-lagged from crossing the Atlantic.

Here are my lunch companions. As you can see, like me, they tended to be older people, taking the trip in their later years. But there were also a lot of other, probably younger people I did not see, in the reclining seat carriages who either slept in their chairs, or were only taking part of the trip.

And this is what I got for lunch. I have to say, the food we served on the Canadian was really good. There usually were two choices for the main and dessert. One of the Asian passengers asked me if the staff needed to be tipped. I said no, because the fare was all-inclusive and it wasn't like eating in a restaurant.

Lunch over, I went to look at the landscape from one of the two observation cars. Here's what I saw. You can see that's is a very long train.

The view from the side windows is more attractive and I managed to snap this lake scene. My phone recorded the coordinates and it's in Washago, on northern top of Lake Simcoe. We were only about 110 km from Toronto after about 3 hours.

And here's the map of this section of Ontario. We had to head north to clear Lake Huron before heading west. It was predictted that we would reach Capreol by nightfall. And we haven't even turned the corner yet, that's how vast Ontario is.

The Canadian has to give way to freight as it does not have priority on the line. However enough leeway is built into the schedule that you will arrive at your destination city on the day scheduled. Viarail recommends that you do not make tight onward connections.

Of course, there are refreshment bars on the train.

The dining car almost ready for (early) dinner.

What I had for the main course.

Good dessert (pumpkin pie I think) with a cheery message.

What a lower bunk looks like after the attendant has prepared it. This is not my bunk, I had an upper bunk. You can see that they pull it down and put bedclothes on the mattress.

This was prepared by the attendant at the relatively early hour of 7 pm, but I didn't mind because I was getting sleepy earlier due to the 4 hour jet lag coming from Portugal.

In the morning I had this hearty breakfast at about 0745, according to my phone. I rarely indulge in bacon and fries, but I savour them when I do.

By early afternoon we were closing in on Sioux Lookout. Western Ontario is pockmarked with glacial lakes and exposed rocks, as it's part of the Canadian Shield.

The map shows that we were still in Ontario.

At Sioux Lookout we made a stop and were allowed to get off to stretch our legs for a while.

According to Wikipedia, the main industries are services, forestry, transportation, and tourism. I guess services means it's a service centre for the vast area surrounding the town.

These pictures give you an idea of how long the train is. Looking towards the tail.

Looking towards the head.

Near the station. Viarail staff were always on hand to assist passengers, and of course make sure nobody was left behind.

Passing one of the innumerable lakes in this region.

I can't swim so I always think it scary that you could drown in a deep lake so far inland. And of course the water would be chilly.

No doubt used heavily by tourists in summer.

At about 1600, I joined the wine tasting session where several provincial wines were provided for us to sample. This was one of the activities offered by the journey to keep us occupied.

The staff member read out tasting notes for the three wines we sampled. They were decent wines.

Those were mellow moments, getting slightly tipsy and viewing the beautiful lakes and forests in the slanting afternoon light.

I tried to look up the name of this body of water using the GPS coordinates and the closest label is Favel Lake. But what does it matter when the map shows the area almost half and half land and water.

The great views keep coming that after a while you get a bit jaded: oh, more lakes and forests…

And that was my mellow afternoon drink time.

But! Almost a day and a half in we were still in Ontario. That's how big it is and that's why this post is so long.

By dinner time we are still about 50 km from the border with Manitoba, so I have to include these pictures of my dinner. First the starter soup and bread.

And the main of fish.

On this transcontinental trip we were crossing several time zones, but we were advised by the Viarail staff to only change our phone times when they told us to, which would be just before retiring for the night. Which is why when we reached Winnipeg the train was still operating on Ontario time for meals, etc. If you didn't have reception, then it didn't matter, but you had to sort it out yourself if your phone changed automatically.