Some of the more interesting conversations I’ve had have been—this will not surprise most of you—over meals in Amtrak dining cars. And that’s especially true when I’ve been sitting with someone from another country. Most of them—especially the Europeans—are awed by the size of our country and many of them struggle with all the…
The better part of this day was taken up by travel from Toronto to New York City on Amtrak’s daily train, the Maple Leaf. Technically, it’s a VIA Rail train for the first couple of hours, the time it takes to travel from Toronto’s Union Station to the U.S.-Canadian border at Niagara Falls, New…
My schedule today: leave Toronto on Train 97, the Maple Leaf, at 8:20 a.m; arrive Buffalo, NY (Depew Station) at 1:20 p.m.; depart Depew at midnight on the Lake Shore Limited for the overnight trip to Chicago. There are a couple of things worth mentioning from the first leg of that itinerary. For one,…
Sometimes well-known and popular tourist destinations become out-of-fashion … you know, for whatever reason it’s just not cool to go there anymore. I can’t tell you why, but Niagara Falls was always in that category for me. I just pictured wall-to-wall honeymooners gawking and never could muster any interest in going there. Until several years…