The Countdown Has Begun.
I’m afraid that postings here will probably be somewhat irregular over the next dozen days since I’ll be on the train for seven of the twelve nights and access to the internet will be spotty at best.
I’m leaving tomorrow on a red-eye to Seattle, arriving Monday morning. I’ll be in that wonderful city for Monday night and, as always, will include at least a dinner at Assaggio, an absolutely wonderful Italian restaurant.
Tuesday morning, I’ll be on Amtrak up to Vancouver, hopefully in time for a scheduled lunch with a VIA Rail representative who is going to give me a tour of some of VIA Rail’s recently refurbished sleeping car equipment.
Tuesday night I’ll leave Vancouver on VIA Rail’s train #2, the eastbound Canadian, arriving in Toronto on Saturday morning. With luck, I’ll be able to post something on Thursday from Winnipeg, but certainly from Toronto when we arrive there on Saturday.
From then on, I will probably be able to at least post some photos almost every day. At any rate, I shall do my best.
The refurbished cars on the Canadian (Prestige Class) are very, very nice – my dad and I snuck (from coach) through the 30+ car consist in the fall to check them out. Looks like the current hot topic with VIA and the Canadian is they’re limiting access to the Park car to 4 hours for non-Prestige class passengers in the high season.
The real demand is for a seat in the dome. I’ve seen people leave a jacket or a tote bag on a seat to save it while they run off to lunch. Somehow I can’t imagine someone–the train manager, I guess–coming into the Park Car and booting a couple of people because they’d been there for four hours. I suppose it’s possible in the busy season.
Next time you’re in Seattle, you should try Cafe Bengodi, a little hole-in-the-wall Italian place in Pioneer Square.