Our train was due to leave Union station at 0900 on Tuesday morning, so we arrived in good time, only to leave 40 minutes late! We were in 'Comfort class' - which was the least comfortable available (!) but quite acceptable, with reclining seats and the famous viewing dome.
Three days - in rough terms 24 hours of the forests and lakes of the Pre-cambrian Shield of northern Ontario, 24 hours of prairies and 24 hours of the Rockies and down the Fraser River into Vancouver.
Wildlife out of the windows included a couple of black bears, a coyote, a bald eagle, a big white hawk or owl - unidentified. In the Jasper national park we saw elk and bighorn sheep, and there were lots more bears which we didn't see as they were all on the other side of the train...
The fellow passengers on the train were a good mixture. The most notorious was a Finn born in 1930 who didn't stop talking from Toronto to Winnipeg (30 hours)! The first 20 minutes of his experiences as a child in the war were quite interesting, the rest was not.
We arrived in Vancouver nearly three hours late to find Walt and Pat waiting for us. They were Magda's "parents" when she stayed with their family in Seattle for a year after leaving school. Now about 80, they drove up to spend this week with us, because our plan to visit them in Seattle failed. We are thoroughly enjoying their company, and their boundless enthuiasm for everything seems barely diminished by their reduced manouevrability.
They took us straight off to see the anthropological museum in the University of British Columbia - a tremendous collection of totem poles, masks, baskets etc from the local indian tribes. We were lucky enough to hear an indian women chanting the national song of her tribe, standing under a totem pole. As the melody rose and fell, although the words meant nothing, one felt contact with a distant and ancient society which still survives against all the odds in the world of space travel and the internet.
From there we drove up the Fraser valley a few miles to the village of Chilliwack for the night.
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Pasamos el ultimo dia en Toronto paseando por el centro antiguo. La ciudad sufrio un incendio en 1849, siendo destruido la mayor parte, pero existen algunos edificios de esa fecha, tanto casas privadas como edificios municipales (ej. el Mercado de St Lawrence y la catedral de St James), y algunos mas antiguos. Conocimos un invernadero de la epoca victoriana, con su coleccion de plantas.
El tren debia salir de la Union station el dia martes a las 0900; llegamos temprano pero salimos con 40 minutos de atraso!
El viaje era de tres dias - 24 horas de los bosques y lagos de Ontario, 24 horas de 'prairies' -llanos- y 24 horas de las Montanas Rocosas, bajando por el valle del rio Fraser River hasta Vancouver.
Del tren vimos hartos animales silvestres, incluyendo osos...
Los demas pasajeros eran bien mezclados.. Habia un finlandes nacido en 1930, que no dejo de hablar (apenas para dormir!) desde Toronto a Winnipeg (30 horas)! Los primeros 20 minutos de sus experiencias como nino en la guerra fueron bastante interesantes...
Al llegar a Vancouver (con 3 horas de atraso) encontramos a Walt y Pat. Son los 'padres' de la Magda - ella quedo un ano en su casa en Seattle despues de salir del colegio. A la edad de 80, manejaron desde Seattle para pasar esta semana con nosotros, ya que no pudimos ir a su casa. Lo estamos pasando muy bien juntos, y su entusiasmo es infinito!
Con ellos fuimos al museo antropologico de la Universidad de British Columbia - una tremenda coleccion de totems (como rehues), mascaras, cestas tejidas etc de las tribus locales. Tuvimos la suerte de escuchar a una india cantar la cancion nacional de su tribu, parada al pie de un totem. Con la melodia que subia y bajaba, sin entender las palabras, se sentia un contacto con una sociedad distante y antigua que lucha para sobrevivir en el mundo de viajes en el espacio y del internet.
De Vancouver subimos el valle del Fraser al pueblo de Chilliwack donde pasamos la noche.
