Day 6 Vancouver to Jasper (September 22nd)

Day 6 of Canada holiday Vancouver to Jasper  Our train journey has begun!  We travelled overnight on the Canadian and woke up in the Rockie Mountains. We slept quite well and consider the beds on this train to be superior to those on First Great Western.  We had breakfast in the dining car and settled down to watch the scenery go by.  It was quite misty at first and we could not see very far or high but it gradually dispersed to give us some wonderful views.  

We had 2 deisel power units pulling us

This was used when steam was the power

We followed rivers and lakes, we passed lovely mountains and waterfalls,  we occasionally met other trains - mainly freight trains which seemed to be miles long.  We used the viewing dome carriages to give better than average sightings of all that was around us.  We had a chat from a member of the staff about the history of the Canadian and the line.  Time did not drag and soon after lunch we had to move our clocks forward and we arrived in Jasper at about 3:30.  A coach was soon at the station to transfer us to the hotel where we are staying for 2 nights.  We checked in and settled into our spacious and comfortable room. I published yesterday's blog and we then had a walk into the small town and found a place to eat.  We are now relaxing as we are going to have a full day tomorrow.  You will have to read it tomorrow to find out how it all went! 

Day 5 (September 21st) Vancouver

Vancouver from the cable car

Day 5 of Canada holiday Vancouver   Our holiday in New Zealand was basically arranged and organised by us but for the Canada trip we are on an organised trip by Great Rail Journeys with whom we have had good experiences on two shorter holidays.  We have a tour manager, Liz Jackson, who makes sure we are in the right place at the right time.  Some parts of the holiday have outings arranged which are optional and there is a lot of free time to do as we like.  Today is a day for us to do as we like.  Vancouver was host to the 2010 winter Olympics and Grouse mountain (the other side of an inlet) was used for some of the events and so we decided to go by skytrain, seabus and normal bus to get to the where the cable car climbs most of the mountain.  A bit of an adventure using local transport and then climbed to where the snowboarders started but no snow there now.  At this area we saw an hilarious lumberjacking display, a couple of grizzly bears which had been adopted as orphan cubs (now 12 or 13) and they came out to see us in their large enclosure,  we caught a chairlift to the top of the mountain and watched zipwire enthusiasts (not us!) doing their thing. 

the two grizzly bears

lumberjack demonstration

We had a snack and then watched a film about the history of the mountain.  We then decided to make the 90 minute journey back to our hotel where we had something to eat and met up with the group and eventually made our way to the station to start the journey across Canada.  We were allocated our cabins and soon settled in.  The train is really long and initial impressions were of a 1950s design and atmosphere, it has the metal exterior finish, almost art nouveau.  The cabins did not seem as well equipped as First Great Western from Penzance but I will report more on that later.  We did a little bit of discovering and then again settled down early as we are still not quite recovered from the long journey.  It has been a lovely day, mid 20s and sunny, and we certainly had a very different, enjoyable one.   Unfortunately the train does not have wifi and so I am having to post this after we arrived in Jasper.

us at the cable car top

surrounding mountains

Vancouver station

Day 4 (September 20th) Vancouver

Day 4 Vancouver  A very full day in Vancouver which is the home of the Whitecaps (soccer), the Giants (ice hockey ) and the hometown of singer Michael Buble.  If we meet him we will pass on regards from the Savill family.  We had a coach tour in the morning and went to Stanley Park home of some First Nations memorial poles (formerly called Red Indian totem poles!).  During our tour we found that there had been some previous Scillonian influence on the geography.

We are also told that there is some Banfield influence in the area.

We went to Granville market area and met a lady from Lyme Regis who had the same Seasalt bag as Christine!

Later on we had a swim in the hotel pool and went for a lovely sunset dinner at the 550' high Coastguard Lookout Tower.  The restaurant rotated to give wonderful views for miles around.  The only pity was that there are now some buildings higher than the tower.

The coastguard Lookout Tower

Sunset in Vancouver

 A very good, first day of our tour!

Day 3 (September 19th) London to Vancouver

Day3 London to Vancouver  Not a very interesting day as we spent it all travelling.  Nothing went disastrously wrong for which we are thankful but we just made our way by tube and 9+ hours flight to Vancouver.  We rendezvoused with the correct people at the right time and made it to the hotel OK.  The 8 hour time change meant that we arrived less than 2 hours after take off and our bodies spent the rest of the day and the night adjusting.  We seemed to have recovered by the next morning.

waiting around at Heathrow

Day 2 (Septamber 18th) London

Day 2 of Canada holiday.  We left Penzance last (Wednesday) evening via the civilised travel mode of the overnight sleeper train to London.  We arrived in Paddington station at about 6 am!  We eventually left the train at about 0700 and took the quiet underground to Westminster where we are staying for one night before leaving from Heathrow to Vancouver on Friday afternoon.  We left our luggage at the Premier Inn and went for a walk and shop down Victoria Street and St. James Park.  We watched some of the birdlife in the park and then went to Buckingham Palace and watched the changing of the guard.  The first time both of us had watched it for several decades.  Later on we had arranged to meet our niece, Ros, for a meal in Covent Garden.  Very enjoyable for all of us at an Italian restaurant.  We walked back past Trafalgar Square which was still very busy.    Now we are going to have an early night before the long day of travel tomorrow.

 

Day 1 of our Canada holiday (September 17th)

Day 1 of Canada holiday. Welcome back to savillstravels, we are off again - this time to a part of the world we have wanted to visit for many years and at last have the opportunity to go there.  Our preparations are now complete and the Isles of Scilly are behind us as we make our way on the Scillonian.  Our own boat is now safely on dry land after a very good and successful summer during which we used it to visit most of the islands.  It is a grey and misty day and we have waved goodbye to Colin and Sheila Rowley who are very kindly looking after our home and pets during our absence.    After docking at Penzance we will have a pub meal and then catch the overnight sleeper train to London and eventually we fly out to Vancouver on Friday.  All has gone well so far and as far as we know we haven’t left anything vital behind!  Time will tell.

our boat on dry land

Sheila and Colin saying goodbye

the good old Scillonian