Day 14 (September 30th) Quebec

They won't get past this sentry!

This first day in Quebec was the coldest we had experienced in Canada (temperature about 10°C)  and it was definitely a day for jumpers and trousers.  We had some breakfast and were soon on a Great Rail Journey organised coach tour of the city.  Our guide was good and we had a good run round this the most historic of the Canadian cities.  We eventually arrived the Citadel (a garrisoned fort) and were guided round by an excellent young army lady guide.  We heard how Quebec was captured from the French by General Wolfe.  The Citadel was built to deter the Americans wanting to include Canada in the States but it has never received a shot in anger.  It was certainly worth visiting and we then carried to view other special places but not the old town as the streets were too narrow.

The Citadel

The smart Railway Station

We had free time in the afternoon and decided to explore the old part which turned out to be a good decision.  We realised that the railway station was a character building when we arrived in the dark last night, but today it was definitely worth capturing for posterity! 
 
 

The funicular

 The old part of the city at the bottom of a cliff was certainly full of character with small streets, old cottages and shops.  There were some strange sculptures made from plastic items along one street and someone had painted the gable end of their house in a rather novel way.
 

Interesting gable end

 
 
We also saw a giant soup can with similar sized pigeons!

 
Eventually we made our back to our hotel via the funicular.  In the evening we had a meal at a steakhouse and retired to the comfortable hotel after a grey, cold, overcast day but one which we were able to enjoy.

Day 13 (September 29th) Toronto to Quebec

Royal York Fairmont Hotel

Hotel foyer

Another good day  for weather but we were to spend
most of it on trains.  We left at mid-morning and so it gave us plenty of time to pack and then have a look at the underground malls of shop which stay open even in the severest of cold. We didn't explore too far because of the risk of getting lost!  We then all met in the foyer of the hotel before going across the road to catch the train.

The train lines were double tracked and we had no delays meaning good progress.  We had been to a local supermarket to prepare a picnic lunch.  We arrived in Montreal to change trains fairly late in the afternoon.  We had an hour at Montreal station and so we managed to get a meal on the concourse before meeting to get the Quebec train.  We had no chance to see Montreal apart from the station and that was a pity.  We were soon on our way again looking at the scenery and trying to solve the London Underground quiz!

Could be near home!

 
 




   It was dark and mid-evening before we arrived in Quebec and were pleased to see another comfortable hotel to welcome us.



Day 12 (September 28th) Niagara Falls etc

 



 

Just above the falls

The Whirlpool

Our day for our trip to Niagara dawned bright and sunny.  We were out early to catch the coach for the full day.  We visited an area called the Whirlpool just below the falls which gave a taster of what was to come. We took many photos of the falls which we thought were truly spectacular and one of the highlights of the holiday.  We had a good lunch in the Sheraton Hotel which gave special views of the falls  and where the video above was taken.  Inevitably we got wet as we took the boat trip to the foot of the falls but our Scilly waterproofs served us well.



 

We then had a tour of some local beauty spots ending up at Niagara-on-the lake which was an attractive "colonial" town which hasn't been modernised.  We saw a groundhog on a piece of waste land.  The lake was Lake Ontario.





A groundhog

Niagara on the lake

 

Day 11 (September 27th) The Canadian shield & Toronto

We woke up to another glorious day.  After breakfast we went to the viewing car as we were now crossing a more interesting area called the Canadian shield.  This area is full of lakes, bogs and forests - the colours were beautiful in the sunshine.  We occasionally had our familiar wait for the freight trains and our tour guide, Liz, had cleverly devised a quiz on the London Underground to make sure were all occupied.  The train was now 6 hours behind schedule and we were reassured when told that we would receive lunch aboard the train. We travelled just north of Lake Superior and arrived in Toronto just before 2:30.

Our hotel was adjacent to the station and it turned out to be a rather grand affair - the queen stays here on her Canadian tours.  We just had time to deposit our belongings in our rooms and then we were off on a city coach tour.  Perhaps it was because of the end of a long journey, but we were none too enthralled by the commentary and we got off when we arrived at the CN tower. We had decided we wanted to go up and as it was getting late then the sooner the better!  The Toronto BlueJays has just finished a baseball game in the adjacent stadium and so there were plenty of customers queuing for the tower but the queue moved quickly and we were soon on our way up. We got some breathtaking views of the scenery and the sunset and so the timing was pretty good.

later the roof closed



baseball stadium with open roof




glorious sunset





Days 9 & 10 (September 25 &26th) Across the plains by train

Lakes and trees

We left Jasper surrounded by mountains and settled down into our cabins which were identical to the previous ones.  After a reasonable night we woke up in much different scenery, the plains of Alberta and then Saskatchewan were completely flat with the many lakes and rivers to change the landscape. We went to a splendid breakfast in the dining car and then settled down to watch the scenery or perhaps read.  One of our number pictured a moose in one of the fields but we did not see it.

Alberta plains

  

Ontario stop
 

The train travel gives also
some time to get to know fellow members of our group and we enjoyed finding out about some others.  We have made good friends with Chris(another one!) and Nancy who come from Yorkshire.

The length of our train

 
We were due to stop in Winnepeg on the first evening for two hours but it soon became obvious that we were running very late.  The problem arose because freight trains are given priority and the route was largely single track.  So we were shunted into sidings whilst freight trains, often a mile or two long, went in the opposite direction. They were taking oil and last year's grain harvest to be exported to China, Russia etc.  A lot of this year's 

Dining with Chris & Nancy

harvest was still on the fields.  We arrived at

Passing a freight train

Winnepeg in the middle of the night and we didn't get up!  It must be said that the food and dining service on the trains were excellent.  We did get off the train to stretch our legs at every opportunity during the day. It was noticeable that the fall colours were becoming stronger as we moved east.  By the end of the second day we were crossing Ontario.  The train did not have wifi and so I would not have been able to blog for this section in any case.


Not the Scillonian version











Day 8 (September 24th) The Rockies

Another day with a trip from Jasper into the surrounding National Park and what a surprise we had during the trip.  We joined the coach and our first stop was at Maligne Canyon.  Another series of dramatic waterfalls surrounded by mountains.  One feature of these glacial melt water lakes and falls is the blue colour of the water which is due to the speck of dust that is in each snowflake that falls on the ice field. We visited a souvenir shop but there wasn't anything that appealed. 

Medecine Lake

We then carried on to Medecine Lake which has lower than normal water level because of the recent dry winter. Everywhere was surrounded by mist and we couldn't see the tops of the mountains.  We eventually came to Lake Maligne and it was drizzling by this time and so we headed for the café that was there.  We were having a snack when a lady came up to Christine and I and said "I know you from somewhere".  It was Jenny who came to stay with Mary Norman on St. Martin's earlier in the year.  We regretted that we did not have more time at Lake Maligne.

On the journey back to Jasper we passed this antlered elk near the road.

Jenny and Christine 

A male elk

When we got back to our hotel we had a swim in the pool and then had to pack for the next three days on the train.   Our train arrived at about 5:30, it was still raining but we had a bit of a sunset.


 

 



Day 7 The Rockies (September 23rd)

I know it is not the same but we thought that we would complete the blog though we are now home.   Even if it is only for us it is a quick reference of where we were and what we did on each day.  My computer was in a bad way and since arriving home it has meant ordering a new hard drive and so we will continue this on the home laptop.  It was not very good for me to use my phone!

Back to the holiday! An incident worthy of mention happened to us at the end of last evening.  We ate at a restaurant in Jasper and as we were walking back to the hotel we almost stumbled into an elk which was eating away at a local's garden hedge.  There were few streetlights and neither of us had a camera to record the moment.  She kept on eating and we gave her a wide berth and carried on!   

Some days of the holiday were more active than others and Day 7 turned out to be a superb full day. We had booked an extra trip to go to the Columbian ice field.  The day was overcast as we joined the coach but we soon saw some elk grazing in some woodland close to the road. We were in the Jasper National Park and were following the Athabasca River which flows through Jasper up to its source. 


Elk near the road

Athabasca Falls

 Our first stop was the Athabasca gorge where the river/ice has worn a deep channel in the rock and the site provides special views of mountains and dramatic waterfalls. Soon after we came to the visitor centre where we soon transferred to our ice explorer special vehicle for travelling to the glacier.  These amazing 6-wheel drive vehicles are able to take us over some steep terrain and are equally at home on the ice.  We had some time to explore the cleared area of the glacier and take in the magnificence of the surroundings. 


Ice Explorer

sky clearing

Several photos later we climbed back on our vehicle and went back to the visitor centre/café. We had a snack and then returned outside to take some more pics of the mountains etc as the sky was clearing as if on cue.  Eventually we were ushered back to the coach for the scenic journey back to Jasper.  A trip on the holiday we were looking forward to and we were not disappointed.

 

The glacier