Sept 22 The Canadian (Day 361)
We had an early morning wake-up and enjoyed a hearty breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We quickly packed our bags and headed to the railway station.
Hotel Victoria, our accommodation for the night, is an ‘old school’ hotel, comfortable and within walking distance to Toronto Union Station.
Under overcast skies we reached Union Station and saw that the tower’s top was engulfed in the clouds.
CN Tower is a Toronto landmark, opened in 1976, built by the railway company Canadian National Railway as a communications tower. It has a revolving restaurant at the top and an “Edge Walk” like the Auckland Tower, but no ability to (safely) jump off, so we didn’t pursue that adventure!
We arrived at the station with plenty of time to check-in for our 4 day/4 night rail excursion all the way to Vancouver, B.C. on “The Canadian”. We boarded the train and settled into our sleeper cabin for the 9:55am departure! The train headed north through Toronto and into the wooded countryside alongside the marshy edges of Lake Huron.
We had a view of the marshes rather than Lake Huron!
By 4pm we were headed into Sudbury, Ontario and crossed the Wanapitae river.
We saw huge smokestacks in the distance, a smelter for nickle ore that is mined in the area. In the mid 1800’s logging was the main industry, giving way to mining of copper and nickle ore in the early 1900’s that continues today. After 4pm we had access to the Premier Lounge, the last car on the train, so we took advantage of that to meet fellow travelers!
A wonderful first day of the adventure!