We’ve been on a train ride! We made it all the way from Vancouver to Saskatoon and got off the train this morning, Sunday, Oct. 4. It was a lovely ride over the Canadian Rockies and the Saskatchewan prairie, although difficult to get enough sleep each night, mostly due to noise. The meals were great, train staff very helpful, and it’s been fun to meet fellow travelers that we’re seated with at every meal. Here are some photos from the train ride.
On Saturday, they provided brunch from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and then our dinner seating was at 5:30. That gave us lots of time to enjoy the view from our seats and the domed viewing car while seeing the wonderful peaks and colors of the Rockies. The train was stopped many times in order to let freight trains pass, similar as in the US.
This morning, I woke up at 5 a.m. in order to prepare for the scheduled 6 a.m. arrival in Saskatoon. It was still dark. A little while after I woke up, Dave indicated from his bunk that the train was running late (which he deduced from his phone’s map application) so I wouldn’t have to rush to get ready. Then he told me that he could see the aurora borealis from his bunk, so I went up to the dome car to see them for myself. They were dim, but truly the Northern Lights, which was really cool to see.
Around 6:30 a.m. we learned from the train’s activity coordinator that we wouldn’t arrive in Saskatoon until 9 a.m. due to all the freight train-caused delays. So we ate breakfast about 6:45, returned to our seats, and watched the Saskatchewan prairie go by until we reached our stop.
At the small Saskatoon train station, we summoned an Uber, were picked up in the driver’s Toyota EV, and taken to the downtown Budget rental car location where we picked up a small Hyundai SUV. Saskatoon was pretty quiet on this sunny Sunday morning and we found the streets to be wide in this smallish city. Dave drove us to our home base for the next four nights, the Hotel Senator in downtown. It’s a classic, old, but remodeled hotel. The manager greeted us and was very friendly and talkative. We stored our luggage with him with a plan to return later to check in.
Then we drove to the town’s heart, the South Saskatchewan River, which is bordered by parks on both sides. Although both of us were tired from lack of sleep on the train, and Dave had picked up a head cold, we enjoyed the walk in the sun.
We returned to the hotel around 1:45 to check in, with a shower and nap being high on each of our priority lists, although I never got to the napping part. Since Dave was feeling under the weather, I walked half a block from the hotel to order takeout dinners from Number One Noodle Shop, which featured handmade noodles. While I waited for our orders, I saw the fresh noodles being cut in the kitchen, so they really were handmade. Another fun feature of the restaurant was a wheeled little robot that delivered food to the customers at their table direct from the kitchen.
That was the end of our first day in Saskatoon.
(Sorry for the lack of photos and all the typos in the previous post. It was rushed when I found out I could use the train attendant’s wifi hotspot to upload the post.)
