Lori's Travels

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.)

(Note: The blog wasn’t updated for a day because the ViaRail train from Vancouver didn’t have wifi. Resuming now, and sorry, no photos today.)

Friday, Oct. 2nd, was rainy in Vancouver. Dave and I returned to the Red Umbrella Cafe for breakfast because yesterday’s experience there had been so pleasant and the food was great, especially their omelettes. And the second time didn’t disappoint.

From there, we walked back to the hotel and checked out, leaving our luggage with them for the morning. Since the hotel was right next to Stanley Park, we wanted to walk through the park to the Vancouver Aquarium, so we did. The rain had stopped and we had a beautiful 40-minute walk through the forested paths, noticing several black squirrels along the way.

The aquarium was nice, with exhibits about tropical water animals, frogs, British Columbia shore animals and corals, plus outdoor exhibits featuring rescued seals, sea lions and sea otters. We spent about 2 hours viewing all the sea creatures. Afterwards, we caught a taxi outside the aquarium entrance which was driven by a pleasant, talkative Iranian man who had immigrated 30 years ago. He brought us back to a street near the hotel where Dave and I found a Chinese dumpling restaurant for lunch. Then we picked up our luggage from the hotel and had the same taxi driver take us to the train station.

At Pacific Central train station, we checked in for our ViaRail trip to Saskatoon, and waited about 45 minutes to board. We were charmed by the “all aboard” call given by a train employee with a French accent. The train was really long, about 20 train cars, and we had to walk maybe halfway down it to get to our sleeper car. We were greeted by our car’s attendant, Patrick, and given directions to our seats. I was somewhat disappointed that our seats, which would turn into bunks, weren’t in a walled compartment. Instead they were in the open and appeared to have no room for our carry-on luggage. We sat down and the train departed just before 3 p.m.

A single woman sat across the aisle from us and we introduced ourselves. She was Carola from Switzerland and she said she was learning English, so it wasn’t very good. But we still could carry on a conversation and then we went to dinner with her at our 5 p.m. seating. We were seated at a table for 4, along with an older man named Bill from Michigan. There were a choice of four entrees from the menu and Dave and I chose the miso salmon, which was very good. There were several dining car attendants and we were well cared for, even meeting one of the chefs during the dinner.

After dinner, we sat in the domed viewing car while it got dark, as we went through forested and field areas next to the Fraser River. We returned to our assigned seats a little after 8 p.m. and Patrick made them into bunk beds, with a very heavy curtain separating them from the aisle.

Around 9 p.m., Carola, Dave and I crawled into our respective bunks to sleep.

Today, Thursday, was our day to see more of Vancouver. Yesterday the weather forecast had predicted an overcast but dry day, but this morning we saw the prediction had changed to rain in the late morning. But that didn’t stop us. Online I found a good-sounding breakfast restaurant about 3 blocks away called the Red Umbrella Cafe, so we made our way there soon after they opened at 8 a.m. And the Red Umbrella didn’t disappoint! We each had delicious omelettes with thickly sliced toast and homemade strawberry jam, served by very friendly wait staff. It charged us up so we were ready for the day’s exploration.

We used Google Maps to help us find a bus that could take us to the Chinatown area, to our first destination, the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. It was the first classical Chinese garden built outside of Asia, and was opened in 1986. It’s a beautiful walled garden and park, with very large koi fish in its ponds and manicured plantings.

By the time we finished touring the garden it was around 10 a.m. and it had started raining lightly. Our next two destinations were located about 10 minutes away by foot, in Gastown (downtown), so we followed Google’s instructions on how to get there. But a lady bicyclist saw a little confusion in our actions and stopped us to suggest another walking route that would keep us out of the seedier part of town. We appreciated that and followed her recommended route. Our destination was the Coastal People’s Fine Arts Gallery, a collection of sculptures, jewelry, and paintings by Canadian First Nations artists. There were beautiful totem poles and many sculptures that were fun to look at, but way above our price range, running from about $1,000 to $36,000.

After that gallery, we walked a few blocks to a famous First Nation artist’s gallery, the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art. He was a Haida artist, mastering several types of media, who lived from 1920 to 1998. Several other indigenous artists have their work displayed there too.

At noon, we stopped at a coffee shop to decide where to go next. We decided to catch a bus to the Granville Island Public Market in another part of town. The buses run frequently and are widely used here. We rode for about 25 minutes to get to Granville Island, where there were many restaurants, market stalls for food and crafts, and buskers performing music. After walking through the market to gawk at the produce, fish, and other things for sale, we bought some fish and chips and sat down next to a local couple at a covered picnic table outside the market. We had a nice conversation with them while eating our lunch.

The route back to our hotel was via a cute little ferry, taking us across False Creek to the English Bay beach park near the hotel, a 5-minute ride. From there we walked to the hotel and took it easy for a couple of hours.

The neighborhood where our hotel is has a huge variety of small restaurants, offering everything from A&W Rootbeer to Persian food to poutine. For dinner, we weren’t too hungry, so we walked past many of the restaurants but finally stopped at a small Turkish one. There we enjoyed some delicious lentil soup, warm and soft tombik bread, and falafel. It rained while we were eating, but had stopped by the time we exited the restaurant. We walked back to the hotel in the dusk and called it a day.

Today was the first day of a trip to Canada via train for Dave and I. We met at the Seattle Amtrak station at about 7 a.m. for our 8:30 train to Vancouver. It was the maiden run of a brand new train set called the Airo, and we had reserved seats in business class for the four-hour trip. It was a sunny day and a pretty ride north. There weren’t any delays until we got into the city of Vancouver, where we waited about 10 minutes to go over a one-way bridge. Once at the Pacific Central Station, we went through a short line for immigration and customs, and walked out into Vancouver sunshine.

After a cross-town taxi ride, we arrived at our hotel for the next two nights, the historic Sylvia Hotel in the West End neighborhood of Vancouver, across the street from English Bay and very close to Stanley Park.

After dropping off our luggage, we walked a block to a seafood restaurant called Papi’s and enjoyed salmon burgers as a late lunch, outside on the patio next to the street with a view of the bay. We also walked along the Stanley Park Seawall Path and beachfront park that some fun metal sculptures of laughing men.

We relaxed after our afternoon walk in the park and discussed our sightseeing plans for tomorrow. It was a good start to the trip!

Tomorrow we’ll head home from Iceland, so today is our last full day here. We awoke to a gray, socked-in cloudy day in Borgarnes and packed to get ready to leave. After breakfast in the hotel, we took off eastward, back to Reykjavik once again. It only took about one hour of driving, once again descending in a long tunnel to cross under some water.

First we stopped at the camera lens rental place so Nathan could return his rented lens. Then we drove to a museum called Perlan that’s on a hill overlooking the city. Cathy, Denise and I wanted to see this modern museum “experience”, while Nathan wanted to explore the city a bit. So we three bought tickets online using our phones, 7090 kroner or about $58 per ticket. We spent the next three and a half hours enjoying several immersive exhibits inside the museum. They included an man-made ice cave, an IMAX-type movie that immersed us in a live volcano, combining real video of the outside of an erupting volcano with computer-generated imagery of being inside the magma chamber. Also a Northern Lights show, and several exhibits showing the bird breeding cliffs, Iceland’s glaciers, the geology leading to the volcanic activity, a 2021 eruption very close to Reykjavik, and the sea life around Iceland. We also stopped at the Perlan coffee shop in the morning for a snack and their ice cream shop a little later for ice cream cones. It was a very informative and entertaining experience.

Nathan picked us up after we exited Perlan and took us to a casual restaurant for lunch that offered Mexican food that he had discovered while exploring.

After lunch, we were lucky to be able to check into the Hotel Klettur in Reykjavik earlier than their usual 3 p.m. check-in time. It remained cloudy but didn’t rain and had warmed up to about 60 degrees. After settling our luggage into our rooms, Denise, Cathy and I walked down to the tourist shopping area downtown and looked around at souvenir stores. We also stopped at a bakery where they bought pastries and I had a lovely Icelandic brand of green tea with thyme.

For dinner, we walked a couple blocks to a food hall where there are several restaurants in one building. Nathan and I enjoyed Indian curry dishes while Cathy ate some Chinese bao buns and Denise had French onion soup. Then we returned to the hotel to pack for our flights tomorrow. I’m the only one returning home. Nathan is flying to Oslo then Dublin and Cathy and Denise will be spending some time in Bergen, Norway. I’ll be glad to be home with my Sonny kitty again.