On board the Beach Train - looks a little "dismal"
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20
Early in the trip - still smiling
Squiggled down in our seats just after midnight ready to catch some zzzzzs. Unfortunately, in this shared space you have to wait for everyone else to have the same idea. Conversations and coughs, trips to the bathroom (a constant stream ... pun intended), stories to be read to children, seats and footrests to be adjusted and readjusted and of course the sounds and movement of the train.
At some time in the night, the train just stopped. As in, didn't move for three hours. We found out later in the day that the engineers were late for the shift change - no driver, no movement! That didn't set us up very well for an on time run.
For some reason, the bright overhead lights in our carriage remained on all night and the air conditioning was freezing. Can't say I felt we were cocooned in comfort. Was not our best night. Would have been a comfort bonus if we had actually known about the footrest. We only discovered that in the light of day. Missed opportunity to put our feet up. We did make up for it in the day though - as passengers vacated at various stops, there were more empty seats and we scored a couple of doubles to get a little more rest.
Have to say that one person can make a difference to a carriage. Once daylight hit, OMG we had one dude in the carriage who talked non-stop crap FOREVER! He was so loud. We all had to endure his monologue over the 12 hours of daylight that he was in the carriage. His captive audience was an elderly lady on the window seat. He was a nurse and he bombarded her with old people illness, ailments and ugly death for hours. At one stage, he was rubbing her feet to test for swollen ankles! He checked all her medication - that must have last for 2 hours as he analysed every drug and gave her the pros and cons of taking that combination. Every few hours he took a 30-minute break to ply himself with alcohol. Then he would come back noisier and grimmer. @Mac was pretty worried when he followed the old lady that he had shared a seat with off the train - I gave no thought to her welfare. I was celebrating that he was getting OFF. Much to the amusement of travellers in our section of the carriage, I stood up and did a happy dance. Didn't even care that I was caught in the act. He had forgotten his phone and had reboarded!!!! All breathed a collective sigh of relief when just the smokers reboarded and we could take off - he was last seen swaying his way down the platform at #Moncton.
Water views with occassional platform stops
Really, his comings and goings and repetitive blah blah blah became the focus to the journey. Don't really have much to report on the scenery other than to say water everywhere again, rivers and lakes and just pools of water all along the route. More farming land with lots of green, plenty of trees and some even just starting to get their autumn colours.
Lots of water and trees
@Mac had the map on so that we could trace our journey and every time we came through a town we had a few minutes to access wi-fi. No commentary on this one - no dome or viewing car you could access - and the food options were very limited.
Breakfast
It does stop along the route to pick up passengers and of course to allow others to disembark, It is also a restocking and garbage removal for the train - and no doubt there is "engineer" stuff happening and change of shift staffing changes. But what it means for the passengers is a chance to get some fresh air. For the smokers, it is a mad dash to get off the train and to light up - which is sort of counter intuitive for the passengers looking for fresh air. Our carriage is a point of entry - they put the stairs out here with a train conductor - not every carriage opens. The positive slant on this is that we are just four seats and a toilet away from the exit - the negative is that every smoker has to traipse by us as they re-enter the train and then find their seats. It is amazing how smoke sensitive your nose is if you are a non-smoker. All I can say is that I am happy that we had "reserved" seats - imagine having to do this trek next to a stinker or heaven forbid that non-stop talker!
@Mac ever vigilant even at stations to ensure we are on track! If only we were on time
The train was so far behind schedule the #VIA staff offered the "economy" passengers a meal for dinner around 7 30 pm. We had purchased a turkey roll for breakfast and a ham roll for lunch from the hole in the wall cafeteria on board and we were carrying our own treats - so we were doing OK. Thought the "dinner" was a "nice gesture" and were handed a very cold #Mediterranean Tuna Salad. Definitely wouldn't rate it and @Mac quipped as the #SleeperPlus people were returning from their silver service meal "I bet they're thinking - now we know what the poor people are having."
We should have been in #Halifax at 5 pm and set up on the waterfront licking lobster claws not washing down chickpeas and tuna with large gulps of water.
Dinner for the poor people
The whole purpose of this "Ocean Train" was to actually see the ocean. Unfortunately, at 5 hours late and with most of the "ocean" viewing scheduled for the latter part of the journey, feeling a little cheated on this one. Oh well, what can you do. 🤷 We made it - can get to see the ocean tomorrow.
By the time we pulled into #Halifax at 11:05 pm the train was virtually empty. We had been dropping passengers off along the way at towns large and small. We spent the last 90 minutes of the journey spread over a number of seats. Fat ankles and really numb bums were the order of the day.
Halifax at last
Had to line up at the carousel to get our checked bags, followed by a fingers crossed exit to the taxi rank. These poor workers had been here for hours - waiting for the train and have to admit we felt very grateful that they had stayed and waited!
We're so relieved to see our accommodation and access the key. There had been a last-minute change to the check-in process and because it was approaching midnight, we were desperate for the key to be there and for it to actually work. Another thing to be grateful for - easy access - and yes, it was up an intimidating flight of stairs. But it was spacious, clean and warm and the shower was beautifully hot and the bed was flat! And, we even scaled those stairs twice because our #Loft was over a #Dominos Pizza shop that was open until 1 am.
Of course there were stairs, ut accommodation over #Domino's open till 1 am! Bonus
We are down to only two full days here - predicted sunny tomorrow and a little less enticing the day after. Think when we get our bodies recharged and our brains in gear we are going to have to prioritise.
It will definitely NOT include getting on a train in the foreseeable future. We are tooted out.
Meanwhile in Europe with @M&I
Not really much news - the correspondence back and forth between stations was all about US - getting updates on our progress.
The did send through a snap of their "Business Class" setup on the train to Venice. Only two hours for them. Toot, toot.
A little envious of their train
And their antics in #Pisa kept us laughing
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