4.20.2012 Showering Facility on the Train

Every sleeper cars has a shower. Although you're sharing it with quite a few people, the longest I had to wait was five minutes, and that was the only time.

You get a bag of towels and toiletries, which comes in super handy. Throw in your clean clothes and you're ready to go. The shower room is split up into a change room and the actual shower.  And like the washroom sinks, the shower is on an automatic timer, which means you have to press the button every couple of minutes to keep the water flowing. 

All in all, good steady supply of hot water and nice water pressure.

4.23.2012 Vancouver Art Gallery...

... was a real disappointment unfortunately.
I wanted to see the "Emily Carr and the Transcendence of Nature." The title would suggests an exhibit devoted to the life and works of Emily Carr, right? Not so. There were only six paintings. I was flabbergasted. The other two exhibits were 1) 60's art; and 2) native pop art. Neither of which I'm very interested in. I do have to say that the building is very impressive from the outside and the inside staircase and skylight are things of beauty. The only part of the native pop art exhibit I found interesting was the works done by Brian Jungen. He repurposed Air Nike shoes into native spirit animals. The creativity of his work is quite impressive.



Oh well, I went so you don't have to.

P.S. the posts on the train are coming but I'll likely be doing some heavy re-editing once I get home so the posts will be chronological

4.20.2012 Snow and Hornespayne

It's snowing! In April, no less. All hail global warming. 

After the hearty breakfast, it was time for some R&R. The seat was just long enough for me to put my feet up and do some reading/napping. My attempt to read A Song of Ice and Fire is somewhat disastrous as I'm reading by character (blasphemy!), rather than as the author intended. Reaching the end of book four (via the viewpoints of Tyrion, Jaime, Sansa, and Cersei. Hmm... in retrospect, I might be reading by geography rather than character), I may wait until the series is complete before carrying on.

One of the first "official" stops was at a small town by the name of Hornespayne. A very small town of 1200 strong. We stopped for 45 minutes while the train refueled. Not much to do except walk along the train in the snow and visit the local grocery store. Walking the span of the train takes no more than five minutes. During the high season, the train becomes more than three times its current length, stretching almost a kilometer!

Look at the pretty train!

Each car has its own name. My berth was located in car 123 aka "Bliss Manor." It was the first sleeper car, meaning it was the farthest car possible from the last dome car. Lots of walking down tight corridors. By the end, I like to believe that I've mastered the "train walk." Big steps and quick walk.

Not much to do except to visit the train station (if you can call it that) and the local grocery store.

The Hornespayne ViaRail station is basically a small waiting room with fluorescent lights and a single pay phone. Not too impressive but the train only comes around three times a week so the fact that there are chairs in the room is impressive enough.

I met a fellow passengers whom literally got picked up off the side of the rail. Her town doesn't have a station so she basically just wait at a designated spot and wave to the train to get on. We also had another passenger who got off the train in the middle of nowhere. Okay, it wasn't the middle of nowhere. There was a tiny church there, right by the tracks, but nothing else except trees, trees, and more trees.

This pretty brick building used to be the train station once upon a time. Unfortunately, it's fallen into disrepair. Very sad.

The grocery store. If you squint, you can see the Sears sign by the door, which I take it to mean that the Sears catalogue is available there for mail-orders(?). I bought an overpriced postcard there. 

Some lovely pictures of the scenery.

I really enjoyed taking pictures of the train turning. 

Oh look. A freight train.

 

Lunchtime. I had the mushroom soup and the barbecue shrimp wrap. The wrap was a little cold but still very tasty.