The work situation

We've been back in Toronto for over a week now and we've been lying low at David's Aunt and Uncle's waiting to hear about our working holiday visas.  We've been checking our email religiously whilst updating our CVs and signing up for jobsites.

Yesterday morning we got an email from the Canadian Embassy in London to tell us our application for visas had been accepted!!!!  Now the job hunt really starts!

Although our months of travelling have now come to an end, we hope to keep travelling from our base here in Toronto as and when we get chance.  We'll keep updating the blog with our adventures so watch this space.

The cross Canada train

Here is the tale of our epic cross Canada train journey lasting 4, no sorry, 6 days!

After a lovely lunch in Jasper with Stephen & Susan we boarded our train around 5pm and headed straight for the dome car (back carriage of the train with comfy seats & a glass roof) for free champagne and h'ordeurves!  What a way to start the journey!  

The train waiting to depart from Jasper Station

Dinner was then served in the dining car and we were treated to a three course meal with a backdrop of the Rockies!

We spent our time on board mainly reading and talking to other passengers.  Every day the events coordinator gave a talk in the dome car about the area we were travelling through.  Although we had our own area on the train, we preferred to spend time in the company of others.  Our area consisted of two bench seats opposite each other with a widow.  At night the seats folded down to form a bed and a bunk bed dropped down from the ceiling.  Thick curtains closed off our beds for privacy,

View of the Prairies from our window

Every evening a musical duo entertained us as we soaked up the views and relaxed.  Via Rail run a programme to support musicians in Canada.  The musicians apply to the company with a demo of their music and where they want to travel from and to.  If the music is deemed suitable for the train, they get to ride for free if they play in the evenings.

So, we were running around 5hrs late on the 2nd night due to a fractured line. The prairies were -45c overnight! We woke up in the night going backwards and when we got up for breakfast the following day we had made no progress.  It turns out that we were stuck behind a broken down freight train which was 1km in length.  

Eventually they managed to move the freight and we got moving again.  We made it to Winnipeg, our half way point, about 20hrs late!  Due to this delay, Via Rail decided to cancel the train and gave us two options: 

1. stay on the train for a third night and be flown on to Toronto in the morning, or 

2. stay the night in a hotel in Winnipeg and get the next train the following night.  

We chose option 2 - a free stop over in another new Canadian town!  

View of Winnipeg from our hotel window

The Raddison hotel was lovely and after a good fill and a great night's sleep we set out to explore Winnipeg which was surprisingly warm at -11c! We saw the reputed coldest junction in Canada, the train station (this time in the light) and the Forks (an area of old warehouses converted into markets, shops & restaurants).  We finished the afternoon with a visit to see the Legislative Building before heading back to the restaurant for more lovely food.

The legislative building in Winnipeg

After a further few hours delay, come 1am we were finally on a train to Toronto.  We were joined by some of the lovely people from our first train but also had a whole new train full of people to talk to...

As we approached Toronto, we exchanged details with some of our new friends and enjoyed the view of downtown from the dome car.  

We arrived in Toronto almost 51hrs late!  But what a journey!  What a way to travel!  We loved every minute of it!

Finally back in Toronto!

Calgary, Cochrane & the Rockies

Well, it's about time we told you what we got up to in the Rockies!  This post is a long one so you might want to make yourself a cuppa.

Well we landed in Calgary and encountered a temperature drop of around 40 degrees from San Francisco.  We spent almost 2 weeks with Stephen & Susan and here are the condensed highlights.

On one of our first days we went for a walk home along the bow river from Cochrane centre.  This wasn't really thought through as it was about -26c that day.  Our down jackets were great but our legs almost froze off!  Needless to say we invested in some very sexy long johns the next day. Did i mention that your nostrils and eyelids freeze at this temperature?

David braving the cold (about -26c)

The Bow River, Cochrane

The next day we headed into Calgary and went up the Calgary Tower where we got a cracking view of the city.  As it was so so cold, we took advantage of the +15 network - bridges connecting shops, malls and offices 15metres above the ground.  It was really unnerving to stand on the clear glass at the top of the tower looking at the road below; but you can always rely on small kids to stamp up and down on the glass without any fear whatsoever!

Looking through the glass floor at the top of the Calgary Tower

Downtown Calgary from the top of the tower

Whilst Staying with Stephen & Susan (our fantastic hosts) they treated us to several day trips abound the Rockies and surrounding area.  The first trip was up to Banff.  On the way, Stephen drove us on a frozen Lake!  Quite unnerving, but he assured us the ice was 3ft thick.

Driving on a frozen Ghost Lake

From Ghost lake we headed up to Lake Minnewanka (aka Ronnie Corbett) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Minnewanka where we encountered some people skiing on the lake being pulled by their huskies.  We also saw some nutters diving under the ice to take pictures of the dam.  

Husky on Lake Minnewanka

Ice Diving in Lake Minnewanka (nutters!)

We then had the grand tour of Banff and after having a lovely warm cuppa we moved back down south to have tea at the Grizzly Paw in Canmore.  Bison burgers and Grizzly Paw's own beers all round!  Omnomnom! Really good beer...

Banff

The next day we got up bright and early and went to Head-Smashed-In http://www.head-smashed-in.com/.  This is a site where the First Nations (Native American Indians) would drive Buffalo over the escarpment to their deaths in order to stock up on meat and hides for the winter.  There's a great little museum there too.  The history (both good and bad) of the Blackfoot people is explained here including the Blackfoot point of view. Make sure you speak with Little Leap, a very nice man full of stories to tell. From there we headed to a cute little town called Waterton almost at the border with Montana,USA.  We had beautiful views but the whole village was boarded up for the winter given the deep snow and cold temperatures.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

The next day (this was an epic long weekend), we went for a walk with Stephen up Johnson Canyon.  The waterfall was frozen & people were climbing up it.  We were able to walk behind the waterfall and the ice had formed in a convenient bench shape for us to sit on...  The temperature was randomly up to abound -1 that day which felt like Spring! Alberta receives Chinook winds which can randomly at times warm the air from say -20c to 0c or even warmer in a single day! This is all due to the way the winds pass over the Rockies once the snow has fallen on the mountains. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_wind.  

On the way home we called to see family friends Jo & Andy in the lovely town of Canmore.  They provided am ample supply of Yorkshire tea and yummy chocolate cake!  Was lovely chatting about their experiences of coming to Canada.

Behind a the frozen waterfall at Johnson Canyon

One of our days we spent with Heather & Spencer (Kate's cousins) 5 pin bowling (which is really hard by the way), we also played air hockey, video games & pool.  :-)

Air Hockey!

For Kate's birthday we hired a car and went back up to Banff to see what we'd missed on the first trip.  We went for a sleigh ride (-25c), had lunch in a lovely independent sandwich shop on the main street before taking the Gondola (cable car) to the top of Sulphur Mountain for breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains!  Afterwards we spent a while in the Hot Springs with the water temperature at +39c and the air at -22c.  It was a very strange but relaxing experience.  Once wet, our hair froze but we stayed lovely and warm!  We finished of the day in a Mexican Restaurant decorated like a wild west saloon (The Magpie and stump).  More oms and noms!

Sleigh ride in Banff

The Gondola

View of Banff and the Rockies from the top of Sulphur Mountain

Banff Hot Springs

Next was a chance for David to try snowboarding & we went to the Canada Olympic Park built in Calgary for the 1988 Winter Olympics.  It was great place to start and David had a morning lesson before joining Heather & Stephen on the slopes in the afternoon.

Skiing/Snowboarding at COP (Canada Olympic Park), Calgary

By now our time in the Rockies was coming to an end (boo) and Stephen & Susan drove us to to Jasper to get the train, but in True Emony-Armitage style, we called at a few amazing places on the way!  We saw the ice sculptures at Lake Louise, the Ice fields Parkway (one of the top 10 drives in the world) and a glacier (Columbia Ice field).  We were fortunate that the snow held off til we'd reached Jasper so we got awesome views the whole way up!

Ice Castle on Lake Louise

Columbia Ice field

We spend our last night in a Lodge in Jasper and enjoyed most of the next day with our hosts before getting our train at 5:30pm. The snow was pretty bad that night which meant the jeep had trouble starting. In Canada during winter people plug their cars into the electrical sockets to prevent the oil and engine parts freezing. A device called a block heater built into the engine does this while you're parked, just don't forget to plug it in when its -25c! Luckily Stephen and Susan made it home safe, good job they had a four wheel drive vehicle.

On the final day in Alberta we caught the Via rail train due for Toronto, almost 2,000miles over four days!

Details of the train journey to come.