New York, New York!!

We caught a train to New York; the trip took 13 hours and went via Niagara Falls (we didn’t see the Falls themselves), Rochester and Buffalo. The latter has some wonderful public buildings, such as its City Hall, an art deco beauty visible from the train.

New York, New York. What a place! We were really well located in the Holiday Inn Downtown on West 57^th Street right on the edge of a “real” neighbourhood; lots of apartment buildings right across the street, including one with a fairy-light reindeer that moved its head from left to right!!

Among the highlights were: a walk along a bit of the Hudson River, seeing the “working” part of things like the Sanitation Department barges and trucks; strolling along Columbus Ave and looking at the Lincoln Centre, and several art deco buildings that are connected with the Centre for Performing Arts; walking around the Gramercy and Flat Iron area, seeing the Flat iron building itself. 

We also the wonderful art deco MetLife building, Madison Square, and the Supreme Court of State of NY with its Tiffany style glass dome ceiling. We had coffee across the street from the square and sat at a huge picture window with a view of the Empire State Building – perfect!

 Went to the Rockefeller Center and went up to the 60^th floor – Top of the Rock – and enjoyed 360 degree panoramic views, including looking at the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings. We also got a unique view of St Patrick’s Cathedral from above and the Rockefeller Christmas lights.

 Another day we visited the restored and majestic NY Public Library – more great carved timber ceilings and we saw the famous continuous manuscript written by Jack Kerouac. Grand Central Station was another treat; it’s fully restored to its former glory and we dined at the Oyster Bar – it’s the only time we’ve ever been presented with a menu featuring 14 or so different kinds of oysters!

 Probably the major highlight was to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, stopping to take photos of the graceful cables and gothic towers, the spectacular view of Manhattan and then strolling around the reclaimed and beautified water front of Brooklyn (as Julian puts it, an area previously notable for its suitability for dumping bodies!!) 

We also walked under the Manhattan Bridge, a beautiful piece of architecture built of iron and forming a wonderful contrast to the stone gothic towers of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Another day we caught the bus up to the Cloisters at the Northern tip of Manhattan and had a brief walk beside the Hudson – it was a bit chilly for too much sight seeing. I have mentioned the buses. The public transport system in NY is fantastic, and for $7 a day, you buy a Metcard, which works on buses, the subway and some ferries; it’s fabulous and enables you to navigate around that busy island really easily.

New Year’s Eve was a great experience. We dined at an old Italian family restaurant with my classmate from the Italian course in Perugia – Margaret – and her son Paul (her husband John was coming too, until he was hit by severe influenza). I am so glad we were able to catch up. On our last morning we decided to go for a walk in Central Park. It was freezing – well, below actually! It was 14 Fahrenheit or about minus 6C. Nevertheless we stuck around to see little kids ice skating and some pale sun seeping through the bare trees.

New York, New York!!

## I've decided to go ahead and just post the text to this part of the adventure at the moment. Unfortunately, Google seems to be experiencing some problems with uploading photos. Consequently, we're all experiencing the problem!1 As soon as I can, I'll repost this with the photos. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the story … 

We caught a train to New York; the trip took 13 hours and went via Niagara Falls (we didn’t see the Falls themselves), Rochester and Buffalo. The latter has some wonderful public buildings, such as its City Hall, an art deco beauty visible from the train.

New York, New York. What a place! We were really well located in the Holiday Inn Downtown on West 57^th Street right on the edge of a real neighbourhood; lots of apartment buildings right across the street, including one with a fairy-light reindeer that moved its head from left to right!!

Among the highlights were: a walk along a bit of the Hudson River, seeing the “working” part of things like the Sanitation Department barges and trucks; strolling along Columbus Ave and looking at the Lincoln Centre, and several art deco buildings that are connected with the Centre for Performing Arts; walking around the Gramercy and Flat Iron area, seeing the Flat iron building itself and also the wonderful art deco MetLife building, Madison Square, and the Supreme Court of State of NY with its Tiffany style glass dome ceiling. We had coffee across the street from the square and sat at a huge picture window with a view of the Empire State Building – perfect!

Went to the Rockefeller Center and went up to the 60^th floor – Top of the Rock – and enjoyed 360 degree panoramic views, including looking at the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings. We also got a unique view of St Patrick’s Cathedral from above and the Rockefeller Christmas lights.

Another day we visited the restored and majestic NY Public Library – more great carved timber ceilings and we saw the famous continuous manuscript written by Jack Kerouac. Grand Central Station was another treat; it’s fully restored to its former glory and we dined at the Oyster Bar – it’s the only time we’ve ever been presented with a menu featuring 14 or so different kinds of oysters!

Probably the major highlight was to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, stopping to take photos of the graceful cables and gothic towers, the spectacular view of Manhattan and then strolling around the reclaimed and beautified water front of Brooklyn (as Julian puts it, an area previously notable for its suitability for dumping bodies!!) We also walked under the Manhattan Bridge, a beautiful piece of architecture built of iron and forming a wonderful contrast to the stone gothic towers of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Another day we caught the bus up to the Cloisters at the Northern tip of Manhattan and had a brief walk beside the Hudson – it was a bit chilly for too much sight seeing. I have mentioned the buses. The public transport system in NY is fantastic, and for $7 a day, you buy a Metcard, which works on buses, the subway and some ferries; it’s fabulous and enables you to navigate around that busy island really easily.

New Year’s Eve was a great experience. We dined at an old Italian family restaurant with my classmate from the Italian course in Perugia – Margaret – and her son Paul (her husband John was coming too, until he was hit by severe influenza). I am so glad we were able to catch up. On our last morning we decided to go for a walk in Central Park. It was freezing – well, below actually! It was 14 Fahrenheit or about minus 6C. Nevertheless we stuck around to see little kids ice skating and some pale sun seeping through the bare trees.

Ten thousand K’s across Canada and the USA

Welcome to the first edition of Adventures in the world!! 

We start our journey in Vancouver, where on 19 December 2007, we began a four and a half week trip into winter wonderland scenery and fabulous cities in Canada and the US. In short, the trip was MARVELOUS - possibly the best trip we've ever had - and that's saying something. 

Well … let's get this show on the road!

Vancouver, British Columbia

We stayed in Vancouver for 4 nights at a terrific Holiday Inn in downtown. It is centrally located between the waterfront, the main shopping areas and False Creek, a harbour area spanned by the large Granville Bridge that takes you across to Granville Island and beyond. Vancouver is a pretty city and we explored it on a “hop on/hop off” bus for a couple of days. 

We visited Granville Island; traveled through downtown, including the Waterfront and Gastown where Water Street is powered by gas lamps and paved in cobblestones. We stopped in Stanley Park, a 400 hectare, lush wilderness with beautiful trees, Haida Indian totems, beaches and walking tracks and from where we saw views of Grouse Mountain.  Essentially we just chilled out in Vancouver as we wanted to get ourselves into the zone for our 3 night trans Canadian train trip from Vancouver to Toronto.

Le Canadien: trans Canada rail, Vancouver to Toronto

We boarded Le Canadien (Canada’s ViaRail flagship train) on December 23^rd at 5.30pm and began the first leg of a journey of a lifetime, traveling over 10,000 kilometers by rail across Canada (from Vancouver to Toronto) and then to New York, Chicago and finally San Francisco. We hired a car in San Francisco, and began a road trip from there down to Los Angeles covering a distance of some 600 kilometres.

 Le Canadien is a great train with restored stainless steel carriages from the 1950s. We had a sleeper (which presented it’s own hazards which I'll discuss later!) but entitled us to a lovely restaurant (great meals), use of the sky domes (spectacular glass domed observatories offering unbroken views from the top of the carriage) and the bullet shaped lounge in the Park car (last carriage), which gave you a 180 degree view of the scenery disappearing behind the train. 

The train journey crosses five states, starting in British Columbia, then Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario and covers 4,500 kilometres.

The hazards I spoke of included amusing diversions like inadvertently pressing the emergency call button instead of the flush button in our toilet (Sue); leaning on the emergency call button behind the headrest in our couch (Julian); bumping into the emergency call button in the shower (Julian) and generally causing our cabin attendant, Lawrie, no end of exercise!! Everything seems extremely funny in such a small space and you have to learn to be very methodical in your toilet and dressing preparations, otherwise you are constantly wanting to get your bag down from the overhead shelves. This can really wear out a friendship!!

We had Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. Candy canes and a present were left in our sleeper by Lawrie at bed turn down time. We got into the spirit too, donning our Santa hats (rather than breathing apparatus) on Christmas day and decorating our very own red felt Christmas tree (!) in our sleeper. And Santa came to Christmas breakfast too!

For the first part of the journey we followed the Thompson and North Thompson Rivers, past Kamloops, Mount Robson, the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, with its sheer rock sides and a cap of snow, to Jasper. The scenery was spectacular and never ending. We saw literally millions of snow laden Christmas trees, mountains covered in snow, frozen birch forests that looked like crystal sculptures and frozen rivers, lakes and icicles. Yep, you guessed it; it was cold, but gorgeous. Moving through the enclosed doorways and platforms between the carriages was always a giggle and a challenge. They were generally encased in snow and sometimes ice, necessitating regular sweeping by the porters.

 We stopped in Jasper, the highest point in the Canadian Rockies and spent a freezing hour roaming about near the station building. Some elk, about 6 in all, appeared on cue and strolled nonchalantly about some train carriages off to the side from where our train was parked. 

From Jasper we travelled beside the Athabasca and Fraser Rivers, the sides of which were frozen and frosty white. 

We also stopped in Edmonton on Christmas Eve where we were looking forward to catching up with my cousin Jan and her husband. Sadly, the train was 3 hours late and the stop time was shortened. Jan had waited 2 and a half hours and decided to pack it in (wisely). But she very kindly left us a bottle of champagne which we drank slowly on Christmas Day.

From here the train took us through the Prairies of Saskatchewan (through Saskatoon, no less!) through the lake filled landscape of Manitoba where we stopped briefly at Winnipeg, which lies at the junction of 3 rivers. The Cree called it “Winni-nipi” – muddy water. We continued on through many towns that owe their early development to the railroads, including Hudson, Sioux Lookout , Hornepayne and Sudbury.

Toronto, Ontario

Toronto got its name centuries ago from the Huron trbes, and is interpreted to mean “a place of meetings”. The Huron people would be in their element in any modern workplace!. After discovery by the French explorer Etienne Brule, it was a French trading post, then a British fort. Toronto was cold but pleasant enough, if rugged up, to stroll about. 

Again we were well located, with some good restaurants nearby, including a great family run Japanese place that had a great menu and saw us flourishing chopsticks on two nights. We ambled about and saw the St Lawrence Market (not as big or comprehensive as Victoria Market in Melbourne, but nice nevertheless); several historic buildings including the law courts; the CN Tower (just looked at it from the ground as it disappeared in a layer of cloud! You can just see it in the photo to the left, above). We also went to the Eaton Centre where the highlight was a huge Christmas tree (some 3 stories high) covered in more than 10,000 Swarowski crystals. It shimmered beautifully.

Our last word on Le Canadien – it's a fabulous train and we found the service very good. It is worth traveling Silver and Blue class if you can. We enjoyed the flexibility of choosing between our cabin (converted into 2 couches during the day and 2 bunks at night) and the various panoramic viewing lounges. The Bullet lounge had tea, coffee, cookies etc available continuously and the dining car offered gourmet meals and a good wine list.

Next stop … the Big Apple!