Friday morning sees me back at Le Gare Central or The Central
Station in Montreal for the final train ride of my Canada package tour,
to Toronto. From here on in I'm on my own until I hit Vegas, where
the pre-booked tours begin once again.
I have booked 2 nights back at the Royal York, 1 - because it's across
the road from the station, 2 - it's within walking distance of the Hummingbird
Centre, where I will be going to
Rain: The Beatles Experience,
and 3 - because it's also within walking distance of the CN tower, which
I missed out on the first time around.
I also have to check on what trip I can get for free from ViaRail
for the Jasper to Toronto delayed trip.
Well, here I am, back at the Royal York. First item on the agenda
is head straight back to the station to see what I can organize for Sunday.
I'm standing in a queue that seems like it's a mile long and moving
rather slowly. The people for the next departing train are called
to the front and one of the ticket counters closes, makes sense, not. It's
funny though, they don't call them counters, or booths, but wickets. Guess
it's 'cause someone bails out when it gets busy.
It gets around to my turn finally only to be told I need to go 2 wickets
down. No problem, I swap places with the next guy in line, then
the people for the next departing train are brought forward. I could
be here all night at this rate. Finally I'm being seen to only to
be told that my ticket was a package and in such cases the discount doesn't
apply, plus, I will have to do a return trip on the same day and there
is only one place I can make it there and back, Niagara Falls. Now
that would be nice if I hadn't already been there, but to go again, in
the same season, really doesn't appeal to me. Anyway, she's taken
a copy of my ticket and I'm to go back tomorrow when a manager is available
to talk to. If they can't do anything for me, then I guess I'll just
have to wear it and check out of Toronto on Sunday as planned and head to
New York. From there I can make my way down the eastern seaboard.
I did read somewhere on the net that I can get from NY to Boston,
by train for $15.00 so I'm going to be checking that one out more carefully.
Saturday morning at 10am I go back to Union Station and ask for the Supervisor,
Kimmi, who had received the message from the lady the day before so was
ready for me. She was excellent. I received a cash refund for
my discounted fare as she understood that making a day trip was a bit too
much to ask of this poor old chook. Kimmi also connected me to Amtrak
to check on trains from New York to South Carolina, but I would arrive in
SC at 1.45am, a nasty hour to be asking Gigi to pick up so I opt for 2 nights
in New York, a full day on Monday to do some sightseeing, and from there
I can check out whether I'll have time for a quick visit to Boston then fly
to SC. All in all, a very satisfactory outcome for me. Now it's
time to use up my day here in Toronto.
Heading across the road for the walk to the CN Tower I notice the tour
bus I took on my first visit, remember the one that was cut short with
a detour, well, there was Grant at the wheel again, so I asked if I could
purchase another ticket and do the full tour this time. He only had
2 passengers on board so I figured there would be room for one more. Of
course I could do the full trip and at no charge. The two ladies were
from Montreal so we had a nice chat about the things I saw there. We
left them at that castle I saw on the first trip around so it was back to
Grant and me for a while so we chatted about places to visit on our next
holidays, he gave me lots of tips for Canada and of course I told him he
had to make it to Perth one day. The Perth tourism office should be
paying me for this trip.
Another lady, from Chile, joined us for a while and when we got to the
stop where I got on, Grant asked her if she'd like to go for a short walk
and stretch her legs, he needed to stretch his. He walked me to Union
Station where he showed me how to get to the CN Tower without having to
walk outside in the cold.
The view from the top of the tower was awesome, and if it had been a
clearer day we would have been able to see Niagara Falls from up there,
mind you, I probably could have still seen it if the sun hadn't been in
my eyes, which made the haze a little difficult to deal with. Standing
waiting for the lift to take me higher up, to the pod, I could feel the
tower swaying, it was a really weird feeling. The lift travelled
was pretty fast but I can't rememer if she said 22mph or 22kph, not a trip
for the weak hearted. I do have some photo's of the height and other
details of the tower though so I didn't have to remember it all, or write
it down.
Back to the hotel at 4, call Raye to let her know I'm back so she could
head into town for the concert. Wow, what an experience that was. The
guys that did the show were excellent, John you would have loved it. I
hope they come to Perth sometime, I'd definitely go see them again. The
whole show was well put together, with large screens playing 60's commercials
during their costume change breaks. Even the opening introduction
was humourous, after the whole welcome ladies and gentlemen etc, the closing
line was something like "and please, while you are in the theatre, no smoking,
ANYTHING. Guess you really had to be there to appreciate it though.
The audience was an interesting mix of ages, from teenagers to senior
citizens, from the jean clad to the suit clad, but everyone had a great
time, joined in with the singing, clapping and dancing. The guys got
a grand total of 5 standing ovations, we just didn't want them to go.
Raye, thank you so much for arranging that for us, and it was so wonderful
to finally meet you. I will be back again, in warmer weather, and
an escape to the cottage will definitely be on the cards.
11pm and I'm finally in bed, an early start in the morning for my train
trip to New York.
