Dining on the Rocky Mountaineer, Part 1
I didn’t cook today. And that’s what we had for lunch.
We spent a long, fantastic day on board the Rocky Mountaineer from Calgary to Kamloops, and tomorrow to Vancouver. Although we’ve made this drive through the mountains a few times yearly for almost as long as we can remember, it’s great to get a new perspective of the Rockies, away from the highway, without the distractions of driving. It’s also pretty rad to be able to drive directly through a mountain, in a tunnel just slightly larger than the train itself, out on the vestibule (everybody said that word a lot today) – the little platform you can go stand on between cars.
We hopped on board in Calgary at the base of the tower – early – check in time was 5:30-6. By 7:30 we were in the dining car, eating warm croissants, fruit plates and eggs Benedict with Montreal smoked meat and tarragon Hollandaise.
The dining car was exactly what I expected it to be – quaint booths with pressed white tablecloths and napkins and silverware. We should all have been in black and white, impeccably dressed, with fancy hats with hat pins and white gloves.
I had expected to ride in a regular sort of train car, but we were up top, under wraparound windows that encased us all as if we were in a greenhouse. They were tinted on top to prevent glare, but the view was spectacular, with barely a cloud in the sky.
It was a relaxed ride to Banff, where we picked up another 400 passengers and had a toast – with orange juice and sparkling peach juice – en masse to cheers the beginning of our trip.
Adam, our handlebarmoustached tour guide of sorts (who was so knowledgable about everything from trains to glacial ice that I started calling him Google) gave play by plays of the interesting peaks we passed, and about rivers and wildlife and answered technical questions from train buffs, and passengers were encouraged to call out if they witnessed wildlife out the window.
We wandered through the spiral tunnels into Yoho (translation: “awesome”) and Kicking Horse Canyon – spectacular from outside and in our seets. (Outside, between the cars, was a great vantage point for the spiral tunnels.) It’s a sightseeing train, not a high-speed train, so we went 30-80 k – for much of the way – it seemed you could jump off and run alongside, almost. (Well not me, personally.)
We passed the old original wood train station in Lake Louise! Where they filmed part of Dr. Zhivago!
I was always under the impression you slept on the train, but when you think about it, you’d miss so much of the scenery if it got dark and you had to sleep. Besides, after almost 14 hours on board (even though there was plenty of leg and stretching room), it was nice to get off at around 7 pm and find our luggage waiting for us in a hotel room in Kamloops. (Interesting fact: the luggage doesn’t go on the train, but is sent ahead on a truck, so arrives far ahead of us.) They instructed us to leave our luggage in our rooms tomorrow morning, and they would be picked up and magically reappear at our hotel in Vancouver.
Hopping on board now. Will report back again soon!
May 12 2011 | leftovers | 25 Comments »
