Looking back

On both of our transcontinental train trips this year, we have been sitting backwards.  Instead of seeing where we're going, we've been seeing where we've been.  Instead of rushing towards the scenic points and passing them in a flash, we've been enjoying a longer view, the chance to see more detail.

Hmmmm ...

Friends, family, food and festivals

Who knew they raised water buffalo in Stirling, Ontario?  Well, they do, and Mimi took us to the Stirling Water Buffalo Festival on Saturday to check it out.  There were all manner of water buffalo products to try - milkshakes,  ribs, cheese, yarn.  (Well, the yarn was actually alpaca, but I bought some anyway.)  

We also went to a ciderie in Wapoos where we had a great lunch and got caught in a torrential downpour.  

The rain followed us back to Joyce's house where we sat on her porch and shared a little vino.

Rain cleared up the next day, though, and we were able to eat outside at the Waterfront Pub with our friends the Tomlinsons.   Jean and Jim drove down from Uxbridge just to see us, even though Jean had only returned the night before from a walking tour in England.   

Sunday night we had dinner at Rick and Fran's - their famous lasagna and salad.  We had a great visit with them, as well as Thomas and Richard.  What nice young men those Rowley boys turned out to be!

Monday we visited the Napanee District Community Foundation,  and wandered around town.  Dinner was at Joyce's, another home cooked meal, at which we shared a bottle of Tom's birthday wine. 

Tuesday morning our Hostess with the Mostest, Eunice, invited Joyce and Rick to have breakfast with us at her B&B.   Yummy.  Then we went to lunch at Chez Piggy with Mimi before she dropped us off at the train station in Kingston.  

And here we are again ...  WiFi in Winnipeg!

Quebec City

Here we are sitting in the D'Orsay Restaurant in Quebec City  by an open window, enjoying the balmy September breeze, and looking across the street to the Hotel de Ville.  We could be in Europe,  except that the streets here are wider, cleaner, and less populated.

Quebec City is one of our favourite places to visit, and the Clarendon Hotel <http://www.hotelclarendon.com/about-en.html> one of our favourite places to stay.  It is famous, not for being Quebec City's oldest operating hotel, but for being the favourite drinking hole of a young wireless navigator when he was stationed in Ancienne-Lorette during the war.  Later, during the 50's, Tom met with then-Minister of Social Services, Rene Levesque, at breakfast in this same hotel.  

My only complaint about QC is that shopping for the Baby Grands is quite difficult here.  Not what to buy, but when to stop ...

En route

As we travel on the train from Montreal to Quebec City,  we are struck by the realization that we enjoy the journey as much as the destination.  It reminds Tom of my friend's comments about the labyrinth.

Montreal

Rain:  I can't remember a time that we have visited Montreal when it has rained this hard.  We managed to find a long enough break in the weather to make our way up the hill to the McGill bookstore to pick up some memorabilia for the "Baby Grands".

Mum:  Tom finally got a chance to see Mum's new place, and agrees that it's pretty fabulous.  Mum treated us to Tom's favourite gourmet Quebec meal - St Hubert BBQ!

Poutine:  Finally tried poutine.  To quote Brian from Manchester,  "It was interesting, but probably not something we'd order again."  Beer was good, though.

Chris and Maude:  What a lovely man Tom's grandson has become!  Had great visit with Chris and Maude this evening, challenging Maude with the various relationships in the Thompson/Rowley families.

Finally:  Does anybody have any idea what this sign means? 

The Eagle has landed

My ears are full of noise.  My legs feel like I'm still on the train.  The bed in our room in the Hotel Bonaventure is bigger than our entire room on The Canadian.  

Watching the world go by

We had breakfast this morning with a man from Kent, England, who loves travelling by train as much as we do.  He says that when you fly,  you spend all your time in the cities.  When you travel by train, though, he says, you get to see the whole of a place.  You sit in your seat and watch the world go by.

Train travel is very sociable, and remarkably egalitarian.  It pretty well has to be.  The accommodation, even the two person bedroom we have, is very small - VERY small.  So the suitcase we bring on board is equally small.  Which means that we pretty much wear the same clothes every day.  Not much opportunity to show off your designer duds.  And even if you just happened to bring those fancy clothes, there's no place to hang them.  Tom and I fold up our clothes each night and place them in a pile on the floor just inside our room door, the only place we don't step between the beds and the bathroom.  By day three, everyone looks a little rumpled.

And then there's the shower.  There's one in each car that we all share, and we time our rising, not by the breakfast schedule, but by how many people are likely to be ahead of us for the shower.  I'm thinking 5:00 am tomorrow, before our 9:30 am scheduled arrival in Toronto, to beat the crowd.

Mealtimes are a chance to meet new people, as every table in the dining car seats four people, and every table is filled. We have a warm and interesting group of passengers on board.  There's Jan and Bob from Eugene, Oregon - a warm, witty woman and fellow knitter, and an engaging and amusing fellow who trades wisecracks and puns with Tom.  There's Brian and Lynn from Manchester, in Canada for the first time.  We felt it to be an hospitable touch to introduce Brian to that quintessential Canadian drink, the Bloody Caesar (that spelling just doesn't look right).  He confessed the it was not something he would likely order on his own,  but admitted it was "interesting".  David, from Vancouver, has a featherweight CPAP machine half the size of Tom's.   Krystal and Kristoff are mother and son troubadours from Petawawa, Ontario,  paying their passage by playing for the guests, she on the violin and he on the bassoon. Oh, yes, and Kristoff is studying nano technology at the University of Waterloo.  Then there's Celene from Portland,  Oregon, also a knitter - of socks - who never heard of the Sock Summit!  That was held in Portland!  Twice!

And the fellow from Kent - he stopped by this afternoon to tell us that he's decided to take that Winnipeg to Churchill train trip we told him about! 

These boots are made for walkin' - redux

Dear Mayor and Council,

We love Victoria!

Within months of moving to Victoria in 2006, we traded in our car for a shopping cart and became dedicated pedestrians. Though we do, on occasion, use public transit or taxicabs, we find the city best explored on foot.   Victoria is a very walkable city.

Nine years later, our circumstances have changed somewhat.  My husband, while still very mobile, now uses a walker.  Those minor inconveniences on sidewalks that we previously encountered when he was able-bodied have now become serious impediments to getting around.

There are three specific problems I would like to draw to your attention:

1.    Sidewalks
Many of our sidewalks are too narrow.   A person with a walker takes up more than half the width of a standard sidewalk.  Motorized wheelchairs, scooters and baby carriages take up even more. 

The sidewalks are cluttered with all manner of obstructions – telephone poles, parking meters, sign posts, sandwich boards, café seating.  Some homeowners further add to this obstacle course by letting their plantings overgrow the sidewalk.

We’re turning into a population that walks single file on the sidewalks.

2.    Sidewalk ramps
Sidewalk ramps often don’t line up with crosswalks or intersections, requiring persons with assistive devices to cross streets partially in the roadway in order to access the ramp. 

Many of the sidewalk ramps have small lips on them such that they are not flush with the road.  For an able-bodied person, a half-inch lip is insignificant.  For a person using a walker, such a lip requires lifting the front of the device – no small feat when one has a balance problem.

The newer sidewalk ramps have solved both these problems, having been constructed both wider and lower, but there are many more old style ramps in the city. 

3.    Pedestrian crossing signals
Pedestrian crossing signals are just not long enough for someone using a walker (and, I would suspect, many able-bodied seniors) to cross the street safely.  The timing needs to be changed to accommodate our aging population. 

I am aware that the city has a Pedestrian Master Plan from 2008.  It is my hope that the City of Victoria will revisit this plan and make correcting these pedestrian deficiencies a priority. 

Respectfully submitted,

Gwyn Thompson

The Labyrinth

I walked a labyrinth for the first time today.

A labyrinth is not a maze - there are no tricky paths that require you to puzzle out each step so as not to get lost on the way.  It's a well marked path that leads to the centre and back out again.

When I was finished, I felt physically relaxed and mentally calm.

The friend I walked with said it made her see that, even though your path backtracks from time to time, you're still on the path to your goal.  She also said it made her realize that it was important to enjoy the experience of the journey, not just rush to the end.

Wow.

http://www.christchurchcathedral.bc.ca/index.php/about-us/our-cathedral/labyrinth-info

Rollin', rollin'

I love sleeping on the train.

It's certainly not because the gentle rhythm of the train lulls me to sleep; there's nothing gentle about it at all.  Sleeping on the train is bouncy and noisy.  There's even a net on the top bunk to prevent one from being flung to the floor.

But I love the adventure of travelling miles in my sleep; of the train slipping like a burglar through unsuspecting towns at night.  I love to wake up when the train stops in the middle of the night and watch sleepy people get on and off as they start or end their travels.  And I love waking up in the morning to see a totally different landscape outside the window.

Next week ...