Day 4 - On to Toronto, then Montreal to Quebec City - Part 1

Tuesday May 12, 2009

Not a great day

Here, I have no pictures! There is a reason for that.

From the start of the trip I'd had a migraine. During this last night I started getting severe stomach pains. This was distressing as I had thought my operation would have taken care of that problem, at least for a few years. At 3:00 or 4:00 am the toilet started not working. It would flush sometimes and then not others. This is no joke for a person with crohn's disease. It was less of a joke when I had to throw up. Was it something I ate? I'd had exactly what Glenn did except for the small salad and tomato juice. Or was it a case of over-eating? I don't know but the good news was that after I got sick, I felt better, so the old pain was not back after all.

Anyway, it was a frustrating night and morning of dealing with the toilet.

There are buzzers in your room so you can ring for help. They cause a bell to ring in the hallway. Staff is on duty at 6:30 am but you are advised that you can reach them any time in their rooms, which are labelled. Glenn found our room attendant outside in the hallway early on. He didn't speak English well and blamed the problem on the fact that the train was at 80% capacity, which made me wonder what they did when it was at 100%.

With the problem unsolved and me still in desperate need of the bathroom, Glenn eventually rang the bell. The snippy dome car attendant happened along and snarled at Glenn that they weren't on duty until 6:30 am and she had been up until 2:00 am. As if it was our fault she was up that late, and anyway she apparently hadn't noticed it was now 6:35 am. Glenn bellowed back, “Don't talk to me like that!” and tore a strip off her. She lost the snide attitude with us after that and even managed to paste a weak smile on her face.

The story emerged that the tanks weren't cleaned out at the last stop. It was unfortunate that the trip ended on a down note after it had been so good until then. I could have easily sat on the train all the way to Halifax.

I heard someone the night before tell a photography fan that if he got up early he might see a long covered bridge. It might have been near Parry Sound. I had hoped to see it but by then we were so tired, we just took it easy and slowly got ready to depart the train. I remember seeing some nice houses along Lake Simcoe.

In Toronto we departed the Canadian. From there we travelled on commuter type trains, which are different. So, before I go onto fabulous Quebec City, where it felt that my holiday really began, I will talk next a bit about the inside of this train.

(It sure is easy posting when there are no photos to add.)