Back at work and there's snow!

So back to the UK and it snows overnight, which is pretty typical as most of the holiday didn't feature any snow.

After getting the bus to work we found a new hobby to spend our lunctime doing. Building a snowman!

Leaving the USA!

I should be flying home tonight, hopefully weather in the UK won't scupper my plans!

Baltimore

I drove down to Baltimore after getting back from Canada. It was an ok drive and only took just under 4 hours of actual driving time.

I found a service station on the way down which had a Popeye's restaurant in there. For those of you not in the know it is Louisiana Fried Chicken and a bit like KFC. Usefully they let you refill your drink so I topped up before continuing the journey.

Once in Baltimore we went on a British style pub crawl featuring several pubs including the "Best Bar in America", which was a bit of a disappointment, and a bar where they brew the beer on site. Notable beers were Dog Fish Head beer (named after the brewers 3 favourite things) and a beer called Ossy (named after Ossy Osbourne).

The 2nd day included some sight seeing of Baltimore.

Here is the Washington Monument and a statue of Lafayette who is big in America.


If you look at Washington closely it does look like he's being rude though.


The views of the harbour from the top of the hill which used to house a fort till the British destroyed it in the Revolutionary War was quite good, but it wasn't the most

picturesque place I've been on my trip.



After that we went on a longer walk, including chats about informationon The Wire.

Vancouver

I took the ferry back to Vancouver from the headland which this time I stayed awake for, unfortunately it was seriously cold this time. But I did manage to take some pictures this time. Here is a picture of Mount Ranier which is the largest mountain in this section of the Rockies. It is just outside Seattle.



My stay in Vancouver was good fun. Although the Pub Crawl organised by the Hostel did seem a bit lame, 2 pubs and a club seemed a bit of a poor effort.

I did go for walks round Vancouver and Burnaby whilst there though, which was pretty nice to do.

Here is the clock in Gastown which is a steam powered clock.

After that I walked through China Town and caught the new Skytrain to Burnaby so I could walk around the lake and the suburb.

After this I walked around the park in Burnaby and got this lovely view of the skyline in the Vancouver area.
After that I found a rowing lake with grandstand and boat stand.

How about this for a view whilst rowing though?

Victoria

From Vancouver I headed straight out to Victoria on the ferry. There was some spectacular scenery on the ferry ride to Vancouver Island through the channels of islands, unfortunately I fell asleep. I got woken up by one of the ferry staff as we got into the port and everyone else had headed for the exit. Ooops.

Whe I got into Victoria I made my way to my accomodation and crashed for a while as apparently the 25 hours on a train and then moving around with a nice 20+ kg rucksack on is a bit tiring.

When I went out to get dinner later that evening I discovered that the Police had cordoned off a block as the scaffold on the building opposite had started to come away from the building. Here is a picture of some of the aftermath.


I went for a walk into town and looked around. I had brunch in a bakery called Willies which served some lovely apple pie. I returned for pancakes on my last morning in Victoria too as it was so good. I failed to make it to Billy's Bistro when it was open.

Here is the Empress Hotel which is one of the most famous buildings in Victoria.


After walking past the legislature I walked up to Beacon Hill Park to look out over the and the bay. The park is pretty odd, with a strange mix of American and British cultures.

Here is a picture from the headland.

Fraser Valley

I woke in the morning coming out of the Rockies and into the Fraser Valley. I woke before sun up, so got to see the sun coming up over the mountains.




The views were still nice, but once we got into the Greater Vancouver area it started to get a bit industrial.

Jasper to Kamloops

The journey to Kamloops took in some lovely scenery along the way.
The camera doesn't really do justice to the views which you can see from the train windows.

Unfortunately the light started to fade which meant I had to start switching to some nice artistic black and white pictures.




After it got dark one of my fellow passengers suggested we make a video which he was going to use on his website for advertising. It basically consisted of everyone making a sign saying where they were from and then all dancing along to a song.

Here's my sign along with another passenger's.
We had passengers from England, Quebec, Ontario, Victoria, Winnipeg, Moncton, Germany, Mexico and Japan all joining in.

I'll post a link when I find it.

Jasper

Due to the earlier delays at Edmonton and the freight trains which were given priority over the we only got given a 45 minute stop over in this apparently pretty first ski resort on the line.


Here a couple of pics I took before joining the queue in the take away to avoid the expensive train cafe prices.

Wildlife before Jasper

The train journey to Jasper did feature a couple of cool highlights which included some Elks, which unfortunately passed far too quickly for me to take a picture of the Stag, and a Big Horn sheep. Apparently I missed the wolf near Saskatoon.

These pics (taken on the move) are a bit rubbish, but were the best I could get.

The Elks show a young male and some females and the Big Horn is on the move up the mountain.

Journey to Jasper

Once we eventually got going the views from the train were somewhat hampered by the continuing snow storm, which had also kind of snowed up the views from the Skyline Lounge on the train (which is a sort of domed viewing area) leading to the view below.



The views on the approach to the Jasper of the foothills of the Rockies were still pretty spectacular. Although trying to get the pictures was tricky through the windows of a moving train as there were lots of trees getting in the way.

Here is one of the valleys before getting to the Rockies.



Here is a nice view of one of the foothills, which nicely shows the details of one of the hills.



This is a nice shot of the train heading into a bend whilst heading into the Rockies towards Jasper.

Edmonton departure

Train Ride From Edmonton

Having checked the directions from the Edmonton HI-Hostel I had planned on getting up nice and early for my train ride from Edmonton to Vancouver.

Fortunately for me, I managed to get a lift to the station from the very nice Canadian chap staying in the same dorm as me. Fortunate, because the "4 block" walk from the bus stop to the train station was the perimeter of the Airport and also because the first real snow storm of the year hit whilst on my way there.

The station is not quite what I expected, as there was absolutely nothing there. There were a couple of vending machines and the check-in desks. Other than that there was zip diddly to do at the station.

Here is the train as it sits in Edmonton station. The train should have left before it got light enough for these pictures, but there was a longish delay caused by the fueling truck being fubard.

Edmonton

My flight to Edmonton from Toronto was pretty uneventful other than the Spanish language student being moved out of the Emergency Exit row and the Air Stewardess having a birthday.

The trip from the Airport to the Youth Hostel once I arrived was easy as the shuttle bus dropped me off right outside. The only real problem was that the temperature was a little lower than I'd expected as it was -13 C when I got there. Bit of a shock to the system.

I also learnt that losing your hat when it's this cold is a BAD idea. I bought a lovely fluffy eared had as a replacement. It really was worthwhile!

I found a park to walk down some lethal looking steps into and walked along the North Saskatchwan River. Both were good, but I can see why Edmonton Rowing Club stops functioning in October and has an indoor tank for training.

There was also an ice sculpture being made ready for unveiling that night.



I liked Edmonton as a city. It had good transport around it and friendly people. If only it wasn't soooo cold!