Saturday October 3, 2015

We both had a reasonably good sleep in our little bunk beds. I was awake early and watched the sunrise over frosted fields as we clickity clacked over the rails into Quebec.

We had a good breakfast in the dining car and enjoyed the company of an elderly lady from Niagara. She had crossed the country by train and was heading home.

The train arrived early in Montreal. The connector train to Toronto was late leaving, but at least the bikes are on-board the train, that is all that matters.

We arrived in Toronto at 4:00 p.m. instead of 3:10 p.m., we had to wait twice in sidings for the “money trains” (the freight trains) to go through. We managed to get our bikes from the baggage car and our bags from baggage return with no help from the Via Rail staff. My bar end shifter was moved inwards slightly, but apart from that both bikes appeared not to have been damaged. Maybe the plastic bags are a better idea.

We put the panniers on the bikes and headed out into the mayhem of traffic that is Toronto. Garmin, did a really good job of directing us to the Best Western hotel we had reserved. We had free points and had a very nice room, we ate in the restaurant and had an early night.

It’s going to be a cold ride up to Barrie tomorrow, hopefully the rain will hold off.