Our last overseas trip, and The Ocean

Or First World problems before the wheels fell completely off!

Part 3 - Halifax back to Montreal, and home

After a bit more of a look around Halifax, we arrived at the station in plenty of time, hoping to change our sleeping car berth from our allocated Renaissance car, to one of the two cabins in the Park Car.

Halifax railway station booking hall

The booking system was down, so that wasn't able to be done, and we were told to speak to the train manager when we boarded, which didn't work out for us, he promised to come back to us, but we didn't see him again. We later figured out an off duty Via employee had snaffled it, so not to be.

Not the most attractive scene, but the jumbled ice and mud of the Bay of Fundy was rather interesting.

Once again, we settled in upstairs in the Park Car until lunch, then back again to watch the passing scenery. The railway skirts the Bay of Fundy which has a massive tidal variance of 16 metres. Due to the wintery time of year, there were chunks of ice, some the size of a small car sitting on the mud flats, waiting for the water to come back in and re-float them.

Passing back through Moncton, and into heavy forests, it was snowing again, watching it whipping up behind the train which was quite mesmerising, I'm not sure the crews of the trains we crossed standing trackside giving a rolling observation were quite so enthralled!

After watching our train pass, the crew set the road for their train to rejoin the mainline, I was certainly glad to be getting the photo from inside the train, not throwing the points.

The train, and Park Car were fairly empty, so we had the run of the observation lounge and dome with barely anyone else to be seen.

I really enjoy sitting up in the front of the dome late into the evening, with the headlight of the locomotive, and lights from the carriages cutting through the countryside, sipping on a whisky and just relaxing with the movement of the train, there really isn't much I'd rather be doing.

The following morning, sunrise had us back near Quebec, the same routine of pulling into Sainte Foy, before reversing across the river, this time into the frozen Joffre railyards in Charny, on the southern bank of the St. Lawrence river.

Icicles hanging from the signals, and glassy ice covered tracks at Joffre.

While the 500 km section north of here to Matapédia was covered in darkness both ways, we now had daylight all the way to Montreal for the last 250km, or three hours of our trip.

Being early March, the backyard swimming pools and gardens were frozen and snowy as we passed through towns, similarly paddocks, creeks and rivers were icy, all the way into Montreal.

Icy fields, and a neat looking farm as we sped through the countryside

We crossed the St Lawrence River, and Canal de la Rive Sud on an impressive 26 span truss bridge, complete with lifting section over the canal, which forms part of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Adirondack, Amtrak’s service between Montreal and New York passing The Ocean on the St Lawrence River bridge.

Not long after crossing the river, we arrived at the former Canadian National Station, Gare centrale de Montréal or  less exciting in English, Montreal Central Station. Opened in 1943, the booking hall has some stunning Art Deco reliefs on the walls, with plenty of light, however when viewed from outside, the station is a bit disappointing.

Some of the bas relief decorations in Montreal Central.

It was constructed with the sale of air rights above the tracks firmly in mind, and a mere five years after it opened, the International Civil Aviation Organisation built over the northeast part of the station, followed in 1956 by the CN railway hotel, The Queen Elizabeth on the western portion in 1956. A carpark for the new CN head office in 1960, and finally it was hidden by the 1966 Terminal Tower.

There's a lot of parallels with Melbourne in the same era, Gas and Fuel towers anyone?

The stunning Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral sits across the street from the railway station, with its collection of inelegant high rise buildings on top.

We didn't pass up the opportunity to stay one more night in a Railway Hotel, The Queen Elizabeth has a direct connection to the station, and has hosted some famous guests over the years, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono, where they had their fourth 'Bed in for peace', and recorded 'Give Peace a Chance'.

The staff were great, and looked up to see if the room was occupied, which it was while we were there, otherwise we would have had a tour!

We spent the remainder of the day wandering around the city, some great old streets and buildings close to the river around the old city and port area, and a mix of old and new further uptown.

Montreal has a mix of French and English looking buildings, with a dash of New York and 60s Melbourne thrown in to the mix, it was an interesting city to explore.

A great example of the cultural mix was the Hector Guimard Art Nouveau Paris Metro station entrance in Square Victoria.

Next day, late in the afternoon it was time to head for home. Conversations were becoming more Covid focused, and stories of shortages in supermarket in Australia were starting to become widespread, so we weren't really sure what to expect.

We were unfortunately transiting through LA again, but with several hours up our sleeve at the end of our six hour flight, we should have been fine…

Our plane was late getting away, which wasn't a massive problem, later landing, and then we sat on the tarmac waiting to dock at our gate. Time was starting to slip by as we waited, and waited, an announcement came over that an Air Alaska plane was sitting at our gate, and would move shortly. It didn't.

We were starting to run out of time, so after a discussion with the hostess, she was able to get a message through to the Qantas gate to say we were on the way, sort of.

Eventually the plane taxied to the gate, and were hustled to the front of the queue and wished good luck!

Our time exploring the terminal at our earlier forced layover came in very handy, knowing which way we had to go, and the shortest route through the maze of tunnels between terminals at the airport..

We were literally running, with our names being called over the PA, and as we got closer, Qantas staff directing us where to go.

We were last on the plane, with the doors being closed behind us, dripping with sweat, and panting, I'm sure the other passengers were wrapped to see us (particularly those eying off the vacant seats).

Back in Melbourne on Sunday morning to find out if we'd arrived after midnight that night we'd have to quarantine at home for two weeks.

Monday it was into the office, grab my computer and a spare monitor, and then adapt to working at home, like so many others who were lucky enough to have jobs, and be able to.

It was a great trip, with a few little first world adventure problems on the way, but that's what memories are made of.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading what turned out to be rather a long piece, I’ll be focusing on some of the steam and otherwise tours that are running at the moment in the next post.