Back on the Rails

The day began with our take-away breakfast. This was identified as `Special K' on the tub but was nearer to very tasteless Rice Krispies. Mostly air and hardly any calories. We were ready in very good time and checked out of the hotel at 09:00, requesting a taxi to the station. The valet loaded our bags into a big black Chrysler with no driver, and no taxi meter as we noticed when we settled into the leather seats. There were items of clothing strewn on the rear seat, and a packed lunch on the floor. We never found out whose car this was, but it wasn't a taxi. So the bags and ourselves were loaded into the yellow Prius taxi parked alongside, its driver looking bewildered, and the valet looking sheepish.

The drive to the station was quite short but expensive, as is everything in this ghastly town. We found that only two trains per day go through, one in each direction, so the station was unmanned. Les had tied his carry-on bags together to make one out of two, using the straps bought yesterday. Who did he think he was going to fool? Stella wisely didn't even try this, but one strap did provide further security to her main bag as she was worried about the strength of the zip.

We had an hour to wait, and could not buy anything to eat later on the train as we are not allowed to bring food into the USA. The train was late arriving from Toronto, and there was a long delay before we could board, involving offloading the contents of the food service car, presumably again because of US Customs. We boarded half an hour late, and then were told that we would stop at Niagara USA over the river for US Customs clearance. All passengers had to file off the train and into the customs office, where the usual formalities were completed. All this took about 1.5 hours.

The baggage scare never materialised. There was actually lots of storage space, and the seats have excellent legroom. Nobody checked anything we took on board, despite dire warnings that Amtrak `strictly enforced' the policy, and the conductor observed us struggling up the steep steps into the train, laden with vast bags. There was a baggage gauge at the station with which we were obviously never going to comply.

When we at last got moving, the next announcement was that the food service car would be closed until further notice. When it did eventually open it was well after 2 pm and we had been on the train for 2.5 hours. We got in the queue and partially restored ourselves with some badly under-seasoned pasta salad (corrected by rushing off for salt and pepper), beer, bland fruit salad, and flexible cookies. $30 the lot. How we are looking forward to dinner!

There is wi-fi but only in the food car. So we have pop off to the back of the train every now and then. But the connection is not too bad and we were able to publish yesterday's blog post from there.

Dinner time has arrived. Microwaved pizza, quite nice crudités with a not quite so nice dip, beer of course, a banana, and another of those yogurt fruit and granola confections. $38 this time!

The train stopped at places with evocative names, such as Syracuse (not much to recommend it), and Rome. At the latter we didn't even see a real station, the train just seemed to stop for people to get off. We were hoping for some views of the city as we entered New York, but the track goes through a very long tunnel right up to Pennsylvania Station.

The station is a bit better than Toronto, with some information to guide passengers, but we had to stuff ourselves with our bags of course into a very small lift along with several other people. There was then a long walk to the taxi rank. The train was nearly an hour later than stated on the ticket, but there was no mention of this by the crew. So we arrived at the Holiday Inn at nearly 11 pm. It was absolutely heaving with noisy guests, and the room is small and tatty - and the most expensive on this trip. The bathroom plumbing looks ancient. We collapsed into bed and fell into fitful sleep.