Finishing up Day Thirteen: The train finally arrived into Toronto after 1:30 a.m., about four hours late. By the time we got the bags to the hotel (which, fortunately, was only across the street), it was after two in the morning.  The last few hours on the train were hard: we were tired and it was so dark we could not see anything until we reached the city limits. The lighted skyline was exciting, as we had not seen a big city since we left Vancouver. The station was a confused mess. The VERY late train was met by only two redcaps (that I could see) and a lot of frustrated travelers, (not to mention a few drunk ones too). I decided to haul the bags across the street myself: it took two trips, but it seemed worth not waiting my turn for the redcaps. The room at the Royal York was very nice; I showered and never even made it under the covers, but fell asleep on top of the bed some time after three in the morning.

Day Fourteen: We were scheduled to depart on a train to Montreal at 10 a.m., but since they did not accept baggage on that train we decided to switch to the noon train. (We also found out that they have published a new schedule and the train now leaves at 11:30, so we cut it close getting our suitcases to the station just minutes before the scheduled departure.) Again, getting suitcases across the street was easier said than done. The hotel was very grand and we will have to re-visit it when we come here for the 2003 NMRA National Convention. Our short time only allowed us to have breakfast, then it was off to the next train ride. 

Train 60 left the station on time at 11:30 a.m. and in no time we were on our way to Montreal. This is a very fast train: the posted speeds were 100 LRC 80/60 MPH (even though Canada uses the metric system, the trains still use miles). The train car attendant told me the LRC is an express that makes the Toronto-Montreal run in 3 1/2 hours non-stop. The line is double-tracked with mostly concrete ties: we passed a few freights and only stopped twice for meets or passes. Once another passenger train passed on the left hand rail( while we were slowed to a crawl) and then we switched over to the left and passed two freights headed our way on the right hand side. The meal service was good too. We started with snacks and the beverage of our choice; then soon afterwards we were served lunch. We had a choice of  meal times and entrees as well. The food was tasty: much better than airline type food, though eating at our seats reminded us of that type of service. The coach was comfortable with lots of leg room, but the seats were narrow.  (We'd really been getting used to first class comfort!) The car attendants moved us to "better seats" but then had to move us back when the rightful seat holders came back (they had boarded the coach section, not First Class). We saw and visited with two sets of traveling companions from the Transcontinental train: one set was returning home to New York and the other was going on to Quebec City via a connection in Montreal. 

The Queen Elizabeth Hotel is above the Central Train Station in the city of Montreal. After our bags arrived, a red cap took them up to the hotel lobby. Even though the hotel could not find our reservation, they took pity on two weary-looking travelers and just created a new reservation record for us so they could at least get us checked in while they dealt with the travel agency later).  So we got checked in and shown up to our room; and while Mary checked E-mail, I checked out the underground. I did not even stray out of the station level and still found lots of neat stuff. There were lots of food shops, bakeries, delis, restaurants, markets, pharmacies, travel agencies and an electronics store all around the station. The trains came in at a lower level with platforms right up to car floor height. they had up, but no down escalators to the main level. There were doors at each side of the station level that lead into the Montreal underground city. I'll explore that tomorrow: tonight, if Mary is done with work, we will get dinner and retire early into a real bed. (Later that evening) We went to dinner in the hotel, at a restaurant called "The Montrealais Bistrot". They had the best salad bar I had ever seen. Mary and I both had veal scaloppini that was good and we ended the meal at the dessert bar (fresh fresh fruit and a fruit tart were my choices). We both highly recommend this place to have a very delicious dinner when in Montreal.