End of the line!
Hells Gate and canyon bridge from the train
Thankfully our stay in Kamloops was a short one and by 8am the train pulled out of the station to begin its journey into the city of Vancouver.
Kamloops and the crap hotel was soon forgotten as we tucked into breakfast on the train, more pancakes and coffee. Never seen the point of pancakes in the morning or maple syrup for that matter but boy I've changed my tune!!
As both the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railroads follow pretty much the same route from Kamloops to Vancouver they've agreed that instead of single line running they will split the use and the westbound traffic use one railroad and eastbound the other. This makes for a much faster journey on the second day as you don't waste hours waiting for a freight train in the passing loops.
The Rocky Mountaineer on
the outskirts of Vancouver
The previous days average speed of less than 30mph is soon forgotten as we thunder along. However when we reach interesting points along the track the driver, or engineer in railroad speak, slows to Kodak speed so people can take good pictures. Nice in a age when Kodak has lost it's market it'll still be remembered here in Canada!
We trundled past some of the best locations you could possible think of including Jaws Of Death Gorge, Jackass Mountain and Hells Gate. Beats the hell out of going past Luton, Harlington and St Albans on First Capital Connect!!
Unlike the first days four hour delay (12 hours on the train - including our last time zone change of the holiday from mountain time to pacific time) we arrived in Vancouver on time. A short drive to our hotel, the Blue Horizon on Robson in the downtown area of the city. Another nice hotel, with great city views - we were on the 25th floor so were above most of the city!