After much needed sleep, we were able to have a less structured morning and afternoon. It gave most of us time after breakfast to explore a little of the city on our own. River walks, souvenir shopping and photo opportunities were activities we all could enjoy at a less structured pace.
Meeting in the hotel lobby after check out, we all boarded the bus at 1:30 to the Pas (pronounced like “paw”). We had about a 9 hour ride, so we keep ourselves busy with conversation, reading, games and just enjoying the scenery. We had a home-style dinner early as it was the last place on route towards our destination. We even managed to “trap” a few locals who were unfortunate, but good natured enough, to sit with our boisterous bunch as the dining area was rather small. They exclaimed that they have never seen such a well behave bunch of hungry tourists!
We arrived at the train station ahead of schedule. So much so, that the train station itself was not even opened yet. However, luck being on our side, our amazing wagon master Don was able to arrange for us to check our bags and have the station opened. All of us appreciated that so we would not have to wait for 2 hours in the cold before we could board the train!!
The layover gave some group members to go GEOCASHING. It’s basically a high tech version of hide and seek by using g.p.s. coordinates to locate objects. Although, we did have one tense moment! Suddenly, a member of the group was unable to find his train tickets. The ticket agent said that the policy of the railway is that if you lost your ticket, you would have to repurchase the tickets and be subject to a $40 per ticket penalty!!! Luck being on our side once again, and our fearless leader (once again) managed to find a way to get back to the bus and check it just one more time. To the delight of all our members the announcement was made that the tickets were found.
Boarding the train around 11:30, we got settled into our sleeping quarters. The train departed around 2:30 a.m. Click, clack, click, clack, our train lumbers through the cold dark morning.
see all pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/mimpolarbears/PolarBearCaravan#
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment