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Life on board - Day 3 on the Train

This trip will be the longest we have ever spent on a train. When we crossed Russia and Mongolia on the Trans Siberian the longest stretch was 3 days, we have another day to go. Most of the passengers on this train are fairly relaxed about the delays and being well fed helps. The food is surprisingly good, better than many of the restaurants we have visited in Canada.

When ordering food in Canada (and the US if my memory serves me right) the waiter has a quick fire set of questions which they reel off expecting you to a) understand what they are saying and b) have a coherent answer. Canadians are expecting the questions and answer equally quickly, us old folks just get confused, style of eggs, type of toast, sauces etc. I ordered a hot dog last week and ended up with a bit of a mess with all the "extras" I seem unwittingly to have ordered.

Credit card machines are even worse, some have buttons, others keypads and some both. You don't just enter you PIN, you have to say if the amount is correct, if you want to add a tip, if so how much then agree the total and if you require a receipt, all on a tiny screen with no clues as to the buttons to use for yes and no.

When we got up this morning is was very misty, spooky picture of grain silo above. There was also a frost but as the train is hermetically sealed the temperature outside does not affect us. A number of people said we would be bored on the train as after the Rockies the scenery would be dull - Oh no it isn't, we spent all morning taking out of focus pictures of beautiful lakes surrounded by trees that have started to turn yellow.

Over dinner this evening we both agreed todays scenery was better than the Rockies, we have seen plenty of mountains with snow, the lakes and forests were much nicer.

So we don't die from lack of fresh air twice a day we are allowed out for a bit of fresh air and exercise, it's a bit like prison. The real reason for the stop is that the engine needs refueling (picture of tanker opposite) and a change of drivers, one of the times is in the middle of the night so most of us forgo that opportunity but at lunchtime yesterday and today we all climbed down to ground level and then spent ages looking for a WiFi signal, whilst pacing up and down. There isn't any Wifi so we have to resort to expensive mobile data or remain incommunicado. So we missed two sad events; the Queen's funeral and Barnet's draw on Saturday.