Having left Jasper on Via Rail, we headed into very unknown territory for me as we crossed Canada on our way to Toronto. This necessitated having three nights aboard the train and we had a tiny cabin for this purpose, which converted from daytime seating to bunk beds for the night.
We had been given quite explicit instructions about the acceptable size overnight bag for the cabin, so shared a light nylon duffle bag belonging to Archie. I was so surprised to see people trailing enormous suitcases onto the train and I have no idea where they would have put them as the cabins were so small that Mark and I had to rearrange ourselves constantly to move around. Having said that, we were extremely comfortable and I loved being rocked to sleep each night.
The first evening we travelled alongside the Rockies and it was marvellous.
We passed lakes at the base of the mountains
and saw the most stunning sunset
I love it when there are clouds, making the sky look like its on fire.
We went to bed in the Rockies and woke up in the Prairies. It was like waking up in a different country, the landscape had completely changed. I have to say that it was not at all what I expected, which was something like the middle of Australia, but it is all farmland, with lovely neat farms dotted around the countryside and lots to keep us entertained on the journey.
I was intrigued by these little orange tents and was even more intrigued when I was told that they are placed in alfalfa and house leafcutter bees which complement the work of the honey bees in alfalfa pollination and greatly improve the production of alfalfa seeds. I had no idea…
The domes are needed to keep the bees warm and allow them to build their nests out of alfalfa leaves.
I loved some of the buildings we whizzed past. I missed photographing most of them because I was busy knitting rather than having my camera pressed against the window, but I did catch the odd one. I found this one really charming.
and clearly towers were high on my photographic agenda!
As we travelled into Ontario we noticed that snow still lay on the ground and that some of the lakes were either frozen
or in the process of thawing.
How pretty does this look?
As we travelled along we passed through many hamlets and towns, many of which were situated on the banks of rivers and lakes.
Thunder Bay, Ontario
We were occasionally able to get off the train and run up and down the platform. I include this photo because I did love the reflection of the setting sun on the metal of the train. 
Of course Mark is head to toe in clothes made by me for Me Made May!
One of the things that is slightly annoying about the train is that it has to give way to freight trains, which means that time is spent in sidings. This isn’t necessarily bad if the view is nice, but at one point we were running six hours behind schedule, which was going to seriously cut into our time in Toronto. However, on the last night, they caught up four hours, so we were marginally happier.
And a final one of the sun reflecting off a lake. I seem to have a lot of photos like this!
After three nights and days on the train we arrived in Toronto. Having no idea where our hotel was, we jumped in a taxi and promptly got stuck in a traffic jam, so it took a while. Imagine our chagrin when we discovered that our hotel was joined to the train station!