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<strong>Rakshana</strong> <strong>JOHN</strong><br />
SALTOURS INTERNATIONAL INDIA<br />
28 September<br />
Meeting with Manuel & fellow group members at<br />
Seattle station & after check-in procedures boarded a<br />
Amtrak Cascade train to a beautiful city Vancouver,<br />
On arrival met with Mr.Ryan Robotko of Vancouver<br />
tourism who has showed us a city thoroughly… which<br />
helped me to learn about the city… since we had visit<br />
to Granville Island & Look out… I would say it’s a<br />
perfect city visit… enjoyed it!!<br />
In evening dinner at Tree Top restaurant was an add<br />
on to this beautiful city visit.. later came to know on<br />
my way back to hotel that the restaurant was just<br />
15kms away from Alaska… overnight in Hotel Hyatt<br />
Regency(Impressive hotel)<br />
29 September<br />
After Breakfast meeting with group A members who had arrived into Vancouver after 32hrs journey<br />
from LA… they had shared their experience about train journey… again continued our visit to Grouse<br />
Mountain (enjoyed memorable chairlift experience), most awaited visit to Capilano Suspension<br />
bride(Superb one)… In evening met with Edith representative of Rockey Mountaineer & dinner at<br />
restaurant (happening evening).. overnight in Hotel Hyatt Regency..<br />
30 September<br />
Early morning at 530am met with all members & departed to Rockey station a board scenic train to<br />
Kamloops & later realised there is 1 group member missing but finally our tour leader had made it by<br />
getting her from hotel without getting panic about the situation hats off to him☺ … unexpected train<br />
service on-board a friendly treatment provided by Rockey train attendees… finally understood why the<br />
train name has been kept as Rockey Mountaineer… awesome route with all picturesque sceens.<br />
Upon arrival greeted by Rockey attendee & transfer to our hotel Thomsons(very comfortable hotel)..<br />
since we had a dinner our own so finally got a chance to have Indian food in a Indian restaurant &<br />
night explore city by walk.. overnight at hotel & as wanted gear up for next morning most awaited train<br />
journey.<br />
01 October<br />
Today morning early morning departure to Edmonton by VIA RAIL (unexpected & most spectacular<br />
rail journey), reached Kamloops railway station by taxi… when we reached it was quite surprising as<br />
station was really small & also learnt how to chek-in your baggage☺ really funny one but again our<br />
tour leader was always there to take care of us… boarded a train my eyes got wide open when I saw<br />
compartment… very comfortable sleeper with a very good on-board facilities… before boarding train I<br />
was worried of too long journey train trip… but turned it other way around scenery enroute & 2hours<br />
halt in Jasper made this trip memorable for me & kept me occupied & did not allowed me to realised<br />
the train duration… we have arrived Edmonton without any tired feeling which was really surprising…<br />
Overnight stay at hotel Ramada( a comfortable hotel WIFI free made our stay well worth).<br />
02 October<br />
Today late morning we had departed to Montreal by WestJet Flight (Oops no train☺ but yes superb<br />
flight journey)…. Nice journey with experience of passport missing incident of our one of member but<br />
again here learnt a lesson of how to come out of this kind a situation without getting panic…. A quick<br />
arrival in Montreal “City of ART & CULTURE” & evening continued with check-in to Hotel Fairmont<br />
(Amazing hotel) & enjoyed a dinner at restaurant & an add-on to walking tour of old city in night…<br />
03 October<br />
As scheduled, today met with Mr.Daniel Linteau & Mr.Mohamed Bhanji<br />
Of VIA RAIL… had a visit to VIA RAIL maintenance centre, here I have got a experience of train<br />
maintenance & its functionality more of educational visit…. We did clicked lot of snaps & enjoyed a
driver seat experience…. Lunch at Chinese restaurant with different choices of food menu… a<br />
delicious meal enjoyed it…yummy!! Overnight at Fairmont Hotel…. Couldn’t get a sleep as just don’t<br />
wanted to be late in next morning trip to NEW YORK city which was most and most awaited city to be<br />
visited….. crazy one!<br />
04 October<br />
Finally!!! We have departed to New York (America.... The land of Excess.) from Montreal by Amtrak<br />
Adirondack train (good experience) but didn’t like the behaviour of a restaurant manager onboard &<br />
also understood how difficult for our client to manage & absorb this kind a situation… I felt & took this<br />
in positively & believing that this is due to security reasons of country… and got to learnt while onboard<br />
you can do lots of activities such as straightening your hair or do a make-up by using equipment<br />
available in train… and also can be ready for a night party upon your arrival on your destination.. it<br />
was really lovely experience… I did captured some pics of this show☺(maria our lovely & jolly group<br />
member) memorable one!!<br />
In evening arrived at New York penn station which was just few minutes’ walk form our hotel… eyes<br />
were wide open to see to the city of lights… as if city is completely illuminated with light… a lively<br />
city… ohhhh wow!!what a city (not able to describe my feelings)… “A City Never Sleeps”…this city has<br />
taken away my tiredness & gave me a new vision to explore thic beautiful city…. So much to see here.<br />
We checked in to hotel Affinia Manhattan (a great location & of course good in house service)… dinner<br />
at Brazilian style restaurant with a taste of Brazilian drink(Capiriano)..<br />
After dinner walked through the city & clicked soo many pics… finally reached hotel & had a nice<br />
sleep.<br />
05 October<br />
A sad day I would say… as we were about to<br />
depart from New York city & happy too while<br />
Manuel gave us first half time to enjoy this<br />
city… so what can anybody expect while you in<br />
New York city for girls specially…. Its shopping<br />
time for all girls there…. I loved this shopping<br />
day (all thanks to Manuel)… not only shopping,<br />
since we didn’t had much time to drive faraway<br />
places so decided to go to “Top of the Rock” a<br />
observatory deck from where we can view all<br />
main site of New York city…. That was a good<br />
option/ idea provided by our guide/tour leader<br />
Mr.Manuel….. it’s always indicated in any tour if a group has a right tour leader/guide then a journey/<br />
tour would become more memorable…. We were lucky in this case☺<br />
In afternoon we had a meeting with AMTRAK team at AMTRAK office… this visit gave me a lots of<br />
information either it regards to product or market scenario…. I would say now I am really very<br />
confident about selling AMTRAK…. A great train in North America… late afternoon departed to Penn<br />
station to board our AVE train (oops ACELA train) as the design & speed were similar & for a while I<br />
felt like am on-board AVE train in Spain…. Nice experience & understood the difference between<br />
<strong>Europe</strong> train trip & American train trip…. A quick arrival in Washington DC & had a nice group photo<br />
session, finally I personally got emotional while getting apart from the amazing group… but since I was<br />
flying same night so I had to rush to airport to catch my flight back to india… here I have experienced<br />
a terrible traffic problem.. for some time I felt like I am going to miss my flight but luckily I made it to<br />
reach airport on time with the help of that taxi driver..(I would never forget this one) return back to India<br />
safely by touching <strong>Europe</strong>an country(Frankfurt Germany) as I had a connecting flight via Frankfurt…<br />
Here is a end of my most memorable trip to a beautiful countries (North America & Canada)…. Each &<br />
every country has different flavours to offer… <strong>Rail</strong> <strong>Europe</strong> had played a important role in making this<br />
memorable one for me in aspects.. sketching such a nice itinerary covering main cities & a train<br />
journeys were really amazing as far I did not expected the level of services provided on-board it’s a<br />
scenic train route everywhere… I would give 90 points out of 100.
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