Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Train from Seattle to Los Angeles

Travelling first class on the 35 1/2hr trip through the Cascade Mts, cross the Columbia river (border of Washington State and Oregon), wheat firlds of Oregon and the coast of California on the Coast Starlight express operated by Amtrak.

Our cabin is quite roomy and I am enjoying internet in the Parlour car upstairs lounge (downstairs is picture theatre) which is available to first class passengers only. There is a dining car and another lounge car along with 4 sleeper carriages, 3 coach cars, baggage car and two engines.  The train is just over 1000ft long and the journey is 1200 miles.

The food is pretty ok an there is a variety and all meals are included for 1st class.  Even have free tea and coffee throughout the day so no complaints from us.

He scenery is quite diverse and the mountains yesterday were just lovely.  Heavily timbered we passed many timber camps wih piles of logs and wood chip operations.
The waterways were clear and bubbled their way down the mountain into lakes and other rivers.

We passed wheat fields where harvesting was under way and also saw rice crops early this morning.

Passing to the east of San Francisco after breakfast we could glimpse the Golden Gate bridge but it was quite overcast and grey so not good for a photo.

We arrive in LA at 9pm this evening and then it is a cab to the hotel and an early start the next morning for the bus to Las Vegas to join our tour departing the next day for the National Parks and Lawrie's 'cowboy' country.

No comments:

Post a Comment