An early start on the train journey from Seattle to Vancouver, but unfortunately the weather has turned. Quite chilly and very wet, spoiling what would have been a sensational view of the Puget Sound and islands. Learning later that rain was really needed in the area, we didn’t feel disappointed anymore.

It is raining and cold (I am wearing a t-shirt under my shirt and down jacket) as we auto-check out of the hotel and walk the ten minutes to the King Street station. The building has been tastefully redecorated, and its vast hall fills as passengers for the fully booked Amtrak Cascade train to Vancouver arrive. We queue, chat to a Chinese couple from Texas with two toddlers. I walked around the block and found a cafe, which luckily had some fruit for sale.

On the train we luck out and find a seat facing north, on the port side, with the best views of Puget Sound. It is socked in and drizzling, unfortunately, the islands that by all reports make a sensational view, just a hazy silhouette in the murk. We spy herons or cranes, and ducks and seagulls along the shoreline, which is either muddy grey sand, or rocks encrusted with thick carpets of moss. It looks like a bonanza for the feeding birds.

Map of Puget Sound (courtesy Wikipedia Commons)

The impression is that even when it is dry, this area is damp and soggy, with numerous river and estuary crossings, girder bridges and swampy land with solitary tree clumps. Besides fishing, there are a sand/concrete mixing yard, ports and at Everett we pass a naval harbour, with a single small frigate. Just past Everett we encounter the first fir forest, a foretaste of the tundra land ahead.

Very jolly and friendly train crew check our ticket barcodes, and inform us that we may see wildlife in the Puget Sound, such as seals and sea lions. We don´t, unfortunately. It is chilly on the train, and we put on everything we have, having packed expecting heatwave conditions. Not sure whether to be ungraciously disappointed or not about that, but it is a little uncomfortably cool.

The train is held up short of Vancouver by a goods train that is unbelievably long, that needs to pass us by before we can advance. Then the train stops and starts as tracks need to be manually changed along the way, we are told over announcements. It is raining quite heavily when we arrive in Vancouver, so we opt to stay on the train till the backed-up queue for the immigration and customs has shortened out of the rain. A somewhat unimpressive station greeting, with no platform but a tarmac pathway with not much cover.

We get a few Canadian dollars, and take a taxi to the hotel, which costs only $14, but we tip Abraham up to 20. Abraham is now Canadian, after 7 years in Canada, and is from war-torn Eritrea. He fled compulsory military service. At the end he said he appreciated our interest and enjoyed talking with us.

The hotel room is perfect for us, and after a rest we head out to explore the neighborhood. We find a high end shopping center after passing quite a few drug addicted people of all ages shooting up. The food court had a fantastic selection of all kinds of ethnic foods and it was a great place to people watch. So many persuasions and all so youthfully full of life!

Google map Vancouver