I believed I mentioned last week, that on Friday, I was headed to the big city for part of the weekend.

And by big city, I mean this place. Good ol’ Toronto.

I learned a few things from our last jaunt to Toronto, so this time I decided to take a train the whole way – instead of driving half and train for the second half like we did last time.

But this train isn’t like the train we used last time either. Last time we took the GO train – which is basically a commuter train. It’s really just a bigger, fancier bus/subway.

This time, I took the VIA. The VIA train I took runs the Toronto to Windsor corridor, so it’s a smaller scaled-down version of the VIA that does cross-country travel (no sleeper cars etc). It also goes much faster – up to 130km at times – with fewer stops. And happily stops in a town only 15 minutes from here.

So Friday afternoon, Dave dropped me off at the station and soon enough I was zipping along, watching the world go by as I got some knitting done.

I did splurge a little, and went business class. That meant I got free drinks and a cold meal.

A fancy cheese plate with a date square for dessert.

There is a downside though. On Saturday, there are only two train back home – one first thing in the morning, and one just after 5 pm. So I had the choice of getting up before dawn, or having to hang out in the big city by myself for most of the day. Dave was not keen on me taking the second option, so before dawn it was.

I got to Union Station by 6:30 am, and it was practically deserted. So I took some time to enjoy the original part of the station. Quick history – Union Station building began in 1914, and it was officially opened in 1927. They certainly don’t make them like that anymore.

My train was departing at 6:50, so I couldn’t linger too long.

The trip home saw another fancy meal…

… and me getting a good amount of work done on the second deathflake hat.

By the time I hit London (the stop before mine), I was through the ribbing and plain knitting. Now I’m ready to start the colourwork.

So… while it was a quick trip. It cemented one thing. The train is the BEST way to get to Toronto!