Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
While chugging along the St. Lawrence Seaway next to pastoral farms, you'll get 10- to
15-minute vignettes, half-hour presentations, and longer hands-on learning experiences about
this storied region. For example, a seafood vignette might include a demonstration of a lob-
ster trap.
You'll have your own learning coordinator, who presents lectures on a wide range of top-
ics, from culture and history to geography and regional cuisine. You'll hear riveting stories
about French-English warfare, privateers, and shipwrecks; learn how to make fishing nets; or
perhaps partake in Maritime cooking classes. Impromptu history conversations might spring
to life when, say, you stop in Springhill, Nova Scotia, the scene of Canada's worst mining
disaster. The learning coordinator and his or her team often dress in themed costumes while
presenting workshops, short movie viewings, and off-the-cuff presentations.
Included in this package are three meals featuring Maritime cooking. You might have
pan-seared Atlantic halibut or crispy crab cakes, for example, or imbibe some of the Maritime
wines or Propeller Bitter, a dark, Halifax-made microbrew.
All your workshops and presentations will take place in the
Ocean
's double-decker Park
Car, a throwback to the old days of luxury railroad travel. With elegant curved windows, this
old car from the 1950s has two lounges (the Mural Lounge, so-named because of a wall mur-
al by a Canadian artist, and the Bullet Lounge) and a panoramic observation deck with win-
dows in every direction so you'll have a 360-degree view of the beautiful passing scenery.
Your accommodations for this unique vacation are a cozy sleeper car complete with duvet
comforter and chocolate on your pillow.
The Easterly Class runs every day except Tuesdays. If you want the full nostalgic pack-
age, make sure to ask for the stainless-steel HEP cars; until recently, the entire train used
these cars, which are of the same vintage as the Park Car, but recently they've added what
they call Renaissance cars.
The price for the package is $355 ($406 Canadian) and includes three meals, exclusive
access to the Park Car, and comfy seats for viewing all those blue seascapes, green spruce
forests, and pink Tantramar salt marshes.
