Clickety Clack

We're here. Gesa is 'home', I am in my new adopted country, and the kids are drinking it all in. We crossed the border by train at Niagra Falls and there, as we waited for the customs inspection, a beaver popped out of the undergrowth and looks at us all. Then the famous falls made a brief appearance and an hour later we were under the towering needle landmark of Toronto's CN Tower.

A fun stay with friends in Toronto was our proper warm welcome back to Canada, and now we are on 'The Canadian' (click for details), the luxury train across the country. We're only going as far as Edmonton, but it's been great so far. I write from the first class lounge area at Winnipeg Station, where we stop for a few hour for crew change and to stretch our legs. We are very well looked after, breakfast lunch and dinner are surprisingly close together when the time passes so comfortably, and we are feeling very well fed.

I'd planned to read my book, but spend most of the non-kid minding time just looking out of the window, it's amazing how mesmerising a thousand miles of snowy forest and lakes can be. The first morning I opened the window blink as we rattled along the track, and saw a couple of beavers swimming across a lake, Canada geese flying past and ducks paddling in the shallows. I'm pretty sure I saw a bear in the forest yesterday. We really are in Canada now.

Time to go and find out if a thousand miles of flat farmland is as mesmerising as the forest. Strangely, I think it might be.