I got up at 6am, reset the bed to a lounge and showered. The first breakfast announcement was called for 7am so I headed over for that. The omelette was delightful. It turns out that we were around 9 hours behind schedule and so expected to reach Edmonton around 3.30pm.

So I settled in for a day of listening to my audiobook (Tom Clancy novel) and a bit of sporadic photography from the dome carriage and my compartment. The landscape was delightful, being the prairies of middle Canada. It would be great to see in the late Spring, although then I’d want to spend more time in the Northern Territories as the ice melts and the animals come out of hibernation. Anyway, I enjoyed the small towns as well as the fields we passed.

A few photos from the train:

And this last one is as we are coming into Edmonton Station.

The source of the information below was my Lonely Planet Canada guide.

Edmonton has a population of around 730-800,000 depending on the source. Edmonton is Alberta’s second largest city and is a government town. It is also called a frontier town, with a vast and empty northern landscape. It does not have the same number of tourist sites that even cities like Winnipeg have. The biggest tourist attraction seems to be the West Edmonton Mall, which is the largest in North America.

The indigenous history is traced to the ancestors of the Blackfoot and Cree tribes back by around 5000 years. In the 18^th century, Europeans first arrived in the area, with a trading post and then trappers and various traders. In 1870, the government opened up the area by pioneers. The railway arrived in 1891, and growth sped up.

The aboriginal tribes transferred their land rights to the government in a series of treaties between 1871 and 1921 in return for money, lands for reservations and hunting rights.

After arrival at the railway station, I got my bags and by 4pm I was in a taxi to my hotel, being the MacEwan University Residences. It’s a pretty smart idea to hire out unused rooms at the university to tourists. There are a few multi storey university buildings around, as well as a large number of condominium blocks within close proximity. There are also a number of fast food and not so fast food restaurants close-by, as well as many shops. I headed out to get some groceries, and then unpacked, browsed the local newspaper and went to bed.