The setting sun backlights a pristine panoply of pines of different sizes and species. Far northern Canadian countryside rolls by at a leisurely pace of a train ride, viewed through an upper deck glass-enclosed of a special observation car. Waves of green and brown in slightly varying shades sweep by.
There’s no working Wi-Fi to interrupt with emails or social media demanding attention. It's mesmerizing and calming. Two or three hours pass peacefully without notice.
Now repeat. Repeat again. And again.
Two hours becomes two days. To get between Churchill , Manitoba, Canada — the polar bear and beluga whale capital of the world and a tourist hot spot for northern adventure tourism — and Winnipeg , Manitoba, there are only two options: A $1,100 one-way plane flight that takes two-and-a-half hours or a scenic 45-hour to 49-hour much cheaper train ride. It's a $200 train ride like few others from the glass ceiling of the observation car Canada’s VIA railroad bills it as a “scenic adventure.
” It starts with a vista of the tree-less but not quite barren tundra, then powers through hours of tall forests. They eventually give way to more manicured cropland with the occasional animal, even a herd of elk. Sunset glimmers off a lake.
When night comes it holds the hope of a Northern Lights sighting stretching all around. If there are no glimmering auroras, there's a special beauty in the pitch black outside with only the lights of the train interrupting. And it goes on for 1,.