We arrived at Amtrak’s Greenville station at 4:54AM, right on schedule. Fifteen minutes later we were pulling into the parking lot of the Waffle House at Traveler’s Rest, SC. Yes! Traveler’s Rest! Nothing like a Waffle House when you are in need of coffee and sustenance at 5AM after a twenty-one hour train trip and before a two hour drive home.
Although the Quiet Car is not an option offered on The Crescent, when we boarded in New York we were assigned seats in a coach that turned out to be pretty darn quiet. We did get the chance to get out and walk around at Washington DC’s Union Station during the engine changeout. South of there we enjoyed sharing a dinner table with a couple from Maryland as we rolled through Virginia. Later in the evening we settled in for some closed eye time and a bit of fitful sleep. All told the trip qualifies as “uneventful” and we arrived home after our stops for breakfast and a few groceries at about 8AM. We’ve since napped, fixed ourselves some coffee/tea, and are beginning to settle back into our usual routine, which of course includes beginning to plan the next trip to Boston!
Queen Mary 2’s arrival in the Port of Dakar, Senegal was heralded in the local press and greeted with ceremony. Our own excursion took us on a coach journey through the streets of the capital city to visit a Wolof village and the shore of Lake Retba, the salty lake famed for an intense pink color.
Today’s safari adventure transported us out into the Dorob National Park to have up close encounters with little creatures that are well adapted to the extreme heat and lack of water in the Namib Desert.
With a UNESCO World Heritage Site, two national parks, dozens of museums, and hundreds of tours offered in the Cape Town area there is more than plenty to do. For our two day visit we opted to concentrate on African wildlife visiting the Aquila Private Game Reserve and the Boulders Beach Penguin Colony for a wonderful chance to these fabulous animals in their own habitat.
Glad to know you made it – did you get to keep the quiet car the whole way?
Although the Quiet Car is not an option offered on The Crescent, when we boarded in New York we were assigned seats in a coach that turned out to be pretty darn quiet. We did get the chance to get out and walk around at Washington DC’s Union Station during the engine changeout. South of there we enjoyed sharing a dinner table with a couple from Maryland as we rolled through Virginia. Later in the evening we settled in for some closed eye time and a bit of fitful sleep. All told the trip qualifies as “uneventful” and we arrived home after our stops for breakfast and a few groceries at about 8AM. We’ve since napped, fixed ourselves some coffee/tea, and are beginning to settle back into our usual routine, which of course includes beginning to plan the next trip to Boston!