After almost two weeks in the
USA I was pretty excited about our first Amtrak journey. We had visited
New York City,
Philadelphia and after a few days in Washington D.C and from there we were due to travel to
Atlanta,
Georgia on
The Crescent (which originates in
New York and terminates in
New Orleans). We had had a brilliant couple of days in
Washington, spending most of our time in the truly excellent Smithsonian museums, the zoo and the other touristy stuff that the capital has to offer.
Washington D.C. is also notable for our first visit to
Chipotle Mexican Grill, but that’s another story for another blog…
I feel like I should also mention Washington’s excellent Metro system which is by far the most impressive underground railway I’ve ever been on. The platforms area are really large, the trains are clean and tidy and they have even have carpeted floors. Carpet! It has by far the most ‘futuristic’ feel of any similar system I have been on, although apparently the network only opened in 1976 so I suppose it is relatively new.
We arrived at Union Station mid-afternoon to ensure we had plenty of time to make our 6.30 p.m. departure. My excitement about the trip was soon to be tempered however. Firstly, I realised that I had booked a motel room in Atlanta for that evening, when we would in fact be on the train, thus wasting $60. I’m pleased to say that I didn’t make that mistake again.
Secondly, we didn’t board the train until 6.45p.m. (correct, that is after we were due to depart). Fortunately I had done a fair bit of research about Amtrak, I thought it was a good idea given that we were about to spend a couple of weeks of our lives on their trains. I knew of course that Amtrak doesn’t have the greatest record for punctuality, when we finally left Union Station at 8.50 p.m. I had experienced it first hand. Apparently a motor was short-circuiting and had to be replaced.
By the time we left darkness had descended, so views were rather limited. I was fairly impressed with the train and the space we were afforded. The amount of legroom is far greater than any train I had ever been on and the seats recline to a generous degree, so I was able to get pretty comfortable as I settled in for the 12 hour journey, managing to get a full 8 hours (almost). We arrived into Atlanta just after 8 a.m. to grey skies and light rain, the first we had had on the trip. After a fairly lengthy wait to retrieve our luggage we crossed the road outside the station into our handily-located motel, which by a slice of luck was pretty much opposite the station.
A slightly ominous start to our Amtrak travels given the delay, but I was already looking forward to the next leg when, hopefully, I’d be able to see something out of the window! Unfortunately it seems I was a bit slack with the photographs at this point so I didn’t manage to take any pictures of this leg of the journey, poor form.
