Train Time

I have to say I was not super impressed with VIA last week.  Leaving Toronto on Thurs., we were delayed 45 minutes, and we never made up any time.  I knew there were likely to be some delays, but this seemed a bit extreme.  Also, if I had known upon getting to the platform that it was going to be 20+ minutes before boarding the train, I would have taken care of a few other things, like buying another mask for my son or getting more snacks or really anything other than standing in line for no reason.  Aside from the delay, the train ride was fairly uneventful.  I had chosen a long book (Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude) as my book.  My son brought along Crime and Punishment!  (And I really do need to tackle the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation one of these days.)

One unbelievably annoying thing happened at the very end when this bag of chocolate-covered raisins opened up and spilled all over the floor.  I could only pick up about half of them (in part because some jerk in front of me was leaned so far back).  Then I threw them in a plastic bag and threw that out, which meant that the water bottles went into a bag with some books (instead of into their own bag), and one of them leaked a bit.  I only saw a very little bit of water damage to Fortress of Solitude, but there was quite a bit more to Crime and Punishment and this art book.  So that was a very unfortunate series of circumstances.  I may even end up replacing the book.  I went round a few bookshops over the weekend, but they didn't have this translation, so I'll probably have to hit BMV and see if they have it.

The next unbelievably frustrating thing happened at the Tremblay station on the Ottawa LRT.  I'm glad it was actually open (and no derailments that weekend), but they have decided to make the stations completely automated and you have to call for video help on the Presto machines if the gates malfunction.  I tapped and it wouldn't accept my card, then said I had already tapped.  So I was separated from my son.  The only advice was to wait 5 minutes for my Presto card to reset, and then to try again!  Unbelievable!  Frankly, they are going to get sued over this completely ridiculous hands-off attitude and derogation of responsibility.  Of all places to not have any staff around to help people get into the system, the train station (with a bunch of new visitors each day) has to be the worst.  Anyway, after waiting 5 minutes, the card still didn't work, so the guy on the other end of the video call had to print me out a temporary pass.  Truly horrible.  Most of the worst transit experiences of my life have been related to transit systems that have over-automated and have no reasonable back-ups -- to the point I am more than a little ashamed of being in the transit business...  This definitely stressed me out, and the trip was not as fun as it should have been thereafter.  In fact, I kept worrying about whether the fare gates would cause us to be late the next morning, though in the end, thankfully, there was no problem.  Go figure...

Tremblay station

We were obviously running late (having missed a couple of trains while dealing with the non-responsive Presto card), so we were later than I hoped in getting to the National Gallery.  On the one hand, I had planned to stay a bit late (Thursdays the National Gallery has extended hours), but I was meeting someone I know through work.  In the end, we chatted for 20 minutes or so before he had to rush off for another appointment, and we went into the gallery.  While the Rembrandt was supposedly sold out for that day, when we showed up with our pre-booked tickets there wasn't any line to get into the exhibit at all, which was nice.  There were a few paintings where we had to wait to get closer, but there really were no significant crowds.  I'm sure in part because the National Gallery really was pretty stingy in terms of how many people could sign up for each time slot.

The exhibit was a little portrait heavy.  There were a few Biblical scenes, but no painting that really featured Rembrandt's characteristic light in the darkness technique.  Having looked through the catalog, there were two paintings that will be on view in Frankfurt (the next and last stop) but not in Ottawa.  One is "The Abduction of Ganymede" which I'm fairly sure I saw at the Met in New York as part of a different exhibit years ago, while the other one () would have been pretty cool to see in person.  Oh well.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait Wearing a Hat and Two Chains, c. 1642-43

I'd say in this case, there were a few etchings that really were the highlights of the show, at least for me.

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Three Crosses, 1653-54

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, c. 1650

I'm glad we checked it out, though I have seen stronger Rembrandt shows, though to be fair, mostly in Europe.  

Since we were already at that end of the museum, we then went through the contemporary art rooms, then the European/American art on the upper level and finally the Canadian rooms on the lower level.  Oddly, the Tom Thomson rooms were closed for re-installation, though there were still quite a few Group of Seven paintings on view.

Andy Warhol, Brillo Soap Pad Boxes, 1964

I'd seen almost everything before on previous trips, though I'm not sure I had seen these two Tissot paintings before, one a recent acquisition and one from a private collection.

James Tissot, The Partie Carrée, 1870

James Tissot, The Japanese Scroll, 1872

We left and found an Indian restaurant, then wandered past Parliament Hill and finally checked into the hotel.  I knew there was a pool, and it actually was open, so I did a bit of swimming before crashing.  I wouldn't say it was really ideal for swimming laps, but this is the first swimming I've done in roughly two years.  Better than nothing...

As I alluded earlier, there was no problem getting on the LRT back to the Tremblay station and we showed up just as they were lining up to board the VIA train, so pretty good timing.  Unfortunately, the snack shop was closed.  You would think they would at least open up before the first train of the day (and on a weekday no less).  The snack cart on the train was equally unimpressive.  They had one bagel with cream cheese, no banana bread, no cookies, etc.  Honestly, why bother.  VIA has always been massively less impressive than Amtrak and seems to have no intention of upping their game.

At least the train left on time, and we got to Kingston with no issues.  I had done a bit of scoping out the lay of the land and knew there was no bus service serving the station!  So we caught a cab.  It was a $20 ride to the Queen's University campus.  Pretty outrageous.

We started at the art museum.  While parts were being reinstalled, we still saw a few rooms of art.  Probably the most interesting thing was a Picasso print that was part of a Art and Humour exhibit.

Pablo Picasso, Le Vieux Roi, 1959

Then we wandered around campus for an hour or so.  We had been tipped off to check out a small cafe right by the water, so we went there.  (It was just as well we ate there, as pretty much everything on campus itself was still closed, as the students weren't back from break.)

We walked downtown and looked around.  This was the first time I really spent anytime in downtown Kingston.  It felt pretty small.  My son thought he probably wouldn't really want to go to Queen's (for undergraduate studies at any rate) as it definitely means learning to drive right away.  We managed get another cab back to the train station and headed back to Toronto.  As one final demonstration of how badly VIA lets its customers down, the cafe in the Kingston station appears to be permanently closed and several of the vending machines were also broken.

On the whole it was a decent trip, though it would have been nicer if the train was a more pleasant experience.  I managed to read 400 pages of Letham's Fortress of Solitude and wrapped it up shortly afterwards.  We saw some pretty nice art, and I had a couple of days off work, so that was all to the good.