I rode the Amtrak train from New York to Montreal - here's what it's like

Ten o’clock connected a blisteringly blistery greeting successful New York’s Moynihan Train Hall, and level 7 is buzzing with excitement. The metallic Amtrak bid – similar an elongated Airstream – is purring softly connected the tracks, portion travellers heave rucksacks and suitcases up the steps and into the carriages.

After a summertime closed for way renovations, America’s regular cross-border bid betwixt New York and Montreal is up and moving again; a 12-hour travel done the picturesque Hudson River vale and the foothills of the Adirondacks.

Unlike astir of my chap travellers, I’m jumping disconnected astatine Albany to walk a fewer days exploring upstate New York, earlier re-boarding astatine Plattsburgh to caput connected to Canada. The towns and villages that populate the Hudson River vale are fashionable with New York weekenders, but I’m heading further to research the Adirondacks. My archetypal halt is Lake George – known arsenic the Queen of the Lakes – which, erstwhile determination are much than 3,000 successful the region, is rather an accolade. Stretching for implicit 50km, its banks are dotted with tiny resorts and palatial mansions, dating backmost to erstwhile the water was a summertime playground for millionaire industrialists of the Gilded Age.

With a abbreviated clip to explore, I publication a summons connected the Minnie Ha-Ha, a accepted paddle steamer with a piercing ­whistle announcing our departure to everyone wrong 10 miles. As we drift past a edifice with rows of bare sunbeds, the skipper gets connected the tannoy: ‘They similar a lie-in implicit there,’ helium says, arsenic helium fires up the steam whistle. ‘How astir we aftermath ’em up?’

Back connected adust land, it’s connected up to Gore Mountain, wherever gondolas transportation upland bikers and hikers successful summertime and skiers successful wintertime up to the apical presumption astatine implicit 3,000ft. As the compartment glides upwards, I’m reminded that American scenery is connected a antithetic standard to ours; immense forested mountains ripple retired astir aquamarine lakes.

It’s a feeling that grows arsenic I spell further north, done large swathes of wood to the municipality of Lake Placid, celebrated for hosting the Winter Olympics successful 1932 and 1980. Main Street, picturesque with cafes, hotels and shops, fronts onto Mirror Lake, offering kayaking, paddleboarding and the accidental to swim.

Shop windows are afloat of hunting and sportfishing gear. But it’s the Olympic bequest that defines the town, from the 2 skis jumps that operation implicit it, to the gleaming Olympic Centre lodging the newly-revamped museum. The interactive exhibits springiness a (virtual) accidental to acquisition the thrill of a bobsleigh tally oregon a skis leap astatine white-knuckle speeds. At the existent skis leap parkland the assistance takes visitors up to the 120-metre precocious level from wherever the skiers propulsion off.

Next time I stroll on the waterfront astatine Saranac Lake – celebrated for its creation galleries – and sojourn High Falls Gorge, wherever 4 waterfalls converge and cascade implicit the rocks. The viewing platforms connection the accidental to get up adjacent to the hurtling h2o – and get much than a small damp.

After 4 days’ exploring, I thrust backmost to Plattsburgh to reboard the train. Dusk is falling arsenic we chug dilatory towards Canada, pausing for a two-hour halt astatine the border, wherever the constabulary cheque everyone’s passport. An hr later, Montreal’s imposing skyline comes into view, and illuminated towers twinkle successful the gloom. At the city’s Gare Centrale, I consciousness arsenic if I’ve stepped done the looking glass; everyone is abruptly speaking French.

Next morning, Daniel, a section guide, walks maine done the Mile End territory via immoderate celebrated foodie stops, from the legendary Fairmount Bagels (12,000 baked a day) to La Cornetteria for ricotta-filled cannelloni and the Jean-Talon market, location to section specializer producers and workplace stalls.

It’s a delicious instauration to ­Canada’s multicultural city, with French and English interchangeable alongside Italian, Portuguese and a big of different languages.

On my past day, I instrumentality the metro to Old Montreal, wherever the buildings look similar they’ve been plucked from agrarian France – a bequest of the city’s assemblage past. Shops selling Inuit sculpture and paintings of snowy landscapes marque maine privation this was conscionable different halt connected my journey. Instead, the formation location beckons – 400 miles and a wilderness distant from wherever it began.