To Schenectady to Trains to Spanish Immersion Course in Mexico
 

I live in Montreal, I enjoy sleeper trains, I enjoy learning languages and discovering new cities. This year for my summer vacation, I decided I would combine my interests by doing a Spanish language immersion at the Ole Institute in Queretaro, Mexico and would take trains to do this experience.

This trip involved a bus ride to Albany from Montreal, a city bus from Albany to Schenectady (I could have caught the train in Albany but since I'd never been to Schenectady before, I thought I would check it out the small city), and then two sleeper trains, one from Schenectady to Chicago and second from Chicago to San Antonio. From San Antonio, I caught a Turimex Internacional bus to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon and from Monterrey, Omnibus de Mexico to Queretaro.

US leg of the journey--

Schenectady-- The initial surprise of this journey was Schenectady. I had asked for advice about the small upstate New York city on Fodor's and Trip Advisor a few months ago and most did not seem to have advice about it, so I assumed it might be a pretty plain sort of city, possibly industrial with not much to see.

While my luggage was kept as a courtesy in a small room in the train station, I decided I would walk to a historic area known as the Stockade District. Visiting this area, I'm amazed that Schenectady is not more known to visitors and I was taught again in life that I should never assume. There seems to be a real civic pride here! The architecture and residential setting was lovely with lots of colonial homes, including some absolutely charming homes built by the Dutch in the 1600s and lovely stone churches dating back centuries; charming cafes are present in this area, a building (looked like a restaurant to me) which contains what I was told is the oldest market in America (Arthur's Market), almost bucolic seeming views of the nearby Mohawk River and at least one handsome circular with a statue at its center. Outside this Stockade District in the downtown, I appreciated the architecture of the pointy- domed Nott Building and the convivial energy of the pedestrian-only Jay Street and nearby parks. Getting to Schenectady from Albany could not have been easier with regular city buses from Albany's bus station and Capitol building to the Schenectady train station.

* Continued travels to come*

good to hear it started out well.

I've ridden (bike) through Schtdy many times but it's usually just passing through town to connect the bike trails along the Mohawk/Erie Canal to the East & West. Rarely stop in town.

Definitely along for the ride!

*Bus Albany-Schenectady* Of note, I had never taken a city bus in Albany. The #905 bus to Schenectady was $2 with reasonably frequent service, practically door to door from Albany bus station to Schenectady train station. Going along Central Ave. in Albany, I was surprised at the extent of all the multicultural restaurant offerings on this fascinating street (Afghan to Thai to Halal, I was reminded more of NYC than I thought I might be).

* Sleeper Trains Schenectady-San Antonio. Four Hour Stop in Chicago*

I'd taken the NYC-Chicago Lakeshore Limited train in the past(although never from Schenectady). After enjoying my supper & company while admiring the views of the Mohawk River, I slept well and was pleased that we actually arrived 10 minutes early in Chicago the following morning. With the on-time arrival combined with a rainy forecast, after storing my luggage at the train station, I decided that the best use of my time was to visit for the first time ever the Art Institute of Chicago ($25, but well worth the money), located about a 20-minute walk from the train station. I highly enjoyed admiring multiple works of Renoir, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Monet in the impressionists' section; I had not realized that masterpieces such as Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte were situated there, amongst many others. Although I only had about 2 hours to enjoy the museum, I was glad to also able to observe although hurriedly their collection of Indian (and a bit of east Asian) Art from the first millennium AD (and beyond), which I found mind-blowingly well-preserved and tantalizing with the cloudy glimpses into ancient civilizations that they gave.

*Texas Eagle Train Chicago-San Antonio*

This was my first time ever on the Chicago to San Antonio Texas Eagle, bringing my eyes into contact for the first time ever with Missouri, southern Illinois and areas of Texas.

This journey passes one mostly through territories of pretty flat plains, sometimes farmland and consequently is not considered commonly to be one of Amtrak's prettiest routes. There were highlights however of this new train for me; for example, on the first day, I did enjoy seeing the stately, silver-grey domed Illinois State Capitol building in Springfield as well as the unique and incredible architectural feat terrifically up-close that is the St. Louis Arch, both for the first time ever. On the second day, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex I'd not seen since 1977 (I was 6 at the time) even though it's where my mother lived the first six years of her life. Here I appreciated some of the unusual modern buildings adjacent the modern light rail system, such as the rectangular prism-based Reunion Tower whose rounder top seemed to be surrounded by metal webbing. My eyes also could not stop peering at the view of the frighteningly bloated Trinity River, where signs in a park were partially submerged under the striking white arches and white cables of the imposing Margaret Hunt Hill bridge. Emerging from the Texas Eagle train in San Antonio pretty tired about two hours late after 11 pm, I was thankful that my hotel was within easy walking distance of the Sunset Limited Train Station in San Antonio so simply had to roll my luggage for about 15 minutes in order to check into my near-Alamo hotel. I was equally glad that the Springhill Suites was located within walking distance of the Turimex Internacional bus station so as to give me a decent night's sleep prior to pushing forward the next morning.

*Coming up: Turimex Internacional Bus from San Antonio to Monterrey Mexico and Beyond*

Can't wait to hear about the bus! Loving this report.

While the Turimex Internacional bus station in San Antonio and bus toward Laredo was still in the USA, it felt like I'd already arrived in Mexico in some ways, with Spanish being the primary language of communcation. At the station I chose my seat on the bus, which I find is a nice perk on all the Mexican buses I took.

Riding on the bus towards Laredo, instructions in Spanish, I didn't hear any of my fellow passengers communicating with each other in English. The bus was much more comfortable than any Greyhound I've ever taken. Despite being at what my language school teachers described as an upper intermediate level in Spanish, I felt a bit anxious as I could not hear/understand the driver and it sounded like he was explaining things for Mexican customs/immigration. I knew I needed to get a card crossing the border. Thankfully, when I asked, the woman next to me explained to me much better, articulating slowly and clearly in Spanish how things would work when I asked specific questions.

The Turimex Internacional bus station in suburban Laredo was quite big, a prequel for the busy, modern airport-like bus stations to come in Mexico. Crossing the border, the televisions come down from the ceiling and the quite different Mexican bus experience begins.

This was my first time using Turimex Internacional, a line quite popular with Mexicans as it's a more typically Mexican bus experience with assigned seats and movies once Mexico is entered. For the southbound land border crossing, it's preferable to Greyhound as it's a direct service to Monterrey from San Antonio with no bus change and more frequent service. I must say though having a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish made the experience less intimidating.

* Border crossed, trip report will continue in the Mexico forum*

Really enjoying your trip report - thanks for posting. I am a Schenectady native and live nearby (on the other side of the Mohawk River). The City has come a long way in the past ten years with lots of improvements to the downtown area. So glad you enjoyed your time here!

Must confess I've never considered visiting Schenectady before, but may now. Enjoying this very much and looking forward to continuing.

For those who are interested, here I include my link to the Mexican part of the trip.
http://www.fodors.com/community/mexi...side-trips.cfm

CharlotteK, Fra_Diavolo, sharondi-- Thanks for reading and enjoying my journey along with me! Fra--I hope you do visit one day, being sure to take a leisurely stroll in the Stockade District while there.

sharondi, J62-- What a delightful part of the country you live in! Upstate NY I really think is a well-kept secret almost with all its history & beauty!

An interesting and different trip and report. We have taken the train from NYC to Syracuse on a few occasions and would have never considered stopping in Schenectady. On a trip last year we did stop in Utica which looked more like an episode from the TV show "Cops."

It is often heard to understand public address announcements and telephone calls in a language with which you are no fully conversant.

Thanks for reading IMDonehere! I sometimes find announcements tough enough in English or French, so indeed it was triply challenging in Mexican Spanish where my ears were not only not accustomed to hearing day-to-day expressions but also I was lacking vocabulary.

I sometimes felt like I was not progressing with my comprehension of even simple customer service Mexican Spanish because of my ill-attuned ears. As an example, on more than one occasion the server would say something to me that sounded like "fresa" (fresa=strawberry) that would just leave me baffled; why do they keep asking me something about strawberries? Then, asking one waitress to repeat slowly, it dawned on me that I was not lacking an idiom or vocabulary, I was missing one quickly spoken letter, an "o"; they were saying "ofrecer" meaning "to offer" (e.g., can we offer you a coffee?)!

*Returning to the US from Mexico*

The Senda bus from Monterrey to Nuevo Laredo was probably the nicest bus ride I've ever been to (not terribly expensive either), with comfortable seats and a built-in computer on all the seat backs, allowing one to check one's Facebook, etc... with entertainment and music available even outside the usual 3G zones. Catching a cab from the Nuevo Laredo bus station after 4 amazing weeks of Spanish improvement in the Bajio Region and the Norte, I emerged from Mexico crossing the Rio Grande by foot. There were probably a few hundred foot passengers in front of me, but customs & immigration was quite efficient considering and it took about an hour to get processed.

I ate lunch at the Meson de San Agustin near the border in Laredo, Texas before catching a bus to San Antonio. This restaurant was a friendly, charming spot... a good stop for Tex-Mex in Laredo in my opinion for those who have business in the near-border area. I was struck by the much larger drink sizes and much larger food servings with my enchiladas poblanos than what I had been accustomed to in Mexico; the enchiladas were quite good but also a lot creamier and thicker in cheese than enchiladas served south of the border. The bilingual ease of the Mexican-American wait staff and cashier at this Laredo establishment made me feel in a US-Mexico border community, but the dramatic difference in the the style of "Mexican food" was fascinating and made me feel I'd crossed a border even though a good golfer might have been able to hit a ball into Mexico from there!

Arriving in San Antonio (and also Laredo), my last stop before I returned home, my senses were struck by something. Even though San Antonio can seem busy with its tourist popular Riverwalk and Alamo, I was amazed how even in the near-Alamo area, how quiet the streets seemed after Mexico, so quiet that I felt I could almost hear the air. I wonder if there's a greater level of background noise in Mexican cities that my ears after 4 weeks had gradually become attuned to, to the point I wasn't even aware of the ambient noise anymore? In earlier years coming from northern places, I have commented in past Fodor's posts that San Antonio seemed kind of like a "gateway to Mexico" with a large Tejano population and plenty of Spanish. This time, I was struck at how American rather than how Mexican San Antonio seemed!

I really enjoyed this trip and wish you all great travels in 2015!

Best wishes, Daniel

Once again, an interesting trip and trip report. Thanks.

Thanks for sticking with it to the end, IMDonehere. Hope you have some enjoyable travels this year!

Thank you.

I found your most interesting conclusion by accident, just checking to see what others may have said about this earlier thread. You might want to include a link from the "Land border" thread so others don't miss it!

FraDiavolo--Good idea about suggesting a later link (I'll add the suggested change) and for reading up to the conclusion and better yet finding it interesting. I do try :)! Best wishes, Daniel

Enjoyed reading this!

I lived in San Antonio for 4 years long ago, and traveled to Laredo a few times from there. I found you observations interesting.

Elberko-- What an interesting part of the country to live in for a few years! Thanks for sharing that you enjoyed the read! :)