Original subtitles

Escape with us into a Californian dream

on a coastal journey unlike any other.

As our train glides along cliff tops

and skirts the waves of the Pacific Ocean,

we'll sample the best that California has to offer.

From fruits of the land...

Coming right from the field, as we said,

picked less than an hour ago.

..to life affirming pastimes.

There he goes. He's up.

Delving into the past...

TRAIN WHIRS

That lovely sound was actually engineered

to be just like it was originally.

..and revelling in the present.

You know, you never know what you're going to see

when you're here at Madonna Inn.

We'll feel the majesty of the land...

Being here gets you a bit closer to that

and caresses you within the curves of the mountainsides.

..as we meet the people who live and work along this line.

This is my favourite view.

And on the way, we'll learn how this line's

very existence is threatened.

Worst case scenario for this train track

is it ends up falling into the ocean.

This isn't just any railway journey.

This is one of the most scenic railway journeys in the world.

A Californian dream on board the Pacific Surfliner.

Our journey starts in the coastal town of San Diego,

one of America's thriving tech hubs

and home to one and a half million people.

In many ways, this is a railway city,

made by the arrival of the Southern Transcontinental Railway in 1885.

Hard to believe that until then,

it was a small community of fewer than 3,000 people.

Hidden away amongst the modern tower blocks

is our boarding place.

The Santa Fe Depot is a glorious edifice.

Built in 1914,

it's an early example of the so called

Spanish colonial revival style.

Which soon became popular throughout California.

In fact, California's Spanish roots go back several centuries.

Overlooking the city is a statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo,

who claimed California for Spain back in 1542.

And our whole journey,

350 miles along California's spectacular coast,

traces the route Spanish missionaries took

to bolster Spain's influence on the land.

Our train is the aptly named Pacific Surfliner.

Its carriages and locomotive are all relatively new.

A reflection of the fact that this is a busy line

with steadily growing passenger numbers.

And looking to the future,

the 15 foot tall Siemens Charger locomotive

is one of the cleanest diesel electric passenger locomotives

in operation today.

With a final check for stragglers, the doors are closed...

..and the train leaves backwards.

There's no room to turn an engine here

amongst San Diego's skyscrapers,

so, for the first leg of our trip,

the engine pushes the train,

with the driver controlling it from the other end

in a specially designed cab car.

HORN WAILS

Our day long journey starts on the far south western edge

of the United States in downtown San Diego.

From there, the train travels north,

hugging the coast through the spa town of Carlsbad,

and along some of the best surfing beaches in the world.

In San Clemente,

we'll see how the coast is threatening the train tracks,

before we head inland to the vast metropolis of Los Angeles.

Here, we'll take in the splendour of Union Station

and venture out for a trip on America's shortest railway,

the funicular Angels Flight.

Leaving LA, the train passes through prime strawberry fields

before returning to the coast and exclusive Santa Barbara.

Here, we'll visit one of California's 21 Franciscan missions

before enjoying a final breathtaking coastal journey

and ending our day in kitsch splendour at San Luis Obispo's

fantastical Madonna Inn.

On board today is Blake Phillips Rios.

Some years ago, Blake took a holiday job on this line

to help fund himself through college.

It was a bit of a surprise.

The first thing that I noticed was that people were just

happy to see us, you know,

they would literally clap as we were pulled into the station.

And I thought it was so cool.

And I heard that it's built into the DNA of the Wild, Wild West,

that when the train comes in,

it means that good things are coming to you.

Blake was hooked.

He stayed with the railway,

becoming a train driver and now a manager of the line.

This is my office. This is what I do every day.

You know, not bad.

Not bad at all.

Blake's office, our train line,

is mainly single track,

and is largely a busy commuter line,

serving the towns and beaches along the coast.

We have all types of riders.

We have surfers, we have commuters.

We have a lot of college students.

We literally serve all types of passengers in Southern California.

If you're going to be on your cellphone,

please talk quietly so that you don't disturb those seated nearby.

There's just time for seats to be found and tickets to be checked

before we start to see just how the Surfliner got its name.

This is my favourite view.

You have the surfers.

You can see the ships that are going in and out of San Diego.

So, the number one reason why people love taking the Pacific Surfliner

is because we are literally right at the Pacific Ocean.

This is the view.

Yeah, not too shabby.

So that passengers can get the most out of the not too shabby view,

the Surfliner has an observation car with extra large windows,

the perfect place to relax at a table or stare straight out

at the changing view.

You really get to take in what's unique about

the Southern California landscape, ocean, rolling hills.

We're just like in the presence of majesty.

HORN WAILS

We soon pass through the tiny station at Carlsbad Village.

A town that was at the forefront

of California's health food obsession.

Back in 1882, this station was just a nameless depot,

about to be made famous by farmer John Frazier.

He had just discovered a spring on his farm.

The water from it did marvels for his rheumatism,

so he started selling it to passengers

on the nearby railway line.

140 years later, the well,

now under a replica German Hanseatic house,

is still going strong,

and people flock to buy its health giving liquid.

I drive 30 miles to come get my alkaline water here in Carlsbad.

I've been doing it for more than ten years.

It's easy to see how a whole town grew up around this business.

Three, six, nine.

I think there's... There's 11 there,

and then we already did three or four in the car.

Yeah, we make it a family trip.

Come down here, found some favourite restaurants doing this.

So, we'll go to lunch, fill up our water, huh?

Go to the beach.

It tastes good.

It's healthy for you.

The PH, I think it's 9.5, if I'm not mistaken, or above.

And that is the secret to its success.

High PH, or alkaline water,

is thought by many to have health benefits

above that of run of the mill neutral PH water.

After Frazier found the water to help his rheumatism,

tests showed to be similar to the water in the spa town of Carlsbad

in the now Czech Republic.

So Frazier, seizing the marketing opportunity, renamed his farm,

and the station and town of Carlsbad was born.

Leaving the alkaline water of Carlsbad behind,

we'll soon be taking a dip in the water

the other side of the tracks.

There he goes. He's up.

Let's see if that wave's going to cooperate.

Yes, it is.

We're travelling 350 miles from San Diego to San Luis Obispo

on California's Pacific Surfliner,

indulging in some of the most spectacular views in the US.

Looking out the window, it feels like a painting everywhere you go.

Yeah, it just feels like California.

60% of our journey runs right along the coast,

and this stretch takes us 20 miles along largely untouched coastline.

A beautiful breath of nature,

sandwiched in between the huge metropolises

of San Diego and Los Angeles.

Yeah, it's really beautiful.

I much prefer it to sitting in my car alone

listening to the radio.

It's also a haven for that very Californian pastime, surfing.

Right now, we're going over Trestles Bridge.

Trestles is one of the most famous surfing spots

in all of the United States, if not the world,

and it got its name from the railroad trestles from the bridge

that we're going over right now.

That water looks inviting, but it is freezing cold.

Cold or not, nothing separates Don Craig from his surfing.

He was virtually brought up on this beach.

I was born in 1948,

and we started coming down here as a family

in the very early '50s.

We would drive down to San Onofre almost every weekend.

As he's done for several decades,

Don is meeting up with his friend, Steve, and eyeing the waves.

That's a good sized wave. Look at that.

Yeah. That looks really fun.

I think my longest ride here, I have one of those GPS watches.

Yeah? It was 468 yards.

Wow. How's that?

That's a third of a mile. Yeah.

Yeah. I feel lucky to have some good waves today.

It just takes one to make your day.

Another day in paradise. Yeah.

All right, well, wax it up.

Get out there. I'm ready to go.

Trestles Beach plays host to World Championship surfing competitions

thanks to its near-perfect surfing breakers.

All of the bottom out here for nearly four miles

is this kind of rock that's been deposited

coming down out of the rivers.

And at the breaks that we call upper and lower trestles

are bottom contours that make the waves break

really exceptionally well.

Here he goes. He's up.

Let's see if that wave's going to cooperate.

Yes, it is.

But shortly after World War II,

access to the perfect breakers was under threat.

Trestles and the area south of it, known as San Onofre,

was now part of a marine base.

Something it still is to this day.

As you're riding the train coming north along the coast,

that bases nearly 16 miles of coastline,

almost 200 square miles that goes inland quite a ways.

The military don't tend to allow civilians access

to their bases, for good reason.

Surfing on the new Marine base was about to be banned.

But a few determined surfers persuaded the military

they could continue to surf the waves if they restricted

beach access to a well regulated club.

The San Onofre Surfing Club was born, and surfing was saved.

At least along the San Onofre part of the beach,

but not the best part,

Trestles.

The Trestles area wasn't part of the surf club,

so a lot of guys would just sneak in there.

Me, I got caught one time, and I had to bring my mom down there

and had to sign a release saying I would never go in there again.

You know, of course, I went in again.

But anyone can now surf at Trestles

is down to another member of the San Onofre Surfing Club,

albeit an honorary one,

Richard Nixon.

Richard Nixon, when he became president,

was looking for a vacation home.

He settled on a property that is on the extreme southern tip

of San Clemente.

And it's a rather historic structure.

We would see him periodically, and he'd wave to us.

The story goes that having exclusive access

to this beautiful military owned coast

inspired Nixon to create his legacy of the Parks programme,

a huge push to give the public access to vast areas of state land.

And one of the first state parks created under the programme

was the beach.

The whole beach,

San Onofre and Trestles.

So all Don has to worry about now is catching the right wave.

You look like you were having fun.

It did, that last one that you had from over there.

That was a good one.

It was an OK wave. Yeah. Yeah. That was a nice one to finish on.

Always, you got the grin on your face.

The one that makes your day. That's all.

You going to go back out?

Maybe. HE LAUGHS

But there's trouble in paradise.

As we pass through the small station of San Clemente,

a coastal mist envelops us.

But the weather here is more than just a temporary threat,

something that coastal preservation manager

Stefanie Sekich-Quinn is all too aware of.

Well, the train ride from my home in San Diego

up to Northern California is some of the most

beautiful stretch of land on the Earth.

But for Stefanie, the location of the railroad is a serious concern.

That's because the coast is on a one way track to oblivion.

The railroad is extremely close to the beach.

It's amazing for that reason,

you get to be on the train and see wildlife,

whether it be a dolphin, or a whale or a seal.

But now we're starting to see erosion and other types of problems.

Coastal erosion threatens everything on the beach,

including the railroad.

So what's fascinating about where we're standing

and where the railroad tracks are is it's all beach.

So underneath, it's lacking stability.

And the continual storms and sea level rise we're having

are making this even more problematic.

Attempts are being made to hold the waves back.

All of these rocks are put here

to protect the infrastructure that's here, including the train.

Unfortunately, it hasn't been necessarily working.

There used to be a basketball court that was down here,

concessions, a large bathroom with showers,

where surfers could come and take a shower after surfing.

None of these things are still here.

And photographs of the area back in the 1950s

showed just how much land has been lost.

So while these rocks are have good intentions,

they're just not strong enough to fight against Mother Nature

and climate change.

This is a great example right here.

Look at this.

This entire corner is being undermined by the ocean.

Literally, there's nothing holding up this piece of concrete

but itself.

Eventually it will collapse,

because the ocean will erode underneath all of the concrete.

And this is potentially what could happen underneath the train tracks.

So the thing that makes this railway line so special,

the coast and the sea,

threatens its very existence.

And there's a compounding factor.

So as our climate is changing,

we're having more south swells come in,

we're having different types of sea level rise.

So it's not just the ocean that's threatening the tracks,

it's climate change that is threatening the tracks.

Worst case scenario for this train track

is it ends up falling into the ocean.

This is one scenic railway journey that begs to be taken now.

HORN WAILS

And as the mist clears, we're back on the line.

And once more, dreaming the Californian dream.

We have the best view in all of southern California right here.

But it's soon time to take a break from the seaside.

Now we're making a hard right, and we're going to Los Angeles.

We're going to say goodbye to the beach for a couple of hours,

but hello, LA.

TANNOY: Seven, seven, general.

At first sight, Los Angeles Union Station

is a relatively unexciting place,

but once we exit the tunnel,

we're in luxury.

We're in one of Los Angeles's architectural gems.

Built in 1939...

..a mix of Art Deco and Spanish colonial revival styles.

It's recently been beautifully refurbished

and restored to its original glory.

Working the sumptuous replica

of an early 20th century shoeshine stand,

we find Marco Ramirez.

I've been here eight years at the Union Station

in downtown Los Angeles.

I started in 2016.

I have always wanted to be in a public area,

and what better public area than here at Union Station,

Los Angeles, California?

I just love what I do, counteracting with people.

Here we have Mr Mario that's just passing by,

enjoying the afternoon.

And with an expert brush,

attention to the soles and a final shine...

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

...we're ready to explore.

We wander past the ticket hall

with a 110 foot long black walnut counter,

the backdrop to the 2021 Oscars ceremony.

The vast waiting room adorned with inlaid marble floors

and hand-painted mission tiles.

And outside, we can watch the world go by on shaded patios

lulled by the tiled fountain.

And if we're feeling like refreshment,

inside is Traxx's Bar and Restaurant.

Chris, the owner, is opening up specially for us.

The bar has always been a talking place.

It was the old phone booth room,

where reporters in the 1930s and '40s

would run with gossip on the new phenomenon

of the Hollywood movie star.

Back in the day,

we had a lot of celebrities pass through the station,

mainly because they had to go

to Chicago, New York.

They did projects here and there.

So when the celebrities were to come in on the trains,

the reporters then took the hottest latest story,

and they ran to the switchboard room.

So here we have the old switchboard cabinet.

Which are now full of wine and booze.

They had the switchboards in here.

They had an attendant over here.

The journalist would then pay the attendant

and phone up headquarters, tell them what the latest news were.

Now it's an iPhone. You can do it from anywhere.

So that's how it worked.

With the phone cabinets replaced by cocktail mixers,

the bar is still a great place for gossip.

You know, we still get celebrities coming through Traxx Bar.

And when you drink, you're brave enough to talk to people

who are not like you.

Everybody in our bar, they talk to each other.

So at Traxx, we get all kinds of people walking through,

anything from people getting out of jail,

to celebrities, politicians,

attorneys, actors,

construction workers.

There's no better place, I think, in LA.

There you go.

After enjoying our cocktail,

we'll go in search of something to eat

as we exchange the best place in LA

for some of the best agricultural land in the US.

Sweet, and crisp and delicious.

We're travelling up California's sun drenched coast

on the aptly named Pacific Surfliner.

We've explored Los Angeles's magnificent Union Station,

where we've spruced up and enjoyed a cocktail

and are looking forward to the next leg of our journey.

From Los Angeles,

the Surfliner takes us through some of the best strawberry growing land

in the States,

before skirting magnificent beaches to make our way to Santa Barbara

and an historic Franciscan mission.

We'll then hug the coast for a final stunning view

before reaching our destination and relaxing in style

at San Luis Obispo's Madonna Inn.

But first, we're swapping our 350 mile journey

for one a little bit shorter.

300 foot long Angels Flight.

Opening in 1901, this little railway

carried pedestrians up Bunker Hill,

allowing them to avoid one of downtown LA's steepest streets.

But that ride almost came to an end when Bunker Hill was redeveloped

and Angels Flight removed.

Angels flight was taken off the hill in 1969

and stored for 30 years

before it was put back now here in its second location.

So in 120 years, we've been closed for 30 and open for 90.

This is a funicular railway,

which means that it has two cars connected by a cable or rope.

Best seen underneath in the engine room.

There's two ropes here.

One of them comes in and around that bull wheel,

around and out.

And then we have our emergency rope that comes in and around and out.

We strive to maintain originality up front,

but down underneath here, we do things a little bit differently.

And if you follow me...

Every move of the train is computer monitored

and controlled for safety.

But whilst the engine room is state of the art,

up top, everything is just as it was when this was a city

of a mere 100,000 people.

Making it a place where the old spirit of LA lives on.

There's something very neat about Angels Flight to me.

It's a place where you can feel community as an Angeleno,

one of the few places left.

You see moms and dads come here early in the morning,

and you see young couples steal a first kiss together.

Old people reliving their youth of coming down here

with their grandparents to go shopping.

It's a pretty magical place to me.

Going for a ride on Angels Flight is one of my favourite things.

Hmm.

Up here, keeping everything the way it was is key.

And really, the longest part of riding Angels Flight

is waiting for it to load.

It's the exchange of money that actually takes so long.

We've gone through conversations about automating the process,

and we've firmly landed on the textile experience

of exchanging a dollar for a ticket

and getting on the ride, the old world way.

From the time the operator pushes the button to send us...

..Angels Flight takes 62 seconds from start to finish.

You can hear the bells of the cable rolling over it.

That lovely sound was actually engineered

to be just like it was originally.

Modernising the undercarriage would stop the wheels noise

as they scrape over the bend in the tracks,

but the noise is all part of this little train's undeniable charm.

But it's time to leave and return to our rather larger

but still quite charming train.

HORN WAILS

We pull out of the station the way we came in

so that now the engine is at the front.

In Southern California, we have a unique system.

It's called a push pull service.

So going north into Los Angeles,

the train is being pushed by the engine.

And then after Los Angeles,

the train is being pulled by the engine.

Leaving LA behind, the Surfliner takes us through agricultural land,

overlooked by the Santa Monica mountains.

I think the way that we travel through here gives us a bit

more intimate of a relationship with...

..the scenery around us.

The mountains and the valleys,

gets you a bit closer to that.

Caresses you within the curves of the mountainsides.

It's really beautiful, really impeccably...stunning.

This stunning land includes some of the best agricultural areas

in the US, and at this time of year, the peak crop is strawberries.

TANNOY: Our next station stop will be Ventura.

Beautiful Ventura!

Ed Terry has been working these fields for most of his life.

He's a fifth generation strawberry farmer.

California is about 80% of all strawberries sold

in the United States.

It's greater than a $2 billion industry on about 23,000 acres

of land up and down coastal California.

We have such a Mediterranean climate,

not too hot, not too cold.

And the strawberries don't like to have extreme

differences in temperature.

Ed and his crew take great care to ensure that every strawberry

they sell is perfect.

Let's take a look at the berries here on the strawberry bed.

A lot of them got damage from all the rain

we had earlier in the week.

And so the crew is going to go through,

and they're going to pick off everything

that is diseased-looking from the rain.

This discoloration that will never turn red.

We've got to get that off the plant.

We'll throw it in the juice bin,

and get the plant to regenerate itself.

Like a computer, it's going to reboot itself

and propagate new berries.

Once picked, the strawberries are given a thorough inspection

by foreman Lorenzo.

IN SPANISH:

IN ENGLISH: Those that make the grade

are put into containers called clams.

Then they're loaded onto a truck

and taken a short drive away to where a growing crowd

is eagerly waiting for them.

This is where it is. So here we go.

Coming right from the field, as we said.

Picked just less than an hour ago.

And in no time, the strawberry stand is in full swing.

Folks are here excited about strawberries

because the thing about strawberries, you can't but help

look at a strawberry box and call it the happy crop.

They're sweet, and crisp and delicious.

They're going like hotcakes.

Finally getting through the big line, slowing down a little bit now,

but we're getting down towards the end of our inventory, so,

it's working out well.

They only let us get four.

And my wife went and got four, so I came back and got four more.

So that's how you beat the system.

With such a long queue,

it's not long until the stand is sold out.

Last two. Last two.

Time to pack up and reflect on a good day's work.

We get folks coming all the way out of Los Angeles,

Bakersfield, Northern California.

They'll make a day trip down to Ventura.

Next thing you know, they're back the next week

just saying how much they enjoyed it.

And I just got to tell you, that's just a great feeling

for me to have and our family to have.

Stuffed with strawberries,

we're back on our train and heading for another feast,

a feast for the eyes.

It just gets more, and more, and more and more beautiful

all the way up the coast.

It's literally the ocean, a cliff, the train tracks and the mountains.

It's wonderful.

Refreshed after making a small dent in America's strawberry crop,

we're continuing up the coast and past

some of the finest houses in California.

One of the coolest things that I like about this trip

is that if you're into architecture,

we go through neighbourhoods, and you get to see the back yards

of these like beautiful houses

that are right next to the beach.

There's no two houses in a neighbourhood that look the same.

We're approaching our next stop.

TANNOY: Santa Barbara coming right up.

Thanks for travelling with us.

The uber desirable seaside town of Santa Barbara.

But we're not here for the fancy restaurants or smart houses.

Instead, we're seeking solace for the spirit.

This is Mission Santa Barbara.

A place of Christian worship and home to Franciscan friars,

like Brother Mark, since 1786.

Franciscan friars are a Catholic order of men.

And we were started by Saint Francis of Assisi.

And we take three vows.

Vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Poverty means that we share with everyone.

Chastity is to love all people.

And obedience comes from the Latin word that means to listen.

The mission's history is intertwined with our journey.

San Diego, San Onofre, San Clemente,

Ventura, Santa Barbara.

Our journey has had a theme.

In California, when you take the train,

you're going to see all these names of Spanish saints.

And that's the name of the cities.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo claimed California for Spain

in the 16th century, and in the 18th century,

Spain decided that Franciscan friars

would help extend Spanish influence in the area

by setting up missions where Native Americans

could be baptised and live.

So the first mission that was established was in San Diego.

Then the friars picked different spots in California,

the spots where the Native Americans were, friendly, saying,

"You know, live with us and we'll work together."

Each mission was within 30 miles or so,

a day's horse ride of each other.

So, many of the cities in California get their name

from the California missions and from other saints

that the friars labelled along the way.

So when you ride the train, you're going to see that.

The Franciscans influenced everything here.

The red tiled roofs, whitewashed walls and arched colonnades,

as well as palm trees.

They were the first to plant palm trees ornamentally in California,

something that has definitely caught on.

The mission is now home to a magnificent working church

and peaceful courtyards,

all curated by a community of friars.

So there are 18 friars that live here,

and we live in the second story,

if you can see, around.

Friars, pray together twice a day in the morning and before dinner.

Each friar has a different ministry.

My ministry is for the Western US,

I promote justice and nonviolence issues,

so I travel around promoting that.

Leaving Brother Mark to his work,

we board the train again for our last breathtaking journey

along the coastal railway.

A line that will take us from the simplicity of the early Franciscans

to the opulence of modern California.

It just gets more, and more, and more and more beautiful

all the way up the coast.

It's literally the ocean, a cliff, the train tracks and the mountains.

It's wonderful.

And after our last awe inspiring ride on the Surfliner,

we pull into our destination, San Luis Obispo.

Here, we get a very Californian reward for the end of our journey.

Quirky indulgence in San Luis Obispo's

famous Madonna Inn.

Built in the 1950s by construction magnate Alex Madonna

and his wife Phyllis,

the Madonna Inn is a shrine to the Californian dream.

Making sure that the inn keeps its fun extravagance

and fulfilling her own dream is marketing manager Amanda Rich.

I grew up in San Luis Obispo.

So I spent many years as a child

coming in here and checking out the decorations.

And now that I've been working here,

I've actually got to flip the circle,

and I am helping with all the decorating,

and I get to be a part of it, which is just amazing.

The inn has a pool and a pretty garden,

but it's its architecture that really sets it apart.

Well, Mr Madonna, he was in the construction business,

and he would travel up and down the coast

and stay at different places, and they all were the same.

And so he wanted to do something different and unique.

Unique it certainly is.

Every room has its own individual theme.

The caveman, to the Austrian to Edelweiss.

From that little girl who wants to come and stay for her birthday

to that couple who was here for their honeymoon

and want to stay in romance.

There's something for everybody.

There's not two rooms alike.

There's even a room for gnome lovers.

And, of course, with an inn built by someone

in the construction industry,

a highway room.

Though this room is far removed from your average

construction workers hut.

Mr Madonna, you know, he had a really silly personality.

That's why there's so many fun little things around Madonna Inn.

Like the men's urinal.

Built to look like a waterfall,

it's an interesting example of Californian inventiveness.

So if it's over the top, we usually go for that.

Like, for example, with this bunny, he's kind of eclectic and strange,

but, you know what, that's perfect because we're very unique,

and you're not going to see it anywhere else.

And it's not only the inn that's inventive,

sometimes, it's the guests.

One of the waitresses said, "I have a strange question.

"We have a guest that's here that actually has a chimpanzee,

"and they want to sit down and have breakfast. Is that allowed?"

And I thought to myself, you know, I don't know.

We've never had that experience before, but sure, why not?

And that chimpanzee just sat down and used silverware

and sat there politely and ate their meal.

So, you know, you never know what you're going to see

when you're here at Madonna Inn.

Mr Madonna loved red and he also loved pink.

And he thought that it was a flattering colour,

and looked good on everybody and a romantic colour.

So you'll see lots of that around here at Madonna Inn.

It's kind of our theme, our pink theme.

It certainly is. Pink is everywhere.

Pink chairs, pink leather,

pink ice buckets, pink tennis courts,

and even pink sugar in the cafe.

And after a trip to the pink bar, it's time to retire to our room,

allow the fire to spring into life,

relax in the quirky splendour and look back on a fantastic journey.

Over nine hours, we've been treated to breathtaking views

of the Californian coast...

..enjoyed travel from another age...

..and experienced a land marked by Californian dreams of health...

..spirituality and fun.

All this on a busy commuter line

that is also one of the most scenic railways in the world.