A recent study identified the most spectacular railway itineraries to explore in Canada, North America's largest territory. The country offers a vast diversity of landscapes, including mountain ranges, turquoise blue lakes, forests, and plains, making train travel a particularly interesting way to discover its provinces, moving away from traditional routes like Vancouver and Toronto.
The operator Journeyscape conducted a survey to rank the most picturesque rail routes. This ranking was based on four metrics with equal weight: user ratings on TripAdvisor, annual search volume on Google, mentions on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, and the number of natural attractions present on the route. The results range from historic railways to routes crossing the Rocky Mountains and the country's main national parks.
Third place was won by the First Passage to the West, offered by Rocky Mountaineer. This two-day journey connects Vancouver to Banff, following part of the historic Canadian Pacific Railway, which was fundamental to unifying Canada between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The route winds through the heart of the Canadian Rockies, passing by voluminous rivers, dense forests, and iconic western scenery, highlighting Glacier, Yoho, and Banff National Parks, as well as Emerald and Wapta Lakes, and passing through the notorious Spiral Tunnels, an engineering feat where locomotives navigate elevation changes in tunnels.
In second place is The Canadian, a four-day journey covering over 4,000 kilometers between Toronto and Vancouver. This route is not only the most talked about on social media among all analyzed, registering over 11 thousand posts, but it also has the highest number of natural attractions, totaling eight national parks. The journey crosses the forests and lakes of Northern Ontario, proceeds through the vast plains of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and culminates in the mountainous landscapes of Alberta and British Columbia, allowing passengers to stop in various cities along the way, passing near locations such as Banff and Jasper parks and Pyramid Lake.
The first place winner is the White Pass & Yukon Route. This railway was inaugurated in 1898 to support the Klondike Gold Rush, a movement that mobilized over 100,000 people in search of gold in the Klondike River. The trip starts in Skagway, Alaska, and ascends towards White Pass, located on the border with British Columbia, gaining almost 900 meters in altitude in just over 30 kilometers. During the journey, the train traverses steep slopes, crosses metal suspension bridges, passes through rock-cut tunnels, and follows rivers fed by melting snow, while waterfalls cascade down the surrounding mountains, combining landscape drama with historical significance.
According to the Journeyscape survey, the complete ranking of the most beautiful train journeys includes: White Pass & Yukon Route (Skagway, Alaska–Whitehorse, Yukon); The Canadian (Toronto–Vancouver); First Passage to the West (Vancouver–Banff); Journey Through the Clouds (Vancouver–Jasper); Rainforest to Gold Rush (Vancouver–Jasper); The Skeena (Jasper–Prince Rupert); Agawa Canyon Tour Train (Sault Ste. Marie–Agawa Canyon); Polar Bear Express (Cochrane–Moosonee); Winnipeg–Churchill Train (Winnipeg–Churchill); and Charlevoix Train (Quebec City–La Malbaie).
On July 30th, a vegan cuisine festival took place in Tashkent at the 'Farovon' hotel. The event was organized by the Committee for Tourism of the Republic of Uzbekistan with the support of the Embassy of India in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The goal of the festival was to strengthen international tourism cooperation, promote gastronomic tourism in Uzbekistan, and popularize plant-based nutrition as the basis for a healthy lifestyle and as a new, promising direction in Uzbek culinary arts.
The main participant in the festival was Dr. Nikhila Hirewat—an international specialist in healthy eating with a PhD in Ayurveda, which is a traditional Indian science and philosophy about a healthy lifestyle. She presented guests with the fundamentals of Ayurvedic gastronomy, noting that this field is rapidly gaining popularity worldwide, especially in the areas of wellness tourism and healthy eating.
According to Hirewat, the principles of Ayurveda can be successfully integrated into Uzbek cuisine, which could potentially increase tourist interest in the country. She also recalled that a fundamental principle of Ayurveda—the concept of six tastes (sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, salty, and astringent)—which helps maintain balance in the body through daily nutrition, was described as early as the works of Avicenna (Ibn Sina).
To practically demonstrate the possibility of applying Ayurvedic principles in Uzbek gastronomy, a tasting session was held for the festival visitors. Uzbek dishes were presented that were prepared exclusively on a plant-based diet instead of animal products. These dishes, created under the direct supervision of Nikhila Hirewat, fully met the requirements of a vegan diet while retaining the richness of the original flavor.
Hirewat suggested gradually including such dishes in the menus of Uzbek public catering establishments, as she estimates this will significantly increase demand among health-conscious tourists.
Sanjar Tadjiev, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Tourism of the Republic of Uzbekistan, also emphasized the importance of developing gastronomic tourism in Uzbekistan. In his welcoming speech, he stated that expanding the culinary diversity of Uzbek cuisine would help improve the stay conditions for foreign guests during their trips to Uzbekistan and increase the overall tourist flow.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the issue of healthy eating is relevant to Uzbekistan not only in the tourism context but also in healthcare. According to data from the World Health Organization, Uzbekistan ranks 59th in the global ranking of countries with a high rate of overweight, leading among Central Asian states, where about 64% of the population suffers from obesity.
>The name of the McDonald's Quarter Pounder sandwich derives from a unit of measurement, written as 'Quarter Pounder,' without the letter 'i'. This very popular item on the McDonald's menu appeared in 1971.
Al Bernardin, an entrepreneur who owned two franchises of the restaurant in Fremont, California, identified a gap in the menu: the need for a sandwich with a higher proportion of meat to bread. To meet this demand, he created a new snack containing a quarter pound of meat.
The pound (lb in English) is a mass unit used in the United States, equivalent to 453.6 grams. A quarter of this measure corresponds to approximately 113 grams, which was the weight of the raw hamburger in the sandwich. The sandwich's name functioned as a marketing strategy because the term Quarter Pounder immediately communicated that it was a more substantial meat option compared to other items on the menu. At that time, a quarter-pound hamburger was considered quite voluminous compared to market offerings, although today there are options with even larger meats.
The Quarter Pounder was implemented nationwide in the US in 1973. When it arrived in Brazil, the chain opted to adjust the name to 'Quarterão com Queijo,' omitting the 'i' from 'quarteirão' (which means a city block). This translation is peculiar, since 'quarteirão' in Portuguese usually refers to an urban block, and not a fraction of weight, but the name was ultimately accepted by the public.
Although Brazil managed to adapt a name based on a foreign unit of measurement, other countries adopted different solutions. In France, the snack is called Royal Cheese; in Portugal, it received the name McRoyal Cheese. In Germany, the designation is Hamburger Royal TS, where TS stands for 'Tomate und Salat' (tomato and salad), due to the inclusion of these ingredients in the snack. In Sweden, QP Cheese is used, while in Spain the company maintained a more literal translation: Cuarto de Libra con Queso.
Hong Kong presents a notable case. There, the snack was called 足三兩 (zú sān liǎng), which translates to 'three full taels.' The tael is a traditional unit of mass in the country. Since one tael equals 37.8 g, three taels total 113.4 g, corresponding to the original weight of the sandwich. Thus, the inhabitants of Hong Kong sought to preserve the concept of the original name, but using a unit of measurement familiar to the local population. However, this sandwich is no longer offered in Hong Kong.
