This document discusses the author's love of train travel in Europe and provides tips for planning a rail trip. The author finds train travel romantic due to the changing scenery seen from the window and encounters with other passengers. Key advice includes using websites to plan an itinerary connecting multiple countries over several weeks using a rail pass. Planning and flexibility are required but trains are a scenic way to efficiently travel and experience Europe.

1. travel
Paris gare de nord
Berlin train station
Forget cars and planes. Alan C. Robles writes about
his favorite way to travel in Europe, and assures that Inside the Ice
there’s nothing quite like
The view through
the train window
i
t was morning. i had just awakened after “the romance of train travel.” i’m not sure
a fitful sleep in a full six-bunk sleeping what “romance” means. is it encountering
compartment on the night train from sinister, mysterious characters? Falling into a
Vienna. We seemed to have stopped torrid affair with a passing stranger? Fighting
inside a station in a grubby industrial some diabolical villain on the roof of a
Approaching Venice
town. Then, a mild jolt and the train resumed speeding express? Unfortunately, none of these
rolling. as it left the station i smelled sea air. romantic, stirring things has happened to me.
suddenly we pulled clear of a tangle of cargo although i do remember, once, on a train from
containers, storage tanks, and cranes and burst Florence to rome, sharing a compartment with
into bright morning sunlight. on either side of a nun who had a mustache so thick i thought
the train was bright blue water. i sat, transfixed, she (or he) might be a Hitler experiment gone
as Venice unfolded itself: the window framed a bad. another time, on the express from oslo
brilliant lagoon, in the distance a shimmering to Bergen, i listened to a sweet grandmotherly
strip of white and gold — marble and brick biologist explain to me at length that we all of us
buildings that seemed to float on the water. shared the genes of genghis Khan.
it was magical. nothing romantic there. But if you’re talking
at that moment — many years and several about seduction of the senses, then i can paint
scholarships ago — i was permanently cursed you pictures. a gold and pink sunset over the
with two addictions. one (understandably) is dark Mediterranean, seen from aboard the
Venice. The other is train travel. rome to Paris overnight express as it races north
i find it difficult explaining to people why i like along the rugged, precipitous Tyrrhenian coast.
trains and why, whenever i lecture in germany, i a high-speed interCity Express (iCE) train,
try to seize every chance to travel by rail. Munich to Berlin, lancing through the dappled
often, i’ve come across the expression forests of saxony, with farms, castles, small Austria
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2. towns whisking by like fleeting memories. The a majestic fjord. in the first class section, the covering five days of travel in two months.
mighty fortress overlooking the town of Koblenz canny norwegian railway has fitted swiveling You’ll probably find that if you’re taking several
coming into view as the iCE thunders along the cushioned seats in front of large bay windows, long-distance train rides — Paris to rome,
rhine, the riverbanks wreathed in mist. and has stocked the pantry with free tea and amsterdam to geneva, Berlin to Barcelona —
it seems maudlin, but most of the attraction coffee. You can sit and watch awestruck — a Eurail will save lot of money compared to
in rail travel for me lies in staring out the though you’d probably be frantically snapping simply buying tickets at the station. You can get
window. a train compartment is a room pictures. Bus tours? don’t even get me started. more information at eurail.com, and you should
with a view, the window a panel for surprises This month, i’m helping a friend’s son buy the pass here in Manila from a dealer. it’s
and delights. Most of the sights you can see plan a summer rail trip through Europe. Hey, possible to get it in a few places in Europe, but
coming well ahead: the castle in the distance if the dad’s splurging, who am i to object? i’ve there’s a large markup.
that inches its way towards the window, then suggested a month-long circuit (apparently one reason i like getting a rail pass is the
tumbles past. But some delights can suddenly he has lots of friends he can stay with in many fact that i can jump aboard any train at a station,
pop up and disappear: a charming water mill, a countries) that will go from geneva, to Paris, to without knowing where it’s going. of course, it’s
small picture-perfect farmhouse, a tiny village Brussels and amsterdam, east to Berlin, down usually better to have an itinerary so you don’t
perched precariously and impossibly on a cliff. to Vienna/salzburg or Munich, further south end up in a hick town where trains only come in
Even — especially — if the train’s traveling to Venice, Florence, rome, up north back to once a day. But i’ve done this a couple of times,
at night, the surrounding darkness is enticing. geneva, passing through Pisa. and it can be an adventure.
imagination takes over, and speculates what okay, it’s true: taking a rail trip to Europe a few tips to using a pass: you should have
could be behind the lights streaking past requires a bit more planning and flexibility. You it validated at the information counter of any
won’t be in the hands of an umbrella-wielding large train station before using it. specify the
tour guide/battalion commander who’ll activation date, and the information staff will
manage every minute of your tour. You’ll have stamp this on the pass. You might want to check
to draw up your own itinerary, make your own if the particular train you’re riding charges a
bookings, plan what you want to see and visit. “supplement,” a small fee on top of the pass.
Thankfully, it’s now possible to do most also, you might consider reserving a seat, to
of the planning through the internet, and two avoid acrimonious scenes when a passenger
sites are indispensable: rick steves (ricksteves. shows up, waves a reservation card, and turfs
com) for all the information i’ll ever need about you out of the place you’d made yourself
traveling in Europe; the german railway, bahn. comfortable in. Train food is usually expensive
hafas.de, for train schedules. The german and not that great, but on a long ride, you can
railway site covers nearly all Europe and is consider nursing a coffee or soda for the chance
incredible: key in the city you’re coming from, to occupy a nice seat at the dining car.
and the one you want to visit, the date and time What else would i advise?
(up to months in advance), and it will spit out • Pack light.
Norway
all the possibilities. • Be prompt. Bear in mind that trains can
You’ll have to determine how many days — afford to be late (especially in italy) because
the train. of course, there’s the additional i count the nights — you’ll be spending. and i passengers will wait for them. However,
excitement, riding a sleeper, that when you wake do mean “spending.” staying longer is better, passengers don’t have the luxury of being
up you’ll be in a different country. The night train but tends to move you closer to bankruptcy. The late — i’ve seen my share of travelers futilely
i took as a backpacking student from Paris to actual burden of going there isn’t so much in the chasing after a departing train. Familiarize
Copenhagen, which saw the entire train rolling cost of the air ticket, it’s the accommodations: yourself with the various signs in a train station.
into a huge ferry for the crossing over the Baltic if you figure 40 to 50 Euros per person per The ones where you’ll see a crowd standing in
sea, is a treasured memory i’m willing to unwrap night, 10 nights’ vacation will eat up 500 Euros. fascination? That’s the arrival and departure
and torture friends with any time, any place. sometimes, you can save by taking overnight board. There are also maps of individual trains
Trains race through landscapes — tunnels, trips and sleeping on the train. a bunk — that will help you locate your compartment.
gorges, peaks, causeways — you definitely will couchette — costs between 19 and 45 Euros. • Does all this sound like too much work?
not see from a plane. and you’ll feel cramped should you buy a Eurail pass? it depends never mind: when you hear the whistles of
looking at these places from a car. The seven- on the number and distance of train trips you’re the train dispatchers warning that the train is
hour train trip from oslo to Bergen has the train planning to take. rick steves’ site has a time and about to depart, followed by the slamming of
climbing more than a kilometer, through lush cost map showing the prices of second-class doors, and as the train slowly gets underway,
forests and startlingly clear rivers, up snow- travel between many major cities. Compare you can sit back, because rail travel is one form
clad mountains, past frozen lakes in a black these prices against the cost of a Eurail, which of tourism where the trip itself is part of the
and white landscape, down a route that skirts starts at about Us$450 for a three-country pass experience. AD
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