Wednesday, January 19, 2022

TRAVELIN'

 One of the bloggers I've begun following fairly recently, Tasker Dunham in Yorkshire, posted the other day a review of a book he'd just read, "The Great Railway Bazaar" by Paul Theroux.

I think it was the first of many books he wrote about travel and, specifically, railroad travel.

It was published back in the 1970's and I had read it shortly after it came out.

All of which put me into Throwback Mode and reminded me of a photo of Judy and I when we were doing our railroad travel in Europe in 1985.

(Lordy, lordy, that was 37 years ago!)

On one leg of our Eurail adventure I inveigled someone to take a photo of us as we were about to board a train.

In my faded memory it was a train called the Orient Express, though it wasn't that Orient Express but a new train named that, no doubt, for the impressionable American tourists.

But, though my memory was that there was a sign on the outside of the train car carrying that name, I find no evidence of it in the surviving photo.



But there we are, anyway, about to join fellow passengers on a train that ran from Paris, France to Salzburg, Austria, at least.

We were both train buffs and became enamored of the trains that shuttled us around Europe for a few weeks.

I remember a marvelous meal with wine in a dining car between Innsbruck, Austria and Florence, Italy.

I recall the wonderfully scenic trip through the Alps going to Innsbruck.

And seeing the beautiful golden mustard fields around Dijon, France while speeding our way on a bullet train from the Mediterranean coast up to Paris.

Those were good times and while we never achieved our aim of getting back to Europe we made many memories to last a lifetime in that glorious month of April, 1985.

(Some memories are fuzzier than others but . . .)

19 comments:

  1. I haven't travelled much on trains, but I do remember the train that took us all to a new small town, it arrived close to midnight and we didn't yet have a place to live there, so for a few weeks we five lived in an upstairs room at the company my dad worked for. Then we spent a few years travelling to "the big city" once a year with empty suitcases so mum could fill them with "continental" foods that weren't available in our small town, until a Continental Deli opened in the main street. The only big train trip I remember after that is from when I was a mum myself and I took my 15 month old daughter from Brisbane to Sydney to Melbourne to Adelaide to visit assorted grandparents and then the same in reverse to get back home to Brisbane.

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    1. Wow! That's quite a trip. But I wonder how enjoyable it was with a 15-month-old as your traveling companion.

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    2. She was great, well behaved and interested. I have easy children.

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  2. Fuzzy memories...the famous(infamous?) French wine? ;) I've been to many of those places and never have made it back either. Love the way Judy is eyeing you; had you just said a "bon mot?"

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    1. Actually the night in Innsbruck spent with a bunch of Austrians drinking beer until the tavern closed was the fuzziest night.

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  3. On the other hand, no murder and no Belgian detective with a weird mustache.

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  4. What is it about trains that inspires such romantic feelings in people? Paul Theroux is clearly enamored of them too. I like trains -- especially in Europe, where the rail networks are so extensive -- but I'm not obsessed with them like he is.

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    1. I think the old movies with people like Cary Grant made them popular.

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  5. What a wonderful journey. If there wasn't a pandemic, I think I would like to take a train across country here. We once took a nice long journey on Amtrak (in our own sleeper car), and it was really lovely.

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    1. Yes, we've done that too. When one could still catch a train in Phoenix we once took one to Los Angeles, walked around the Olvera Street market area for an hour or two and then caught the train up to San Francisco. Marvelous journey.

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  6. Like your traveling jackets with many pockets!

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    1. When we went to the Tower of London a ticket seller said "On safari, are we?" But those "bush jackets" were very practical.

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  7. One of the things I love about Europe is the train network. I so wish we had that here. Can you imagine how much nicer it would be to travel to LA if we could hop on a train instead of that horrible drive?

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    1. Sharon, see my comment to "robin andrea" above. It was a great way to go.

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  8. I love traveling by train. I took the train from Vancouver back to Toronto many years ago and it was wonderful.

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  9. That is a great picture of you and your wife! Looked like you were both ready for whatever was ahead of you for your adventure! I am sure the views you saw were magnificent from that train trip!

    betty

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