#Microblog Monday 303: I Love Trains
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Do you know what I’m not on right now? A train. Do you know what I was supposed to be on this week? A train. Not a fancy train like these dream trains. Just a normal Amtrak one that would have delivered me at my sister’s house.
I love train travel as much as I hate air travel. Car travel is between train travel (at the top) and air travel (at the bottom). Boat travel is slightly (very slightly) above air travel.
I miss my sister. I also miss trains. (Thank you, Amtrak, for the refund. I will rebook when I travel again.) New life goal: Ride on the Belmond British Pullman next time we get to London. Did you see where it goes?
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7 comments
I love train travel too. Pretty much all train travel. Short and long, fast and slow, luxury and basic. I would love to go on all those fancy trains, including all the Belmond trains on that list, including the Peruvian ones. But they’re soooo expensive! We’ve done a three day Rovos Rail journey which was fabulous, and I dream of doing it again. But I love a simple one-hour trip on a slow train too. There’s something about just settling in and watching the world pass by. There are scenic NZ trains but I’ve never taken them. Maybe now is the time to do it!
I love train travel too. When I was a kid, we used to take the train to see my grandparents, from northeastern Saskatchewan to Winnipeg (and vice-versa), and there was even a little one-car liner that used to run between Winnipeg and the U.S./Canada border, where my grandfather (a few miles away in northwestern Minnesota) used to pick us up and drop us off. Those trains are no more, but you can still take VIA Rail trains almost all the way across Canada, including through the Rockies, albeit under much less luxurious circumstances than offered by the Rocky Mountaineer. 😉 There are also several trains daily that operate in the corridor from Windsor to Toronto, Ottawa & Montreal. Dh & I used to take the train to visit each other at grad school (he in Windsor & me in London, about a two-hour train ride apart) and to visit his family in Toronto (another two hours from where I was). After we were married & bought our house, we took the commuter train (GO Transit) to & from work every day. It had its drawbacks, but I it was still far less stressful (and expensive) than driving (& paying for parking in downtown Toronto!) every day. Part of our daily train route ran right along Lake Ontario, and we got to see some gorgeous sunrises over the water. I don’t miss working at all, but I do miss that sometimes. 🙂
We are a household that loves trains too. My husband and I talk about our trip from the west coast to Chicago all the time, how we’d take the twins when they are 8 or 9 years old. My toddler boy misses his train at the zoo and the train display at a local museum. We look at videos of us riding a train at a train museum on his father’s birthday and he gets sad because we are no where near trains. We are a sad sad train household… We do go by a train station for some takeouts and everyone gets super excited when a train passes by. I don’t know when we’ll let them ride a train again….
Sorry you had to postpone your trip! Is it weird that I really haven’t traveled anywhere by train in 20+ years?
I love to fly. I think I like the romantic idea of riding on a train for a long distance more than actually doing it. I don’t mind trains in the U.S. if they’re going from north to south some normal distance. (I’ve only briefly been on a train anywhere else.) Years ago, I took a train from NYC to Oregon. What a nightmare. I spent 3 days sitting up in a seat basically draped over the guy next to me just so I could get a little sleep. Love the NY subways. Except for walking, it’s the only way to travel in the City.
I’m so sorry you aren’t going to be able to visit your sister for now. I know how much she and her family mean to you.
Sad also about missing the train ride. There’s something so romantic (as in romanticism) about riding on a train. More than car or plane, on a train, the journey is equal to the destination.
I hope you are able to experience both the train and a visit with your sister soon.
I like any kind of travel – plane, train, car, boat, ferry, walking tour, whatever! Unfortunately, my husband is not a fan of any, so I never have anyone to travel with. When the kid gets a little older, he claims he’ll be less neurotic about me traveling alone with her, so we’ll see how that works out.
I’m currently missing out on my annual trip to see my sister. Maybe in a few more weeks we can see if it will be safer…