Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by Q165
I have been on the morning commute trains into London a few times and it is not very pleasant because it is so overcrowded. At other times I have found the trains here fine. Always liked the tube but I think you have to know just what you are doing. Enjoyed the Paris metro (?) but it is not that safe, my son was mugged. The New York subway is now great albeit very complicated to the unfamiliar, like me.
I have been on a few great train journeys. From Ostend to Venice which gave me my first experience of the Alps; I had a compartment to myself going through Switzerland and was running back and forth in my excitement. Ostend to Warsaw which was an experience; this was while the Iron Curtain still existed and we had to keep changing trains; as to be expected the West German ones were ultra efficient and the guards dressed in a very militaristic manner; changed at the strangely named Zoological Garden station in Berlin onto a East German train which was extremely basic. Changed at the border again onto a Polish train which seemed like it had come from the Dark Ages of the railways. In Poland from Warsaw to Katowice where I saw a most unusual sight when emerging from the station, a coal mine pit head near the city centre. Went on a train through the Canadian Rockies which is the most spectacular place I have ever been. Used a very pleasant train in Australia probably in NSW. In Israel from Haifa to Jerusalem which was my first experience outside of Europe and special. But the best train journey I have had was in Thailand travelling south from Bangkok towards Malaysia; my wife and friends wanted to fly but I was insistent on the train as I wanted to see the country; the train is a big deal there and I thought Bangkok station a great place; the steam train itself was so different; sitting in a carriage with locals carrying all sorts of things including wildlife and a Buddhist monk sitting opposite; you could stand on a platform outside and watch the landscape change; there was a restaurant car like nothing I have experienced where you could get a whole range of dirt cheap delicious Thai food.
Sorry for being so self indulgent but I have enjoyed recalling all that.
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