Friday, August 08, 2014

Ridin the ICE train at 125 kilometers an hour.

   
                 
 Before any discussion about train travel in Europe can begin I have to say that many of the train stations are magnificent.  This photo is of the Central Station in Antwerp.  A Representative of many of staions built during that period.  Consider them to be tributes of transportation. 

Recently traveled from Freiberg to Amsterdam on our last leg prior to returning home. 
This was a popular route so we reserved two seats in a compartment of six. 

As we entered it was occupied by an older German couple who did not speak English. 
After a while a conversation began with me speaking German. It flowed nicely discussing family and vacations to other places. 

With the next stop two unrelated young women entered filling the compartment. 
One was a fashionably dressed woman who said she was originally from Wisconsin. She lived in Sydney for the last ten years and after a recent marriage will be relocating to Ontario.  She is traveling alone planning to reunite with her husband in a few weeks somewhere in Europe. 

The other person was a bilingual German English speaker.  She was originally from Koln and relocated to Berlin. In discussing Berlin we learned she lived around the corner from us when we there in June.
She in fact rents her flat out to airbnb when traveling.  
The conversation then became quite active discussing travel, airbnb and assorted general life issues. Unfortunately the older couple were no longer engaged. Fortunately for them they had the window seats so they could watch the scenery whiz by. 

Such is the way of international commercial rail travel in Europe.  Spreading the word of airbnb and making new contacts shrinking the world on compartment at a time. 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

European trains are a great way to meet people. Everyone has a story to tell and a lot of people are eager listeners.