Train Trips
Five of the Best You'll Ever Take
By GORP Travel Expert Rob Sangster
From the window of a train, the world is a visual banquet, one to be savored and inhaled as it flows past.
In the kitchen of a farmhouse near the track, a woman hears the wail of the whistle, glances up, catches your eye, and smiles, probably imagining herself sharing your journey.
Only a few decades ago, farmers paused in Midwestern wheat fields to wave at the Santa Fe Super Chief as it puffed into sight and away, carrying excited families to the distant west coast.
On those trains, you travel close to the land, slowly enough to absorb life and landscape.
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Sadly, passenger trains are fast becoming an anachronism in America. But fortunately for travelers, trains remain a vital part of daily life in the rest of the world. They're aesthetically worn, sometimes mechanically frail, but still valiantly performing their duty.
On those trains, you travel close to the land, slowly enough to absorb life and landscape. You have as much privacy, or contact with other people, as you choose. You sleep deeply, rocking along to a soothing rhythm, waking to a new vista with each dawn.
A Symbol of the Past
My favorite trains are the old-fashioned ones that maintain the style of a half-century ago. Some of them depart from stations that are remarkable works of art, such as the soaring iron masterpiece in Budapest designed by Gustave Eiffel. Most of those old stations have a character seldom found in our nondescript Amtrak shelters.
Picture yourself traveling by train across some faraway land. Lean back, look out the window, and I'll tell you about six of the finest train trips in the world.
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