Willem looking terribly suave while travelling by train
The week before Christmas we were lucky enough to travel to Paris and Germany (and yes, I will be writing posts about what we did soon). Before I ramble on about what we did, I wanted to write a quick post about the fact we travelled by train, and how much I like train travel.
We could have flown to Southern Germany. It would have been quicker, and perhaps cheaper. It would almost definitely have been more stressful, and worse for the environment.
Yes, it would have been quicker. The route we chose was to take was the train from a local station to London, and then the Eurostar to Paris (we got a great return deal). We decided to spend the night in Paris before taking two trains – an ICE and Regional Express which we booked directly through the bahn.com website - to our ultimate destination in Germany, Ulm. We could have possibly gotten there in one day, but that would have meant leaving very early in the morning and getting in very late at night. And yes, if we had flown, it would have meant less travel time. But it would have meant getting to an airport (not so easy from where we are), and if we were going to get a cheap fare, landing in some out of the way airport and then getting the train anyway to get to our final destination. It would have meant early check-ins, limits on what we could take on board, and a lot of stress. Sure there are security checks and baggage checks for the Eurostar, but I don’t find them as much of a hassle for some reason. And on the train we could take our own food, and had a lot more room to stretch out in than we would have had cattle-class on an aeroplane. And call me crazy, but I actually looked forward to the hours of reading time on the train.
Yes, it probably would have been cheaper to fly BUT there is the travel to and from the airports. And there is the fact we would not have been able to take liquids on the plane, so we would have been stuck drinking what we were given, or on a cheap flight, paying over the odds for a softdrink or bottle of water. Instead we took our own ‘on train picnic’ on each leg. And to get to Paris, if you can pick up a promotional fare on Eurostar it is not that much more expensive than flying, and you end up right in the city, not on the fringes at an airport.
And it is worse for the environment to fly than take the train. Frankly, if you care about the environment (and think about it – if you care about yourself and/or your kids, you should care about the environment), flying is one of the worst things you can do. And yes, I admit I am a hypocrite on this one, but I do what I can. And if you want to see the difference that taking a train, car and aeroplane are from any two points in Europe, go to the excellent ecopassenger website. As a rough guide, getting from Waterloo Station in London to Ulm by train resulted in 35.3 kgs of carbon output for one of us. By plane that would have been 115.2 kgs of carbon, and that doesn’t take in to account the global warming impacts of flight (there are more). It also meant much lower energy consumption and less revolting polluting particles and nasties were created.
Natalia looking less than suave while travelling by train
It was almost funny the amount of people who were quite amazed that we were ‘travelling so far!’ by train rather than taking a plane. But I know we are not alone in our preference for taking the train: as the fantastic Trains on the Brain blog says ‘Save yourself the pain and travel by train’, or the pure delight that comes through in posts about rail travel on the lovely Travelwriticus blog. Or if you think it is too hard to travel around Europe by train, check out the website of the excellently knowledgeable The Man in Seat Sixty-One and find out how easy it is to get anywhere (just about) by train. And while UK trains can be hideously expensive, and the trains themselves can sometimes leave something to be desired, there are fantastic train journeys here too (or if walking is more your thing, why not use the historic rail lines of Britain as your guide?) So next time you have to get from point A to B (and even on to C, D and E) whether for fun or for business, why not consider the train. It could be cheaper and quicker than you think, and probably a heck of a lot more civilized than the alternatives.
In praise of train travel in Europe
Willem looking terribly suave while travelling by train
The week before Christmas we were lucky enough to travel to Paris and Germany (and yes, I will be writing posts about what we did soon). Before I ramble on about what we did, I wanted to write a quick post about the fact we travelled by train, and how much I like train travel.
We could have flown to Southern Germany. It would have been quicker, and perhaps cheaper. It would almost definitely have been more stressful, and worse for the environment.
Yes, it would have been quicker. The route we chose was to take was the train from a local station to London, and then the Eurostar to Paris (we got a great return deal). We decided to spend the night in Paris before taking two trains – an ICE and Regional Express which we booked directly through the bahn.com website - to our ultimate destination in Germany, Ulm. We could have possibly gotten there in one day, but that would have meant leaving very early in the morning and getting in very late at night. And yes, if we had flown, it would have meant less travel time. But it would have meant getting to an airport (not so easy from where we are), and if we were going to get a cheap fare, landing in some out of the way airport and then getting the train anyway to get to our final destination. It would have meant early check-ins, limits on what we could take on board, and a lot of stress. Sure there are security checks and baggage checks for the Eurostar, but I don’t find them as much of a hassle for some reason. And on the train we could take our own food, and had a lot more room to stretch out in than we would have had cattle-class on an aeroplane. And call me crazy, but I actually looked forward to the hours of reading time on the train.
Yes, it probably would have been cheaper to fly BUT there is the travel to and from the airports. And there is the fact we would not have been able to take liquids on the plane, so we would have been stuck drinking what we were given, or on a cheap flight, paying over the odds for a softdrink or bottle of water. Instead we took our own ‘on train picnic’ on each leg. And to get to Paris, if you can pick up a promotional fare on Eurostar it is not that much more expensive than flying, and you end up right in the city, not on the fringes at an airport.
And it is worse for the environment to fly than take the train. Frankly, if you care about the environment (and think about it – if you care about yourself and/or your kids, you should care about the environment), flying is one of the worst things you can do. And yes, I admit I am a hypocrite on this one, but I do what I can. And if you want to see the difference that taking a train, car and aeroplane are from any two points in Europe, go to the excellent ecopassenger website. As a rough guide, getting from Waterloo Station in London to Ulm by train resulted in 35.3 kgs of carbon output for one of us. By plane that would have been 115.2 kgs of carbon, and that doesn’t take in to account the global warming impacts of flight (there are more). It also meant much lower energy consumption and less revolting polluting particles and nasties were created.
Natalia looking less than suave while travelling by train
It was almost funny the amount of people who were quite amazed that we were ‘travelling so far!’ by train rather than taking a plane. But I know we are not alone in our preference for taking the train: as the fantastic Trains on the Brain blog says ‘Save yourself the pain and travel by train’, or the pure delight that comes through in posts about rail travel on the lovely Travelwriticus blog. Or if you think it is too hard to travel around Europe by train, check out the website of the excellently knowledgeable The Man in Seat Sixty-One and find out how easy it is to get anywhere (just about) by train. And while UK trains can be hideously expensive, and the trains themselves can sometimes leave something to be desired, there are fantastic train journeys here too (or if walking is more your thing, why not use the historic rail lines of Britain as your guide?) So next time you have to get from point A to B (and even on to C, D and E) whether for fun or for business, why not consider the train. It could be cheaper and quicker than you think, and probably a heck of a lot more civilized than the alternatives.