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September 1997 Home
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Stephen Beaumont's Brewpub Cookbook |
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A Taste For Beer |
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Great Canadian Beer Guide |
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A World of Beer |
A Tale of the Train
I have always loved train travel. There is something about the rhythm of a train that I find calming; not only the physical movement of the engine and cars, but also the vibe of being on a train instead of stuck on a highway or herded into a plane. Some feel the lure of the open road, but for me, it has always been the train.North American train travel, however, has sorely tested my patience. If you can afford first class, it is true that you usually get a calm and comfortable ride for your money. But try riding second class and you will soon see what modern train travel has really become -- hot, noisy, cramped and tiring.
This is why it is such a relief to ride the European rails, as Christine and I did for two months this summer. On two Eurail passes -- mine a press pass and hers purchased from Eurail's Canadian office -- we travelled from Paris to Provence to Lisbon, down to the Algarve and back up to Madrid and Barcelona, back through France to Lille, across Belgium to Amsterdam and back to Paris. Fourteen trips in all, and if some were less fun than others, they were all better and more affordable than any similar rail travel I've experienced in North America.
Yes, I come to bury the North America rail system, not to praise it.
Take our trip from Brussels to Brugge, for example. Upon arrival at the station, laden down with heavy backpacks, we found clear signs directing us to the trains and identifying the one which we were to take. Once aboard, there was plentiful room on the shelf above our seats for our packs to sit safely with no danger of them crashing down upon our heads, and the seats we selected were roomy and comfortable, with a table between them upon which we could enjoy our lunch.
Said lunch consisted of some fresh bread, fine Belgian cheeses, a little fruit and a six-year-old bottle of Belle-Vue Selection Lambic Gueuze. And surprise!, no one told us that we weren't supposed to bring our own food aboard the train and no one official or otherwise even blinked when we opened the gueuze. We enjoyed our lunch over the course of an hour with nary a peep of reproach from the train conductors.
(As an aside for those unfamiliar with it, I should mention that unlike Belle-Vue's regular line-up of emasculated lambics, the Selection Lambic line is actually quite traditional and very good. This particular bottle, which we got from the Brussels Belle-Vue brewery, was excellent.)
This was not the only time we picnicked on the train, nor was it the only country in which we did so, but not once did our cheeses, beers, wines or anything else even provoke a comment from an official. And further, only once were we less than satisfied with our accommodations on the train, and even that was mainly due to an overnight compartment-mate's annoying habit of getting up every half-hour or so. On the whole, we were delighted.
Now why can't North American train travel be more like that?
(For more information on Rail Europe, call 1-800-361-RAIL or visit their web site at http://www.raileurope.com.)
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