Tag Archives: Train

GoEuro Website

GoEuro

GoEuro

My friend Ken came by and we were doing some research on getting from Valencia, Spain to Dresden, Germany. Neither of these two cities are international hot-spots. I figured he was going to be very lucky to get a direct flight. Very lucky. It turns out that there was none and a flight with one stop was going to set him back about $150. I suggested he grab a bus to Barcelona and take a $30 flight from there. After all, he could spend a day or two in Barcelona. As we were searching I ran across a new (for me) website called GoEuro. I liked it. It showed prices for several type of transportation from Valencia to Barcelona. The bus was the cheapest at $9. There was a flight for less than $150 but it took 12+ hours to get there. I wondered if it went through London. Anyway, I wanted to make a note of the website for future reference. After all, I’m thinking about Europe next year.

Romanian Sunflowers from Train

Romanian Sunflowers from TrainThe train from Clug to Sibiu was four hours. The countryside was nice. I was surprised how well I liked the Romanian countryside. There are really, really nice forests in some areas. In other areas the rolling hills are really beautiful. In other areas it’s a farmer’s paradise. I took this picture as I was leaving a huge area that was covered in sunflowers. They were really beautiful. I wish the train had stopped right in the middle of all the fields but it didn’t. It was a nice day and the sunflowers looked so good. I would have thought I was in Kansas if I hadn’t known better.

Train to Odessa from Chisanau

Train to Odessa from ChisanauI took the train from Chisanau, Moldova to Odessa, Ukraine. It was a nice train. I’d call it 1950′s Club Car if you were to ask me what the decor of the train was. I kind of enjoyed it. I could have had beer but I opted for coffee instead. Got to keep my mind sharp for interrogation from Ukrainian border guards. I speak no Russian. They speak very, very little English. This should be interesting.

Subway Train Bucharest

Subway Train BucharestThis is a picture of the a subway train in Bucharest, Romania. As you can see the platform is empty and the cars are hardly crowded. That’s because it’s an off-peak period on one of the stops that is less significant. While the Bucharest subway works pretty well it is not my favorite subway system. The reason why is that there aren’t a lot of signs or maps Continue reading

Rain at the Train Genoa

Rain at the Train GenoaI got into Genoa, Italy from my overnight ferry trip. I was a little spacey. I definitely did not have one of my better nights sleeping. Then again, what do you really expect sleeping in a chair on a ferry? The next time I may rethink my decision not to have a bed in a cabin. But, whatever my mental state of mind I had to get on a train and make it to Continue reading

Train Station Marrakesh

Train Station MarrakeshThis is the Marrakesh Train Station. Actually, it could be any one of several of the major train stations in Morocco. They all seem to look alike from the front. It seems that they must have redone the image of the stations at some time in the past few years. All of the stations that I saw tended to look very modern now both on the inside and the outside Continue reading

Moroccan Town from Train

Moroccan Town from TrainI took this picture from the train. I took a lot of pictures from the trains in Morocco. One of the reasons was because I rode a lot of trains while I was in the country. Train travel was relatively cheap and reasonably quick. It was also relatively comfortable. The trains were modern. The seats were nice. I could get a seat that had a tray so that I could use Continue reading

Vic Falls Train Station Zimbabwe Africa

Vic Falls Train Station Zimbabwe Africa

Vic Falls Train Station Zimbabwe Africa

There is a train that rolls into Victoria Falls from Bulawayo. They say it comes in once a day. It is a sleeper and costs less than $12 for the trip, according to the information posted at the train station. Once you get to Bulawayo, you can get another train from Bulawayo to Harare, the capital. It seems that it’s very cheap to take a train in Zimbabwe. That makes me wonder. Maybe I should look at the trains before I recommend them. Note that the largest dimension available for this picture is 1024 X 768 as it was uploaded at a very slow bandwidth from a remote location in Africa.

Machu Picchu Peru Trains

Machu Picchu Peru Trains

Machu Picchu Peru Trains

The is the table of trains from the Ollantaytambo Peru Train Station. It appeared to be reasonably accurate as of the day the photo was taken. There were 4 types of service. Expedition is the “backpacker” special and should not be taken by “elite” types who do not want to be on a very crowded train with a bunch of very rowdy backpackers. For people who want a little space as well as “peace and quiet” I suggest the Vistadome37 Service, which is about $19 more or $56 total meaning the backpacker service was $37. .Note that late services coming and going tend to be backpacker only. Note also that there are cheaper ways to get to Machu Picchu. The trains are actually quite nice. Its all the rowdy drunks coming back that make the 1.5 hour train trip to Ollantaytambo a pain. That is, unless you get drunk and join them.

Machu Picchu Peru Line

Machu Picchu Peru Line

Machu Picchu Peru Line

The picture here is of a ticket line at Ollantaytambo Train Station. Note that I was dumb enough to actually go to Machu Picchu on a Sunday to stay overnight and enter on a Monday. That was a bad idea. Sundays are a “free day” for Peruvians or at least those people living in the area. It appeared that they not only got a free entrance to Machu Picchu but they got free train tickets, or very, very discounted tickets by showing an ID to the local ticket office. That’s what I witnessed. It made for a heck-of-a-line. My advise is to go to Machu Picchu on a weekday.