Explore Europe the Easy Way: By Rail

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

 

The American tourist, camera on tripod, was hurrying around the outside of Chartres Cathedral. A bemused Frenchman walking past raised his eyebrows. "My wife and I are doing the cathedrals of Europe," the American said. "She's doing the insides."

Ever since the end of World War II, Europeans haven't quite known what to make of those Americans who race frantically across their continent as if it were work and not a vacation, with the value in the destination, and not the journey. "You Americans drive through Europe so fast it's like you have just stolen the car," a Frenchman once told me.

Relaxing Rails

The American way really doesn't work in the Old World—there's too much to see and too many people seeing it. However, there is a sound alternative if you want to go places and fulfill your long to-do list. Contact Rail Europe for its, say, two-country rail passes, available for North Americans who buy before going to the continent. You can combine passes for two contiguous countries with others that are similar (e.g. a France/Switzerland pass with a Switzerland/Austria pass).

The Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, a common entry for Americans, has connections by TGV trains capable of hitting speeds of 186 miles per hour across much of France. But the advantages of leaving the driving to a Gallic Casey Jones include views you'll never get from a car; more restful travel for jet-lagged tourists; and a chance to ask fellow travelers for suggestions for restaurants, hotels, and attractions at the end of the line. Train travelers love to talk and share. The only downside to train travel is the need to travel light, since there are lots of concrete steps and few ramps at most European terminals.

Breathtaking Architecture

But it's a fast run down to Avignon, for instance, and you arrive in Provence rested and ready to find that famous bridge in a town so ancient it's mentioned in first century BC Roman records. It was the pope's residence through much of the 14th century AD, and his presence still shows. A special deal for car rentals from Rail Europe gets you to Arles (of van Gogh fame) in 30 minutes and to the Roman town of Nîmes in a few minutes more. Nîmes' architecture features an amphitheater modeled after Rome's Colosseum that's actually in better condition (it's still used for musical concerts and bullfights). Halfway between the two towns is France's second most-visited provincial monument after Mont Saint Michel, the 2000-year-old Roman aqueduct, Pont du Gard.

Historical Sites

Travelers interested in history may want to move on to Switzerland to see its most visited attraction, Chillon Castle. The train to Montreux, a long-established summer destination on Lake Geneva (the so-called Swiss Riviera), brings you to the Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic. A 3-mile walk west along the lakeshore or a 10- minute bus ride takes you to the castle, whose dungeons were immortalized by Lord Byron in his soul-shattering narrative poem On the Castle of Chillon.

Austria's capital, Vienna, will move your soul, too, whether you gape at the palaces the power of the Habsburgs wrought, trudge up the stone steps at Berggasse 19 as the wealthy did for their visits with Sigmund Freud, view the monument to the Jews who suffered their unspeakable fate in Nazi Germany, or study the Pestsäule Plague Column commemorating the over 150,000 citizens who died in the Black Death Plague in 1679.

Inspiring Attractions

More uplifting attractions include the Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the imperial family; the Treasuries of the Imperial Palace that display the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire created in 962; the stables of the Lipizzaner stallions; and the chapel where the Vienna Boys' Choir sings at Sunday Mass. When did you last have the chance to sing with the greats on vacation?