China: In Search of the Past: Part 4: The Four Olds, From Coastal Hunan to Mountainous Yunnan

Eternal Audrey at Changsha Airport newsstand After many detours, it’s back to China. We’ve been heading north from the Vietnam border of Guangxi Province to Hunan Province—still in the south yet far from the rural, traditional countryside we’ve been traversing. It’s a shock arriving at the huge railway station of capital Changsha. Hunan is the birthplace of … Read more

Searching the Streets of Time

Funicular, Pest side of Danube, Budapest Last summer, my brother’s big birthday bash launched our travels through Europe By Train. Cara Black was struck by my post from Budapest and asked me to recount it at her blog, Murder Is Everywhere. We were traveling when I wrote it and Cara’s invitation gave me the chance … Read more

Europe By Train #12: Monumental Rome

Do I really have to go to Rome? Already planning how to return to Tuscany, I watch the Mediterranean fall away. Too soon, we reach Orbetello for our final European train journey.  Wound down almost to a stop, I don’t quite feel ready for the “big city.” And Rome’s Termini is big…mid-twentieth-century modern set against ancient … Read more

Europe By Train #11: Tuscany: Paradise

We had come to Europe for my youngest brother’s big birthday bash in Maremma, a remote coastal area of Tuscany. After three weeks of train travel, we are ready to unwind – little knowing how dynamic the week will be!  Following my online booking with Italia Rail, I receive only an unfamiliar PNR code, to … Read more

Europe By Train #10: Florence: City of Seduction

Masculine. Stark. This is my first impression as we arrive at Firenze’s Santa Maria Novello railway station. One thing I’ve noticed as we travel Europe by train is I always prefer the place we’ve just left. It takes about a day to get into real time. Venice is so ethereal, so pastel, that I am especially … Read more

Europe By Train #9: Venice: Through Her Back Door

We all have our public and private faces. So does that very grande dame Venice. Venezia. Everyone knows her canals, bridges, and palazzi. San Marco… And the gondolieri with their blue-and-white striped T-shirts… Her grand churches… But we have been lucky enough to spend time in her “backwaters” of Castello, a former ship-building center nearer … Read more

Europe By Train #8: Vienna: Moving On

Imagine you lived in a 600-year-old kingdom, Austria-Hungary, which ruled a vast swath of central Europe, its own world of high culture, literature, art, and music. And then one day at the end of the Great War, you awoke to see your grand imperial city, Vienna, reduced to the capital of a small, powerless state. … Read more

Europe By Train #7: Budapest: Finding the Past

Merre va Margit Hid? Where is Margaret Bridge? No offense, only affection for both: Prague is the cool, chic, with-it sister while Budapest is the wry intellectual in arty vintage clothing.  During our six-hour train ride to Budapest, we chatted with an Aussie couple bound for a Danube cruise and two young Scots sampling the local … Read more

Europe By Train #6: Prague: Walking the Streets of Time

You know how those holiday pictures never capture your feeling of the place? Prague is a city of utterly jaw-dropping views, every time you turn your head…every angle.  And yet, my photos seem flat, at least they don’t convey the magnificence of the views, the architecture, the sense of time. Our first view was pretty good, … Read more

Europe By Train #5: Night Train to Prague

A Long Day’s Night  Amsterdam is not an easy city to leave, but we had a train to catch. My original plan had been to take the sleeper to Prague, recommended by “The Man in Seat 61.” The Man, Mark Smith, is a real railway professional and lover of old-fashioned travel, who has developed this site … Read more